Tuesday 26 February 2008

Flying Saucer a Haven for Lovers of Beer and Sticky Floors

Flying Saucer Draught Emporium
328 W Morgan St
Raleigh, NC USA 27601
www.beerknurd.com

Where is it?

From the entrance, walk to the back of the place, keeping the enormous bar on your right so that you're heading towards the kitchen entrance. After the bar, turn right, into the back dining room, and then hang an immediate right into the hallway found just past the bar's cashier. The toilets are there.

What's it like?

This mammoth, cavernous kitschy beer hall serves approximately 200 beers on tap and offers a wide menu of delicious bar food, much of it with a modern German-American slant. The bratwurst nachos, for example, sound like they would be atrocious but in the end they turn out to be delicious, understated little munchies. Just as impressive are the homemade pretzels, which are chewy on the outside and doughy on the inside -- just about as perfect as hot pretzels can be, really.

The main attraction here, of course, is the beer selection -- as I said, there are more than 200 varieties on tap alone. The gimmick here is that if you drink a pint of all 200 (at a maximum of 3 beers a day), you will get your name put on a "flying saucer" that is then hung on the wall of the place -- a sort of trophy to commemorate the accomplishment, if you will. The dining hall walls are decked with these saucers, each of which carries an amusing, albeit somewhat drunkenly composed, victory statement uttered by one of the people who have succeeded in drinking these 200 pints of beer.

The bathrooms aren't as fun as the dining hall though they aren't as awful as similarly minded establishments. Still, given the kitschy sense of humor exhibited in the dining room, I half expected the bathrooms to be similar to the ones found at the Pig and Whistle Pub in Florida, which is overflowing with amusing novelty signs. Sadly, that isn't the case.

The floors here are green linoleum and very sticky to walk on, the walls simple white drywall and decorated with an assortment of beer novelty signs, as well as some event listings and clippings from the area's alternative presses (the Saucer is located near NC State University and thus caters very much to its collegiate surroundings).

The vanity is made of black marble and contains two sink stations set beneath a long mirror. You'll find two urinals here and two stalls, one of them for the handicapped.

Outside of the sticky floors (they're sticky enough that you'll have to lift your feet with some force to free yourself after standing at the urinal for a pee), the toilets were pretty clean. Though, it also showed some signs of wear and tear and the management may want to look into making some updates in the coming year or so.

Marks out of 10:

7. Really a 6, given the very sticky floors and lack of imagination employed here (especially compared to the dining room), but the dining hall is so much fun I had to raise the score some. This is a great, fun place to spend an afternoon -- especially if you love beer!

Comments to the Management:

Unless the sticky floors are a selling point, you may want to solve that problem relatively soon. Also, consider adding more items to the bathroom walls -- maybe even some of those flying saucers you're so proud to give out.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

wow! it's 'splendid' idea for blogs - toilets are within the top 5 our lives' experience...:) how many more you gonna describe? all of them - from the whole world - that's the ultimate concept...good luck!