This past Saturday night I took part in Splutschnik III, the third installment of an all-walking downtown scavenger hunt / pub crawl. (Due to my computer being broken, it's taken me a while to get an opportunity to upload my photos.)
My team consisted of myself, longtime drinking partner and friend "B", friend Bill, and new friend Brad from the
KCRag Forum.
Our team strategized well and we ended up setting a new record for the event, finishing beers at 20 bars in just under 4-1/2 hours. That's a new bar every 13 minutes and 29 seconds!
Here's a summary of how we accomplished our feat...
(Click on any photo for a larger view)
STOP 1: 12TH STREET RAG
We hadn't expected to find this open yet so it was a bit of a surprise. The
lounge for the Downtown Marriott is a spacious area with a piano on stage, yet
retains a cozy feel at the bar. We were worried our bartender would be annoyed
by us but he said he was just happy to see people. We were only able to mark
off a few items here, such as me being carded.
STOP 2: ALADDIN MARTINI BAR
This tiny bar on the mezzanine level of the Aladdin Hotel doesn't seem to have
a name. At first the bartender seemed perturbed but he quickly warmed up and
helped us find items for our list. I'm pretty sure we distracted the lone
customer, though.
STOP 3: 12 BALTIMORE
Our third stop got us our only sting of the night, where we caught Jeff's team
with 4 unfinished drinks before them. They chugged them before I got the
picture but not before we had counted.
STOP 4: DRUM ROOM
One of the items on our list was to get a picture of someone named Preston. Our
bartender denied knowing anyone by that name. He changed his tune for later
teams, though, and they got to photograph a Preston. :( He did at least provide
us some complimentary Newcastle coasters that would prove useful throughout the
night.
One of our list items was to photograph creative uses for
The Kansas City Star.
Here Bill uses it to light his cigarette.
STOP 5: BULLDOG
We had tried to go to Daddy's and Nara but neither were open yet. The bartender
at the Bulldog was the second-least-willing-to-help-us bartender we met all
evening. Here's me and B about to start our beers, which we finished quickly so
we could move on and find a place more willing to help. (Though we did get some
assistance from an out-of-town guy at a table behind us.)
STOP 6: TOOTSIE'S
Who says 4 guys can't go to a lesbian bar? They had just opened so the place
was almost empty, but our bartender was very happy to help us find things for
our hunt. She even gave Bill a dance, marking off one of the items on our list.
STOP 7: MICHAEL SMITH
I wasn't sure how welcome we'd be at the bar of a fine dining restaurant but
our bartender thought what we were doing was fun and he and a waitress gave us
a good deal of assistance. Here Bill and I enjoy our beer while B returns from
doing some recon work.
STOP 8: BAR NATASHA
I think they had only just opened too, as there was only one other person in
there. We were able to scratch off a few items from our list here. B and Brad
proudly display their Newcastle coasters while imbibing their brews.
STOP 9: 1924 MAIN
Another bar in a fine dining restaurant, but we were openly welcomed here too.
1924 is a good place for trying out unconventional beers such as Maudite,
which came with a cool glass.
STOP 10: HEREFORD HOUSE
A couple sitting at the other end of the bar were fascinated by the scavenger
hunt and helped us out by letting Brad buy one of them a beer.
STOP 11: PADDY O'QUIGLEY'S
The last time I was here, which coincidentally fell on the same day as
Splutschnik II (7/21/07), I started experimenting with a shot that I had been inventing and
began a spiral into drunken madness. Tonight I avoided that shot and maintained
my composure and integrity. :)
STOP 12: CASHEW
Here we scored a photo of a fireplace as well as another creative use for
The
Star...
STOP 13: BALANCA'S
Of all the bartenders we met tonight, the bartender here was
least receptive
to our mission and gave off a vibe like she wanted us to hurry and get out. So
we quickly used
The Star as an air hockey puck and then hit the
sidewalk.
STOP 14: WILLIE'S
This was the first place we went to where we learned that other teams had come
and gone before us. We were almost down to the final hour when we arrived here
so picked up the pace. Brad got a quick dance with a server before we continued
north.
STOP 15: MCFADDEN'S
Another chug-and-run. Bill and B nearly had their beers finished by the time I
got the camera out. My apologies to whomever cleans the men's room, I should
know better than to hold the camera with
both hands when photographing
wall art while using the short urinal. :) (Brad's fault too though for taking
the tall one!)
STOP 16: ZOO BAR
Hands down the best dive bar in town, always a fun place to hang out. This is
also the home of the Preston the list was specifically referring too -- he's
the owner! Unfortunately he had already left for the day long before any of the
teams had arrived. I believe we were the last team to pass through here as
everyone in there already knew all about us. We managed to get in a little
naughty photo hunt to satisfy one of the list items.
STOP 17: THE STUDIO
A block north of Zoo. By now we were pretty certain victory would be ours but
time was ticking and we wanted to see how far we could go. We met an out-of-towner and bought her a drink, satisfying 2 more list items.
STOP 18: FRED P. OTT'S
As seen in the photo, our bartender helped us meet a tricky list item by fashioning a sign we later learned could be found at The Peanut (but we had no time to go there).
We met
an inebriated Texan and played some more
naughty photo hunt.
We also found our most creative use for
The Star but I will not post that photo online, at least not without Bill's permission. ;)
STOP 19: MANGO ROOM
20 minutes remained so we had to drink quickly, but we were able to get in a dance with a server as well as use
The Star as a drum stick.
STOP 20: RED DRAGON HOUSE
By the time we got here only 5 minutes remained, but we decided to risk the late penalty for the glory of making it to 20 bars. Within a minute of our arrival we were stung by John's team, but we had our drinking down to a science by now and had the penalty beer finished in no time.
John's team had the advantage of knowing exactly where the finish line was (while all we knew was an intersection) so they were able to take a short cut and beat us there while we had gone the long way around the block. But since they had still not finished their beers from Red Dragon, we
locked them out until they were done. :)
We ended up only 3 minutes late so only lost 9 points, a fair price to pay for the 30 points we earned by cramming in our stop at Red Dragon.
We had the second place team (John's team) beat by 3 bars, but the point tally for items found was considerably closer and we won by only a little over 100 points. (I believe our final score was something like 1261.)
Victory is ours!!!
Now that the other teams know what they're up against, I wonder what kind of counter-strategies we'll face this summer at Splutschnik IV? :)
