Peter Mayer and The White Owl

The Tiki Gal and I joined Dale and Carol and some other friends at Peter Mayer's Christmas concert in Tulsa a few weeks ago. We saw him in concert in St. Louis at the end of the summer and were blown away so we had been anxiously awaiting his appearance. We were not disappointed. The Peter Mayer Group played mostly original Christmas music, some of which was heavily influenced by the time Peter spent in India growing up, as well as a few traditional favorites. As I've stated before, seeing music performed live cannot be compared to listening to a CD or the radio and the Peter Mayer Group is certainly no exception. Besides Peter and his remarkably skilled guitar playing, the band featured a violin, mandolin, bass, drums, piano and flutes. I found it difficult to take in the music as a whole because I would become fascinated watching each of these artists play his or her particular instrument. The bass player was especially entertaining, but then, bass players usually are.

After the concert, Dale and Carol and another couple joined us at the Tiki Hut for drinks. The girls enjoyed Spicy Holidays while the guys picked from the rag-tag assortment of beers that were in the refrigerator. Dale and I had Guinness and once again determined that while it is good, it is certainly nothing special. We've had many better dark beers.

Our Christmas plans were thrown out of whack because most of Oklahoma was hit by a blizzard on Christmas Eve. Traditionally, the Tiki family travels to see my family on Christmas Eve. Since my hometown was supposed to receive ten inches of snow, we didn't think the driving conditions would be ideal for travelling. Instead, we made a quick trip to see my family on the 23rd and were safe and sound back at home when the snow hit. It is a good thing too because my hometown received around a foot of snow and ice. If we had been stuck there for an extended period of time, I would be looking for a new Tiki Gal in 2010 because the current Tiki Gal would have either killed someone or would have thrown herself in front of a snow plow.

A few nights ago, we joined Dale and Carol for a trip to a pub that had been highly recommended called The White Owl. As I've reported many times before, we really like a different pub called McNellie's but we wanted to try something new. Unfortunately, new is not necessarily better. As Carol pointed out when we arrived, The White Owl has an urban look with a shiny, fully stocked bar (that had me salivating from the start), big flat-screen TVs mounted all over the place, and trendy looking booths and tables. Dale and I were not impressed with the selection of beers but were happy to find that most of Samuel Smith's products were offered. The girls ordered wine because they want people to think they are sophisticated and are just out slumming with their beer swilling men (and also because you can't order a Squeezy Squeezy anyplace besides the Tiki Bar without getting strange looks.) Since I'm a positive kind of guy, I'll say that the White Owl makes really good cheese fries and Dale was happy with his Sweet and Spicy barbecue sandwich. Otherwise, the food was unimpressive (Carol has another word to describe the food but this is a family publication.) Upon reflection, we decided that we would stick with McNellie's and leave The White Owl to the pretty people. Also, the person that recommended The White Owl is now outside the circle of trust.

I've been a lazy Tiki Man and have failed to rate the last few beers we've tried. Here's a list, however, organized with the holidays in mind.

Nice
Sam Smith Taddy Porter
Sam Smith Organic Lager

Naughty
Ommegang Abbey Ale - Check out the comments on their site. I definitely did not write any of those.
Any beer with a lime either in the name or shoved down the neck of the bottle