I love the '80s
By Colin Burch
For Weekly Surge
Pop Rocks candy. Donkey Kong. Frogger. Robotron.
I can be pretty cheesy when I start missing the 1980s.
The Cars were big and the girls wore neon pink lipstick and John Hughes movies such as "Sixteen Candles" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" dominated our teenage thoughts. I graduated from high school in 1987, and I'm the most sentimental, nostalgic sap you'll find.
Even though my beverage of choice for secret parties back then was Sun Country Wine Coolers - remember the two-liter bottles? - it turns out the 1980s have everything to do with beer.
Gordon Biersch is requiring all locations to have a 1980s theme party to celebrate the company's 20th anniversary.
On July 31, our local Gordon Biersch at The Market Common - on the former Myrtle Beach Air Force Base - will host its own 1980s theme party.
"It's going to be really cheesy," said Manager Helen DeGennaro, who graduated from high school in 1985. "It's not going to look like Gordon Biersch at all."
Get this - they'll have a couple of old-school video games set on free-play. They'll have Pop Rocks for candy and Rubik's Cubes among the available non-electronic games. They'll have free appetizers, but only 1980s fare, like pigs-in-blankets.
It's a costume party, too, and DeGennaro said the restaurant might make a contest of it.
Everything will be decorated in neon and animal prints, complete with movie posters from the era.
Pete Velez, the house brewer, will do his official tapping of Gordon Biersch's Altbier during the party, but guess what? It's already on tap, and the summer seasonal Kolsch hasn't run out yet. So our Gordon Biersch has seven beers on tap right now. 'Tis the season to be beery.
So mark your calendars: 6-9 p.m., Thursday, July 31. No cover.
Putting out fires
I couldn't miss the relocation of the new location of Calli Baker's Firehouse Bar & Grill to an outparcel of Colonial Mall, to 10131 U.S. 17 in the former location of the Murray Brothers' Caddyshack.
For the new location's opening, a huge fire truck was parked out front with an erect ladder pointing toward the Hooters next door. Insert your own joke here.
I never visited the old Calli Baker's at 511 Lake Arrowhead Road, but the new location is in my neighborhood, so I decided to stop by and have a look. Two things impressed me.
1. The appetizer of four chicken fingers, advertised as home made, probably was. They were huge, thick, and much better than any I have had on the Strand to date.
2. Although the bar was having some trouble with its tapping system when I visited, it offers draught pints of Magic Hat #9 and Blue Moon Belgian White for only $3, at all times. Not a bad deal.
Due to the tap troubles, I had a couple of bottles of Labatt Blue, a pilsner from Canada that I enjoyed more than I expected, at $3 each. I noticed a single Budweiser tap attached to a fire hydrant at the end of the bar. Other beers on tap include Miller Light, Coors Light, and Yuengling.
The barkeep said the Firehouse's local fans are still showing up at the new location, with its entrance on the Colonial Mall parking lot. I think the local following will make the trip - not too far up the road from the former Lake Arrowhead location - and spur the business to do much better than the old Caddyshack.
Contact Colin Burch - the Beerman - at beerpour@yahoo.com or visit his beer blog at http://maltyhops.blogspot.com