drink here: blue hound + bitter & twisted

It's been a while since I've had a proper girls night and I've never "gone out for drinks with my girlfriends" as twenty-somethings tend to do. So with the recent opening of Bitter & Twisted, Rylee, Erin, and I were inspired to venture out on a Friday night and do just this.  I switched out my grey t-shirt and knitted brooch for a silky beaded blouse that has never left my room, my favorite neglected vintage necklace, jeans, and gold flats, as one does for a night out.  I thought of all those articles promising "take your look from day to night" and felt accomplished, and a little silly for feeling that way.  I headed to Erin's lovely home with Rylee to share a deliciously healthy dinner of soba noodles and veggies courtesy of Erin (she's a domestic goddess; haven't you heard?) and we chatted.  Of course I made too many bad jokes, one resulting in spilling my water across the table.  This is why I probably don't drink very often--I'm already a bad joke-telling klutz on a daily basis.

After our meal, we drove into downtown Phoenix and were greeted by a sizable crowd at the cocktail parlour.  We put our name down for the hour to an hour-and-a-half wait and wandered around for a bit before settling on nearby Blue Hound for our waiting game.  As life usually goes, waiting was half the fun!  We hung out in the relaxing, Restoration Hardware-decorated lounge between the bar and hotel lobby it was connected to, and settled in for over an hour, talking, laughing, and appreciating their choice of menu fonts.  I tried their seasonal tap (I'm all about seasonal anything), which happened to be Deschutes Brewery's Twilight Summer Ale.  My heart beat a little faster when I heard the name and thought fondly of Portland, where the Deschutes Brewery restaurant is.  What can I say? I'm in love.  Funnily enough, I found out later that Ted had ordered the same beer at the restaurant earlier in the week.

Around 11 (the time our breed is usually crawling into bed to watch online television for a couple of hours), we went back to Bitter & Twisted and got seated.  The atmosphere was much darker and louder than the Blue Hound, but it still felt comfortable and most definitely stylish.  I tried the Lime and the Coconut which had a delicious creamy layer of foam that was hands down my favorite part of it--I wanted to dollop that foam onto a piece of vanilla cake or something. Of course it took me forever to finish, because I'm not much of a cocktail connoisseur quite yet. Regardless, I'd say the night was a success.