Midwinter C&I get-together: Suggestions for place?

In this post I suggested the possibility of a wholly informal get-together for C&I readers at ALA Midwinter: No host, no agenda, just a few people for drinks (your dime) and chat.

There’s been enough positive response to say It’s going to happen.

The time: 5 p.m. Monday, January 23, 2006

Update January 9: The place: The Menger Bar. Slightly more details here.

The place: Somewhere on or near the Riverwalk–some place that (a) sells drinks, including decent white wine, (b) isn’t likely to be wholly overrun on Monday afternoon at 5 p.m., (c) isn’t so noisy that an informal group of, say, three to eight people (?) can’t carry on decent conversation.

So here’s where I could use your help, particularly if you live around San Antonio or have been there recently:

What would be the best place to hold this, given that I wasn’t planning to make any real arrangements (such as actually calling the place)?

I’d originally thought of Lone Star, which used to sell good Texas Chardonnay (yes, there is such a thing, or at least there used to be–Llano Estacado, for example) by the glass–but their current wine list doesn’t include such listings, and reviews of the place are so mixed that I don’t know what to think.

[Hmm. Now that I do a little web browsing, I think I was thinking of Republic of Texas, not Lone Star. That’s still a possibility.]

The Menger Bar has been suggested; Menger Hotel is a block from the Riverwalk (and next door to the Alamo), and the bar is probably San Antonio’s most historic (Teddy Roosevelt recruited his RoughRiders there…)

Other possibilities: Boudro’s (which does have some name-brand Texas wine), Rio Rio/Naked Iguana Lounge, Mi Tierra…

Advice? Recent experience? “That place is so noisy you’ll die” or “The waiters are rude and the prices are high” or “Hey, you forgot this one” would all be helpful–either as comments here or as mail to me, waltcrawford at gmail.com. You don’t need to be planning to make it to the event to offer help!

And if I don’t get good advice, it will boil down to Republic of Texas, Boudro’s, or the Menger Bar, I think…

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 19th, 2005 at 12:34 pm and is filed under Cites & Insights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “Midwinter C&I get-together: Suggestions for place?”

  1. Steve Oberg (Family Man Librarian) says:
    December 19, 2005 at 4:11 pm

    Walt, wish I could join you, but I can’t. Some day at an ALA I hope I can walk up to you and introduce myself; maybe at ALA Annual 2006. We’ll see. My travel is very limited now (by design — don’t want to be away from my wife and kids). Republic of Texas — if that’s the one on the Riverwalk — is a good restaurant, btw.