CYAN is for group members' opinions.
(See About Us for info on who 'the group' is, why we're doing this, and our picks for bars and restaurants.)
WHITE is for info on food and game availability.
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symbol) to come back to the indexAggie Room | The Annex | Bennigan's | Blue Moon | Brew-ha-ha | Brigid's Cross | Chope's | The Club | Club Azul | Compass Rose | Day's Inn Lounge | Double Eagle | Eddie's Bar and Grill | Farley's | Gadsden's Purchase | The Game | Graham Central Station | Guacamole's | High Desert Brewery | Hoot-n-Annie's | Hotel Encanto | Hooter's | Hurricane Alley | Jose Murphy's | My Brother's Place | El Palacio | El Patio | Pizzeria Uno | The Pub | The Rain Forrest | Risotto's | St. Clair Winery and Bistro | Victoria's | Vintage Wines | Welcome Inn |
Brigid's
Cross: 1338 Picacho Hills Drive, phone (575)647-1455,
URL.
Caveat: this is an initial review and I suspect that once we return
in a month or so, most of the problems I mention here will be fixed.
I hope. This is one of those pubs that has been built in Ireland
and then had the pieces shipped over and reassembled here. They
were initially going to open in March, but Things Happened, as they
always do, and they didn't open until late September. The setting
is beautiful, with a great view of the Organs and other mountains from
the patio, and lots of detail work inside. If only the attention to
detail had extended to the staff. We were seriously underwhelmed by
our server, and by the bartender. There are signs in the bathroom
about how to pour a perfect pint of Guinness so there is no excuse for
the bartender to be pouring pints with 2 inches of head. Yes,
Guinness is supposed to come with a certain amount of head, but
one should also be left with something resembling a full pint once
the foam settles. We actually stopped drinking the draught beers
because of this issue, not just with Guinness but the other beers on
tap as well. The bottles seemed like a better deal, which is quite sad.
The manager as well dropped the ball. He should know by now what
Las Crucens are like: we flock to every new bar and restaraunt. There
were not enough servers (ours was so flustered that she had to be
reminded more than once about our orders), and the kitchen staff had to
stop taking orders
twice because they were overwhelmed. And this wasn't even on the
grand opening day. The menu had many pub standards, such as
Shepherd's Pie and fish-n-chips (which came in fake newspaper) and
a Ploughman's Lunch. They were stingy with the fish, the panini was not
a panini, and the contents of the Ploughman's were also meager.
Honestly, if you're going to charge $10 or more for
a pub meal in this town, we expect that we should feel at least somewhat
satisfied at the end of the meal instead of still hungry.
Our table and an adjacent table
and random people in the bathroom that I talked to were all pretty much
unhappy with the evening. But again, the server and kitchen issues
should resolve themselves with time. We'll be back in a month or so
and report back then. Good points: happy hour prices seem to be
good. One person was drinking martinis and they were only $2
(pints were $4 or $5, bottles were $3.50 or so). There was
a good selection of draught beers (Smithwicks, for example) though
the server could never recall what was on tap. The bottled beer
selection was also extensive, and I think the whiskey may be worth
investigating at some point when there is room at the bar.
Food = Menu available on the website.
Items range from the aforementioned fish-n-chips to Duck Margret
(I presume for the country club crowd). It was too crowded to
investigate inside, so I don't know if they have a dart board,
which a real pub should have. Lots of TVs, one of the people in our
group is hoping that they'll eventually be showing soccer/football
matches.
High Desert Brewery:
1201 W. Hadley. The best (IMHO) brewpub in town. (actually, currently
it's the only one.)
As seen in the 2003 365 Bottles of Beer calendar. Note, though,
that it is in the front of the apartment building, not in back.
You could upset the tenants in back if you barge in and demand a scotch ale.
Now with their own
homepage.
Located across the street from Nellie's. We love this place. My personal
favorites are the IPA and the Steam Beer. They also usually have an
oktoberfest, a stout, a dark bock, a peach wheat, an amber ale, amber lager,
a pilsener, a porter, brown ale and a wheat. The stout was
a somewhat smoky one. Other beers that appear on occassion are a very
nice Scottish Ale and a wonderful barley wine. They sometimes have
an imperial stout that is very good, and they'll make a beer float
for you if you ask them nicely. The current beer list of what's on tap
can be found on the official High Desert webpage.
Note as well that this is a brewpub: they don't have Budwesier, they
can't serve wine or mixed drinks. Just their own beer.
A very relaxed atmosphere, a friendly set of people pouring and making beers,
plus good pub food
and you have a spot that makes us very happy.
They also have growlers (with $3 deposit) and several sizes of kegs.
This remains our favorite place to gather on a Friday afternoon after work.
Live music on Thursdays and
Saturdays nights. If you go to High Desert because of this
webpage, tell them! You won't get a free beer or anything, but you'll
make me happy.
Food = Menu is
varied, from fancy quesadillas, to fried raviolis, to veggies, to hamburgers and
fries to traditional New Mexico favorites like green chile stew.
For those who like hot foods, we recommend their chipotle quesadillas and
the green chile stew which sometimes makes even the hot food afficianados in our
group break a sweat.
The chipotle-honey dipping sauce with the quesadilla is eye-opening.
Lately they've been having specials, including sushi, tuna steaks,
portabello pot pies, and other taste treats. Yay, cooks!
Hurricane Alley: In
Solano Square, 1490 Missouri, right behind Baskin-Robbins.
We recently revisited this bar. Nothing special on the inside, but the beer
selection is decent. On tap, they had the Budweiser family (of
course) but also Sierra Nevada, Sam Addams, some NM beers like Roswell Alien, and a few
others. The
pitchers were $9.50, which seems way too high, especially since the beer
tasted watered-down.
Prices were $2.25 to $3.75 for the bottles. They do have
specials, like $2 pints on Tuesday nights.
They also had a big-screen TV and other TVs showing sports.
They have bands on
Fridays and Saturdays, most of the time. During Happy Hour they
had free pizza, which covers a multitude of sins.
They've expanded into the store next door, so it's roughly 3 times
the size now from when it began. Much better lit, too.
Most times, they only have one section open, but will expand at night
and for special events. The jukebox kicks butt. It had 2 Tool albums
on it when we went!
They had 2 pool tables on the open side, and
two real dart boards.
Food = nothing
except pretzels and popcorn generally, but the waitress used to
order pizza for you. On Friday nights they have free food,
nominally from 5-7 p.m. BUT really from 5 until
the food runs out.
Rain Forrest: It's
been updated, to some extent. It's not a half-bad place.
The beer selection has been upgraded, can now get Sierra Nevada, and
they had Steamworks (?) IPA from Colorado. Maybe it was Steam Engine.
The clientale were a cross-section of Las Cruces that one doesn't
normally see at the same time at the same bar. In fact, we decided
that the nachos were a good representation of the people: mostly
normal items/people (chips/bar flies) but also weird bits (green
peppers/ranchers). There is a sunken dance floor in front
of where they have the bands, and there is seating all the way around.
There were also some seriously comfy chairs in one corner
that were so comfy, they were hard to get out of.
All in all, I wouldn't mind going back. I just wish the music
started earlier. And that the bartenders were better at service.
Food = Appetizer menu, plus you can
order from the full restaurant menu. I think we need to
investigate the free food situation at some point. They also have
2 pool tables.