photographs provided by Barbara Standing

On May 20th, the Happy Hour Patrol met at The Corner Bar to discuss Downtown happenings, goats, and the regional connection to Tuscaloosa and New Orleans that DNA members have. After exhausting the Hour, the Patrol took the Happy across the street to Huey's for burgers, onion rings, and libations!

HHP Review: PEABODY CORNER BAR (2 glasses)

The Peabody’s thinking behind the Corner Bar must have been to provide a place inside the hotel to have a cocktail in a quiet and somewhat private place. If that is the case, in that they succeeded because from the Lobby it is hard to find, it is dark, the music is subdued, and it is often, if not usually, sparsely populated. In other words, it is about as far from the duck marching, tourist and looker-filled Lobby as you can get. If The Lobby is the place to see and be seen, The Corner bar is the place where you probably won’t see anyone and no one will see you. If that is your cup of tea, escape the madding crowd in the Lobby and find a comfy chair or sofa in The Corner Bar.

The Corner Bar has a happy hour with decent specials but it is still an upscale lounge, not a place to party and hang out. Indeed, it has on of the strangest happy hours the Happy Hour Patrol has ever encountered. Close to ten of us assembled there May 20 and rearranged the furniture around a couple of low tables - they don’t get many crowds in there. As the seven o’clock hour neared several of us beckoned the waitress over in order to get last happy hour orders in. We were then informed that happy hour was over. Everyone looked at their watches. Huh? “It’s quarter till.” “Yes, but we operate on the time on our computer register and it runs ahead.” Apparently when you pass through the portal from busy Union and Second you do not just find yourself in a cool and serene urban bar, you have entered a warp in space-time from which there is no escape until you exit. She actually refused to give us happy hour prices. This being a happy hour review, that is an easy 1-glass deduction, if not DQ. It would be interesting to go by there 10-15 minutes before happy hour is supposed to start to see if they then offer happy hour special prices. Someone do that and report back.

Although it is just outside our Downtown boundaries, we have always had good happy hour turnouts at the Inn at Hunt-Phelan, our July 22 location. While time has neither stood still there, as the ambiance of the 1828 mansion evokes, we have confirmed that nor does it run ahead.    

- Bill Denton