Last week this space tackled the best margarita in town, so why not tackle the worst this week?
In a stroke of oddball coincidence, I discovered what could be the most offensive margarita in all of Denver last week while trudging through nearly three hours of Journey at the Universal Lending Pavilion. Journey’s first set was dragging, so much so that it actually made a $7 margarita served from a tent-bar inside a tent-venue sound good.
But even watching the part-timers behind the ULP’s (1700 17th St. in the Pepsi Center’s parking lot, 303-405-6080) bar mixing this troublesome, flourescent concoction brought pain to my palate.
On this particular evening, it’s amateur night at the bar – and behind the bar too. One of the bartenders asks my friend Caitlin, “Who’s playing right now?”
The question is especially dumb because only one band is playing tonight.
“It’s Journey,” she says. He nods knowingly. When we order a beer for her and a marg for me, the guy sloppily making drinks asks nobody in particular, “Where’s the green stuff?”
Sloppily may not be the right word. When he starts the drink in a good-sized plastic cup, he pours the tequila with a cruel eye for measurement. He’s actually using a jigger, the very symbol of behind-the-pine cheapness. The 1 1/2-ounce pour of tequila in the cup looks lonely.
Then came the green stuff, a generic from-the-bottle sweet and sour. And then some different green stuff. Then I started turning green.
“If they play ‘Wheel in the Sky,’ we’re leaving,” Caitlin demands. I tell her a Journey concert without “Wheel in the Sky” is like my margarita without the green stuff. With that, I take a sip. And I wince. And another sip, this one bigger. And another wince, this one bigger. I stir. Another sip. I set the full glass down, and we leave the bar. A few minutes later, Journey brings Act I to a close with “Any Way You Want It,” a slogan I wish applied at the bar.
Staff writer Ricardo Baca can be reached at 303-820-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com.