The original mission, written in November 2010:
We are a couple in our mid-twenties, who like to think of ourselves as adventurous. We have lived in the area for the better part of our twenty years, however, Iowa doesn't exactly feed our appetite for adventure; so we decided to get creative. We have friends; and we love our friends. They are really great friends, but often we find ourselves at the same old bars with the same (amazingly awesome) folks, just drinking. Drinking is great. But as a twenty-something, you know, becoming an adult and such, we have our new goals and new responsibilities and the drinking isn't really the reason for... the drinking. Does that make sense? Eric says no. I think you get it though...it's incredibly easy to fall into a trend where every Saturday you hang with the same peeps at the same place. It is no one's fault really, but it is a dilemma. So we decide to switch things up, but where to go? We didn't know any bars besides the handful that us and our friends frequented. One day, Jen makes the suggestion to "open the phone book to a bar and point to one." Eric blows it off... because I think he had the attitude "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." With coaxing he realized it was a pretty cool idea which was only solidified after the first few bars on our list. Beaver Creek Saloon was a place we had never heard of and we didn't know what we should expect...heck, its not even easy to find when you know the address. The first lesson we learned about our Bar Tour is that we don't need expectations, because then we will just be let down when things don't pan out, or plans fall through...and that is what this whole thing is all about. For the next 6 months, or however long this takes us, we will never have to fight about where we are going tonight or who we are going out to meet. By the way!!! Everyone is welcome to join us! This isn't at all an attempt to avoid friends but rather to make friends, find some new scenery, have something to do that gives us purpose, and maybe a new hang out or two! Shout out to Chevy at Beaver Creek who helped us realize how awesome a small, some-what unknown bar can be! Ultimately, she inspired this blog. The blog is two-fold: on the one hand, we will be straight up reviewing bars, and giving a candid Jen and Eric take on the bars, the service, and the atmosphere, how the regulars make the newbies feel, etc. On the other hand, we will have blog entries dedicated to our adventure, and just generally what is on our mind throughout the whole thing. As with any project, our goals may change, and we may update as we go along and make things run smoother, but the purpose will remain the same..
Happy reading!
-Jeneric-
The new mission, written November 2011:
Hello friends! I thought with the bar tour reboot it was important to write a new mission statement, as we have learned so much from our tour thus far. I thought it was important to contrast our new mission with what we wrote a year ago, so instead of re-writing the mission, I just added this section so you all can see where we were a year ago, and where we are going from here.
First and foremost, the mission remains the same. The rules have been tweaked a little bit to be a more encompassing. You may also notice that we have decided to start at the beginning (from A) on version 2.0, despite not finishing the tour last time. (which you can read about here) The reasoning behind this is that many bars may have changed, or our experience with a specific bartender may be different, and we want to be fair to every bar. In some of our previous reviews, we focused mainly on whether we liked the bar or not, and sometimes did not explain the context behind our decision. That was our fault, but hey, this was our first go at it. After getting all the way through N, we learned a lot. Also, after reading some feedback left for us on the Coopacabana entry, we realized that what we really hated about that bar, was actually not explained in our entry. That is not constructive. Our aim with version 2.0 is to be constructive, and if we have a less than desirable experience to explain why...not to rip a bar apart because we think we are better than anyone there, but simply to give a description of how the bar is viewed by outsiders. Realistically, we were wrong with our approach before. That is our fault. After visiting many bars, seeing many patterns, and hearing much feedback, we realized a more constructive approach could give an owner some perspective if they were interested at all in how their bar is perceived by outsiders. If we think the regulars want to run us out of the bar, most likely another person who stumbles into the bar will feel the same way.
Rest assured that we will not remove any of our old reviews as we revisit bars. We have nothing to hide, and our experience before carries just as much weight as our follow up experience. However, since we have learned and grown ourselves in how to analyze a bar, we decided the only way to do the reboot right was to start over at A. We have added a search bar to allow you to find a specific bar's entry if you so choose, and it will also allow you to find old reviews if there is one. We welcome all comments, positive or negative, as feedback helps us grow.
Enjoy!
Eric and Jen
