Game over. We decided to go celebrate the Steelers’ victory with the locals and went looking for a place to do exactly that.
Jerome Bettis’ Grille 36 was even more packed then before, we could barely believe it. But we had no interest in lining up again, so we kept going down the street towards PNC Park. The Ugly was too loud, 3 Deuces uninviting. So we walked on into Firewaters.
We weren’t sure at first. The place was kind of small, and was kind of packed. It is an odd place – they have two bars – one right at the front entrance, where 20-25 people can sit, and a second bar at the back, the door being on the side street. The two bars are kind of separated by a dining area, where about 40-50 people can eat. We walked around for a bit, and moved towards the exit. But a representative from Budweiser really wanted us to stay, and he offered us two things:
1 – if we ordered their new American Ale, we could keep the Steelers’ glass in which it was served.
2 – if we ordered their new American Ale, he would offer us the next round.
The place was packed, but hell, free beer? I’m in. So we parked ourselves in an area with a short wall for us to rest our beers on, and we waited for a table to free up.
Two Bud girls showed up late and blamed it on stadium trafic. We decided to commisorate, hoping to get more freebies out of them. And we ended up with a Steelers’ Jersey beer holder.
Awesome.
So we enjoyed our American Ale while watching the Sunday Night game. The Ale is Anheuser-Bush’s attempt to break into the looking-for-a-better-beer then the “King of Beer tm” market.
The American Ale is a light amber, thin on aroma, with some hops right in there. It has a slight caramel finish. It is not a very complex beer, and will disapoint true amber lovers, because as its lager counterpart, the American Ale is a very smooth beer.
That is what Budweiser is all about, in fact, so I was actually pretty surprised that they went there in the first place.
Some will argue it is simply Budweiser with red dye, but that would be overly simplistic. Worth a try, especially when you get one for free or with a free Steeler’s glass!
At last we got a table. We ordered their nachos, which came fairly quickly. As almost everything involving cheese in Pittsburgh, it was topped with that processed cheese sauce they throw everywhere. There could have been more, though. It wasn’t bad, but it was very late and we were really in there for the American Ale. The place was the festival of deep fried food, and the nachos were probably one of the healthier options.
We called our shuttle from the Radisson. It came quickly, so we chugged our third Ale and were on our way to bed, with sweat dreams of Monday Night Football…
.