Opal, ummmmmm something is different.

Opal 

100 East 9th Avenue 

Denver, CO 80203 

(303) 861-7999

A conversation betwixt myself and Opal, while washing my hands in the grodiest bathroom of what was once the loviest restaurant.

"Hey Gurl......uuuuh you ok? The last time I seen you - you was real pretty and full of life and you had big plans and you were all - HEEEEEEY GURL, come eat my kobe sliders, I'm so fancy huh? Now you look like the restaurant version of those meth commercials and you are the girl shivering in the shower all scabby, as you stare into my soul through the camera and say to me - NOT EVEN ONCE.  What the fuuuuuuuuck?"

I visited Opal a few times in the early thousands, before the recession, when expensing fancy lunches was still common. I remember treasuring each bite of kobe beef as it slid slowly and effortlessly down my gullet.  That was the beginning of the end of sliders and that was 8 years ago so remember that people who keep forcing sliders on your menus. The sushi was just fine and in general I would say that my experience was positive.  But, once I no longer worked in that neighborhood, I really didn't think about it again. Until a few weeks ago when received the following email......

Happy Hour

Daily 4:30-7:30 and Late Night 10:30-1:30AM 

• 2 for 1 Sushi
• 2 for 1 Hand Rolls
• 2 for 1 Hot Sake
• $2.50 22oz Kirin Bottles
• $3.00 Imported Champagne
• $4.00 Premium Martinis
• $1.00 Corona (4:30-7:30 Only)

Obviously, this caught my attention.  And by attention, I mean the part of my brain that gets hot for cheap dranks.  I did not try any of the sushi because 1) Anthony Bourdain once said NEVER EAT DISCOUNT SUSHI - It's DISCOUNT for a REASON and 2) I had just been to a fancy menu tasting and was so full that you could hear everything sloshing around in my stomach. 

But, the drinks were delicious savings and my friends, well we all had a lovely time, in our little loungey area, which while super dorkus, kept us somewhat isolated from the rest of the place, which was rough. I don't know if this place is under new ownership, or if it just let itself go or couldn't keep up with all of the clubbing going on there, but it is not aging well.  The bathroom walls are covered in mirrors and remind me of an underground club I worked in back in my younger days.  Underground does not equate to cool or a route to freedom, I mean literally it was underground and there was no place for the precipitation from the hundreds of sweaty dancers to travel so it rained inside of this club every night. RAINED sweat. You could see the perspiration dripping down the walls. No joke.  A thirty-something year old me would tell that place to fuck off, well, so did the 20 year old me but I also said thank you kindly for the pay check.  Oh, to be young again and carefree and to have the world by the balls. Wouldn't that be the most? 

Anyway, the mirrored bathroom mirrors looked exactly like those walls of the underground club, as if thousands of sweaty teens spent the past 24 hours moshing, or krumping or beibering, whatever the kids are doing these days in this teeny tiny room.  Give me one hour and a gallon of class cleaner and I will fucking own this bathroom. Lets not forget I saw this place at 6:30pm meaning this is what it looks like when they open.  In addition, the floor is peppered with holes and the once cool asian area rugs in the dining rooms have gone totally rags mctattershanty.  Somebody needs a makeover.

But back to business. The happy hour specials are great and I promise you will not be bombarded with boys, weighing in under a dollar, galavanting around in their child molester glasses and their handlebar mustaches soooooooooooo that is a plus.

The moral of the story is that you can get drunk for cheap and that = yes.