Menu RE-Design

The old menus were falling apart, so I did a total re-design. Now the menu is sleek and streamlined and fits so well (it's at the bottom of this post, click on it to make it big). Prices are the same, except for coffee which went up to 2 bucks (stumptown is worth it). Sadly, the Veggie Shepherd's Pie has bitten the dust :( Veggie isn't a real word anyways.

Coming Up:
Last Tuesday Trivia: July 28th at 9 pm.
Bring a team of 5, yer brain, and cursory knowledge of current events.

Welcome Home Jicks Party: T.B.A.
The Jicks are going down to Cali for a week of shows, and will want to see all their friends when they return. Come down and request "Old Jerry."

Overlook Village Celebration: August 1st ...starting at noon.
Mike and I are opening early to meet new faces. We'll be grilling, serving Overlook Party Punch, hanging out with the Blend Crew and the rest of LoKi (lower killingsworth, yo). See you there.

North Portland is the Best.

Tuesday night, I made this ad for the Mercury's Guide to North Portland. Thanks to Jessica for graciously finishing the Snoopy pictured here.

Gay Pride Portland-Wide

Portland Mayor Sam Adams came on down to the Sagittarius to celebrate the final hours of Pride Weekend with an Astro Burger at one of our outside tables last night. His cute companion ordered the Gay Mannequin (Campari, Tanqueray, Grapefruit Juice), but Sam just rocked the old Cape Cod. Wethinks he must live in the neighborhood and we appreciate his support of local independent businesses!

Happy Hour reigns all night tonight, as it is Monday.
Don't forget, the next Trivia Night is Tuesday, June 30th.

Tonight's Drink Special: The BLOODLESS MARTINI
It is tomato vodka that I infused myself, a few shakes of tabasco, a shake of worcestershire, and a some lemon juice served up for five bucks, except tonight, it will be just $4.

Happy Hour All Night Long

EVERY MONDAY is happy at Sagittarius from open to close. That means that microbrew pints and well drinks are only $3 all night. Plus, all booze is a buck cheaper. So, to review: outside tables, inside air-conditioning, food specials, $1.50 Iron City tall stubbies, $7 PBR pitchers, and a better Monday.

Tonight's Drink Special: GINGER COOLER: house-infused ginger vodka, stoli vanil, lemon juice, and gingerale over ice in a tall glass. It's five bucks....but since it's happy monday, make that $4. Sweet.

News -n- Stuff

Scraps of News:

The Jalapeno-Cheddar burger we are rocking on special makes my eyes melt, but it comes with Bob's kick-ass potato salad to temper things a bit. However, this photo is of Lizzy Labradoodle, successfully completing the Wilky's Comet Challenge. Zombie Eyes not included.

Let's see:

Our fair Carly got into nursing school at Linfield, so she will continue to study various body parts and functions in between making your drinks. Congratulate her when you see her next.

This week, we prepare for a regular Parent Summit with visits from my mom and her husband, Budd, and both the doctors Clark. Our house is going to be full up.

The Jicks, Mike's band, are headlining their first show in a few months at the Doug Fir this Friday. It is fairly short notice, so it's not sold out yet. Word is there will be several new songs and even some debuts and maybe a secret guest appearance. The matrix recordings from the last Doug Fir show are special and shivery, so I am not going to miss this. I will be the one with two sets of parents all holding their ears.

Drink Special right now: Strawberry-Kiwi Lemonade for $5.

PUSH!...don't PULL.

Sometimes people are mystified by our door. Although we understand the natural tendency we all have to pull open double doors, ours are clearly marked with a big 'PUSH' sticker. I even try to pull the door open sometimes; I ain't immune to these things. Once in a while though, someone will try to pull the doors, get frustrated when they don't open, and give up. This can happen when the A-Board sign is out, the outside tables are set up, the neon 'open' sign is on, and we are in here, waiting on other customers. It is one of the mysteries of life. I am hoping these people can find their way through the doors of some other establishment to feed themselves. huh.

Comfort Food in Uncertain Times

"...that pot pie was so good that it made me forget that the guy I was dating wants to sleep with men, and not me..."

Well, if that's not an endorsement, I don't know what is!

It's true, the chicken pot pie we have on the menu is creamy hearty goodness. The Veggie Shepherd's Pie is also outstanding; the tofu in there packs extra oomph. Really, I don't know how, but our menu has evolved into a lovingly appointed list of the greatest comfort foods I would want to eat if I were ever to have the time to go out again. It is truly delightful to serve food that makes people so satisfied, especially when they give me comments like the above: that woman, who shall remain anonymous, even said that I could quote her on that. (Her companion said she wouldn't be suprised to see the quote in one of our Mercury ads).

April Showers

It's raining delicious beer-battered, deep-fried gardenburgers.

The story goes like this:
A while back, a fit and handsome fellow named Stewart was dining with a large group of friends who challenged him to eat a second Wilky's Comet. (At the time, we were using the larger, football shaped 'steak size' gardenburger patties...I don't think you can get them anymore since Kraft bought the company. These things were MEGA.) Bets were placed, contingencies were negotiated, and Stewart successfully downed every last bit. By the time he was done chewing, the crowd had grown and the energy in the air was palpable, so I yelled across the bar that the third one was on the house. More bets were placed*, and after some time, Stewart polished off his third Comet, albeit without any accompanying salad or fries. I put him in our next advertisement because the man deserves mad props.

Now we formally introduce the Wilky's Comet Challenge, detailed above. We already have our first winner (Lizzy Labradoodle: she is the one to beat) who will be immortalized with her photo in the display I am going to construct next to the coat rack.

*and no, we do not condone gambling, silly.

CAPTION CONTEST for this photo:

Here at Sagittarius we like to shake things up a bit and change the ad we submit to the Mercury every other week instead of always submitting the same old one. Maybe we think people embrace change over repetition, who knows. We get lots of positive feedback about our ads, mostly because they usually feature our foxy staff. Well, this week for the life of me, I could not figure out the copy to go with this adorable photo of Brent and Bob who seem to be in the middle of something. So you guys can do it for me!

Submit your caption to the comments section of this post along with a way for us to contact you by April 1st. The winning caption will run with the ad with credit given to you and ALSO, we will put you in the next ad, if that's what you really want!

Brainstorm away.

Happy Hours! Cocktails! Beers! (click to enlarge)

Here are our Drinks and Happy Hour menus! Food menu in the following post!!

Food Menu:

!Updated! On July 14th, 2009.

We Sold Our Espresso Machine!

Yes, with a heavy heart, I posted our beautiful Rio Vania commercial 2-group espresso machine on Craigslist last week. Since we changed our hours (we used to be open at 11:00 am every day), we just don't really use it too much and it is a sadly underused expensive paperweight at this point. So we are asking $3500 for the machine, including the grinder and all the accompanying stuff that one would require. Stumptown installed it for us in August 2005, and it just has not seen much use, so it's in nearly mint condition.

The Bitch is Back!

Phone Photo of Stephen and Mike at Plush in Tuscon, Arizona.

Last week I flew to Tucscon to join the Jicks for a few shows of their tour. Never been to Tucson, it is a sweet little hippie paradise, but on the toasty side for pasty northwesterners like me. I had a giant sun-hat though, so I was stoked (and totally in disguise!).

The shows were great and kept my mind off the weird cluster of equipment failures we've had recently at Sagittarius, the latest of which was an $800 freezer fix the day before I left (ouch!). I wish someone would tell me the secret to good equipment mojo...we try to keep the machines nice and happy, but sometimes they are overloaded with too many tater tots to chill, I guess.

Tomorrow I'm going to figure out how to post an employee roster. Our employees are so rad, they are all full of bands and art and school and math and a little bit of drama; a sit-com in the making.

And I will figure out how to post our menu. That is the point, no? Live to eat!

Mondays= Happy Hour all night at Sagittarius!

I made this new ad today. I make all the Sagittarius ads because I think it's fun and I like to change them often, and I don't have to pay someone else. Mostly, I try to include all our employees in the ads as soon as I can convince them how bitchen it is. Some of our employees are Leos, so they love it....but some are like, Cancers, the more modest types, and they are harder to capture. I always just use my camera phone, (I am prone to losing or sitting on nice cameras). But this photo of Mike, I don't know who took it, someone posted it on Flickr.com. It's like I'm there at the show! I can almost see the pick in his mouth which is where he puts it when he has a keyboard passage to do (technical term: pick-in-mouth). Anyhow, we are all hella proud of Mike and the Jicks.

But while I am here running the bar by myself, things seem to want to break all the time and I am beginning to take it personally. I will be calling the freezer repair place tomorrow as soon as I can lift my head. Typical.

Sagittarius enters the 21st century

Hello Universe!

Yes, I made Baby Cakes today, so we are no longer out of those little cuties. They are a time-consuming endeavor, but so attractive and delicious that I don't mind spending the time to fulfill your whiskey/chocolate needs.

I also baked some peanut butter and oatmeal-raisin cookies, so save some room.