Pine Bar - Lunch in the Gump After Hours

What? You think we just eat lunch all the time? Sure, lunch is a great time to take a midday breather, catch up on the local gossip and postulate on which bank will fail next. We sample the Gump's best southern-fried, cooked-in-a-pot-of-grease, artery-clogging slow death, then wash it down with rot-your-teeth sweet tea. The fact that we do this at least weekly (completely without compensation) and then provide reviews free of charge, just adds to the near-utopian quality of life here in the Gump.

But Gumpers are only human (except for Shadow Pup). We have to unwind from the megadeals, mid-air rescues, test flights, brain surgeries and Perry Mason shit we do when we're not screwing off at lunch someplace. So at quitting time we need a drink.

There are some good watering holes here in the Gump and we feel it is our civic duty to visit every single one, and write 'em up here on the blog. So here we go.

Pine Bar is at 501 Cloverdale Road in that slick new upstairs/downstairs new urbanism live/work A&P loft/retail development between Nancy Paterson's Bistro, Village Kitchen, Roux and Derk's Filet & Vine (excellent joints in their own right). The Chop House at the Vintage Year (also excellent) is just a stumble down the block.

As the name connotes, Pine Bar is a bar, not a nightclub. The skilled bartenders know how to mix. You can get real cocktails like an Old-Fashioned or a proper Martini, maybe a Sazerac or a Sidecar. If your cocktail requires fruit juice, it gets fresh-squeezed right in front of you. If you just clipped Milton McGregor for a big jackpot and feel like a Booker's or a MacAllan, they've got 'em and won't stiff you on the pour. If you order a Sex on the Beach or a Screaming Orgasm, you are going to get tossed out on your ass, your fake ID will be gone forever and your parents will be notified.

Pine Bar probably has the biggest beer selection (draft and bottled) in the Gump, including those high gravity, knock-you-on-your-ass beers the legislature lets us drink now. The wine selection is interesting and ever-changing, if you are one of those wine-sippers.

Also, the Pine Bar has great food. Shown below is their signature dish, pretzel balls, and the soon-to-be-famous salad bar, which comes complete with olives, lemons, limes, maraschino cherries and those little onions. So once you wet your parched throat and take the edge off, don't feel like you've got to go hauling ass home for dinner right that second.

You won't go home hungry.

Other particulars? Let's see... The clientele at Pine Bar is about as sophisticated as it gets in the Gump, which isn't very sophisticated. But we still doubt you're going to have to deal with any gunplay among the patrons. You can sit outside or inside, but there's no smoking inside. That's good. The trolleys stop here if you need to get downtown or over to Fairview without getting a DUI. The owner has good taste in music and some big-ass TVs. Prices are reasonable and you get an honest pour.

The Pine Bar is a great stop for a couple of after-work drinks and it's also a handy staging area for dinner at Nancy's, Village Kitchen Roux or the Vintage Year. You can also get primo takeout from Derk's, so you can be a hero when you get home, instead of just that liquorhead who pays the mortgage and forgets anniversaries.

Possibilities abound here in the Gump.