The Tropics Christmas Carol


(slurring words, shouting erratically…) “Is this a gay bar?!”

(Annie, with patience….) “No Kirsten, its just a dive.”

We followed the Christmas Star to get here as wise men once did ~ wandering around Redding in a drunken haze after a night of insanity which included driving around a bunch of 18 year old boys (one of them shouts up to us ~ “so are you guys like Mexicans or something?”), an angry family dinner, and a bunch of other crap i dont really remember anymore.

Point being, this Little Dive That Could was the only place open to us that night…we tried bar after bar but no one was home. Fuckers.

I’m taking a couple stars away, just because i wasnt a huge fan of the juke-box, and this annoying drunk kept trying to get us to go swimming in the river with him. (It’s December 23, mind you).

“you grils shurr are prtety…you wnat to go smwimnig in the rvirrr toinhgt?!”

I’m not sure how much i would go here if given the option to go elsewhere….this place was alright, nothing spectacular. Kind of like watching According to Jim when you cant find your remote and getting off the couch to change the channel manually is far too much effort.

The bartender, whoever he was, was way cool and the cocktails were packin’ heat like the oven door ….from what i remember…which wasnt much at this point. If only we had been smart enough not to move onto Win-River Casino from here.

I’d like to close with a traditional Christmas carol ~

“O Little Dive of Redding”

O Little Dive of Redding, how still we see thee lie…
before thy drunk and unconscious sleep, the wasted hours roll by.

Yet in thy dark street shineth, that little neon sign with the red lettering and the palm tree..
The shots and beers of all the years are pounded in thee tonight.

Review from Kirsten S at Yelp. Photos by Skip Murphy.

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