Best Hot Dog & 21st Amendment

I guess the fine folks of Western Washington saw it fit to bestow upon us the title of “Best Hot Dog in Western Washington“! Thanks guys for voting for us and bringing the title to Tacoma! I know this because the good folks at King 5 asked us to come down and film a spot for it…but then changed their minds the day of. Oh well…

In other coolio news, tonight we are hosting the release party for 21st Amendment’s newest beer, Back In Black IPA.

We’ll be tapping the first keg of it tonight! We’ll also have on their Brew Free or Die IPA & Hell or High Watermelon Wheat, both huge hits at the recent Tacoma Craft Beer Fest. Expect discounted pints of 21A Beer and delicious good times starting at 7pm!

We’re Two Years Old…

Tonight (Saturday 8-15), 7pm: Randall Battle with Schooner Exact Brewing! 3 Grid IPA through 2 Randalls…one with Amarillos, one with Cascades! Meet the brewers and geek out!

Tomorrow (Sunday 8-16), 1pm: Our anniversary party opens our beer garden at 1pm. On tap out there will be Elysian Koolsch (pub only from Elysian Fields), 7 Seas British Pale Ale, Port Townsend Hop Diggidy IPA through the Randall, and the debut of our beer engine with a cask of Big Al’s Hop Soup IPA. At 5pm, we’ll be tapping a firkin with our pals from Schooner Exact outside with their delicious dry-hopped 3 Grid IPA that we can’t get enough of. At 6pm, the return of the annual hot dog eating competition! This year is all about speed, with each eater given 3 hotdogs and buns…whoever downs ‘em the fastest, wins! The weather is going to be killer, sunny and 78, and we’ll keep the garden open into the night. Hope to see all of our pals there to celebrate!

Coming Soon: Reunion ‘09 Double Wheat, Lost Abbey 10 Commandments, Port Townsend Scotch Ale NITRO, Double Mountain Hop Lava IPA, Laurelwood Hop Monkey IPA, Walking Man Homo Erectus IPA, SESSION FEST, NBB BIKE IN MOVIE, & MORE!

p.s.: Website for Tacoma Craft Beer Festival is live! IT’s still being tweaked and things added, but the first draft is up!

Beat the Heat With Woody

Woody is a travelling tavern on wheels. It’s a giant wooden keg that opens up into a tavern, complete with stereo and disco ball.

Woody is from our pals at Deschutes Brewing. He’s in Tacoma today rolling around, and will be making a full-fledge stop at The Red Hot Wednesday Night @ 7pm until close. We’ll be pouring a ‘heat-friendly’ batch of beers on tap in the outdoor beer garden out of Woody: Deschutes Red Chair IPA (from Deschutes Bond Series of beers), Green Lakes Organic Amber, Twilight Ale, & Black Butte Porter. There may even be some surprise handles. All Deschutes handles are on special. The best part is we reworked the beer garden so it’s all in the shade. Hell. Yes. We’ll be on our “BBQ Menu” for the night due to increased capacity, but at least it’s easier on your purse strings…and your hot ass living room. We’re giving away shirts, hats, growlers, glasses, and even a Deschutes Skate deck.

It’s gonna be a damn good time!

Red Hot Art on the Ave

Art on the Ave is back! We’ll be opening at 11 am this Sunday. We’ll have a sidewalk table (featuring a brown-bag special for those who want a meal on the go…all beef hot dog, bag of chips, moon pie, and a RC Cola) and seating set up out front on the Ave (rest your feet and grab some eats), and we’ll have an outdoor beer garden set up out back (with an additional 4 handles pouring out back as well) with tons of seating. You can even duck inside for an air conditioning break. It’s always a killer time. I hear the Fashion Show next door at The Wedding Bell will be making a trip thru our beer garden as well.

If you hate crowds, the AOTA stuffs is over at 5, & we’ll be open to our regular Sunday close time of 10pm. Word.

Frankenweenie

Almost forgot…

Yesterday, Red Hot neighbor to the East and fellow occupiers of 6th Avenue, House of Tattoo, ran a special on Halloween themed tattoos for $31. They made up a flash sheet, and that’s what you had to pick from. The most super-awesome part was, they had a Red Hot Frankenweenie as one of the choices!

If they were jobbing for free lunch for their crew, it worked! FANTASTIC! Don’t mind the distorted look of the pic, I couldn’t get a good angle. I got one, and 2 (possibly 3) of our bartenders did, too. I was flattered that our employees would do that. Anyway, yes, I have 2 hot dog tattoos now, I feel that may be a record of some sort…

H.O.T. also does Friday the 13th themed tattoos, and I will be there for that one, too (I believe the next one is February 13th, 2009).

Dead Guys & Halloweenies

Happy Halloweenie!

Tonight, to keep your spirits warm in the damp night, we’re gonna do 1 keg of Rogue Dead Guy Ale for $3 a pint all night long.

Dee-Licious.

We’ll have all the Halloweenies you can handle, and there’s a roving Halloween Party taking up shop in The Red Hot tonight, come be part of the gang. We’re giving away schwag for those who go all out!

Birthday Thanks

So it’s finally here. As of tomorrow, we will have made it one year here on 6th Ave.

Thanks to all who have supported us, and continue to do so! Your patronage is deeply appreciated. Special mad-props go out to The Parkway Tavern Family, Barry and The Rosewood Cafe Family, Donna and The Tacoma Boys Family, K-Fry and The FeedTacoma.com Family, and Ron Swarner and The Weekly Volcano Fam. Your generosity is amazing. You all rule. Super-special Shizz-Tastic thanks go to all our staff. I have never met a group of insanely loyal and rabidly Red Hot fanatic people ever. We couldn’t have done it without you.

The Par-Tay on Saturday should be a blast. We’re giving away the highly coveted PBR Cruiser Bike.

(pssst…We have more bikey suprises for all of you coming up soon!)

We’ll also have a Firkin Cask on of custom-made-for-us-by-Fish-Tale-Brewing “Red Hot AugustFest Bier”, a German/American dry-hopped Cask Ale that is gonna be frickin’ amazing:

We’ll be open outside with more brew offerings and lots o’ seating. Our entire line-up looks like this:

ON TAP
Stone IPA
Lagunitas IPA
Deschutes Inversion IPA
Snoqualmie Wildcat IPA
Snoqualmie Copperhead Pale Ale
North Coast Scrimshaw Pilsner
New Belgium Summer Wheat
Maritime Pacific Old Seattle Lager
Red Hot AugustFest Cask Ale (custom one-off)
Georgetown 9LB Porter
Alaskan Oatmeal Stout
Wyder’s Peach Draft Cider
RAINIER
PBR

BOTTLES/CANS
New Belgium Fat Tire Amber (bottles and cans)
Lagunitas Sirius Cream Pale Ale
Russian River Damnation 750mL(very few left)
Elysian Loser Pale 22oz(very few left)
Left Hand Milk Stout
Moose Drool Brown Ale
Pyramid Hefeweizen
Full Sail Session Lager
Rainier Tallboys
PBR Tallboys
Miller Lite
Miller High Life
Budweiser
Bud Light

FOR THE WINOS:
14 Hands Cabernet
Happy Camper Merlot
Primaterra Pinot Grigio
14 Hands Chardonnay

We also have a good selection for the non-alcohol types…and hot dogs. Lots and lots of hot dogs…and our new bad-ass stickers.

I’m super excited. Thanks again to all! Hope to see you Saturday Night!

A Good Day

Yesterday shaped up to be a killer day. I had heard we were going to be named ‘Best Cheap Date’ in the Weekly Volcano’s “Best Of” issue. I got a huge smile on my mug as I saw I was named “Best Bar Owner” in Tacoma as well. Nothing like a little nod or atta-boy to boost your well being.

Immediately after reading the WV, the editor and publisher of Beer Northwest Magazine walked in. They had heard about us, and stopped in for a couple beers, a couple dogs, and some picture taking. We shot the breeze for a few, and then they were off to their homebase down PDX way. Rad.

I also got the final go-ahead on opening up our back lot for our 1-year Anniversary Party (August 16th). It should be a friggin’ blast outside! Fish Tale is making us a special cask beer (Red Hot AugustFest Bier!) to have on tap, we’re giving away the bike, and if more people sign up, the RH Hot Dog Eating Contest is a GO! If you or anyone you know wants to compete, please let me know (delicioushotdogs at gmail dot com)! Winners will be rewarded with fame, glory, and free stuffs! Woo!

Free Bicycle

You just gotta win it…

The PBR Bike that has hung in The Red Hot since we opened…the one we said we’d never give away…well…we’re giving it away.

Our one-year anniversary is right around the corner (AUGUST 16TH), and the bike is probably the source of the most asked question of “when are you gonna give that bike away?”.

It’s a single-speed cruiser with a coaster brake. Old school. It’s never been ridden, and the tires have only touched the ground inside the Red Hot where it was taken out of it’s shipping packaging. It will be given a once over by Red Hot pal Justin, one of the bike guys up at REI before you ride it away.

You can enter your name in the random raffle at The Red Hot once per day up until Saturday August 16th. The drawing will take place that eve during our big-ass celebration (we’ll be open out in our back parking lot for outdoor seating, there’s gonna be a hot dog eating contest, we’ll have a special “AugustFest” cask beer made especially for us by Fish Brewing, and all kinds of other fun stuffs). You must be present to win, and you must use the bike. If you do not use it, you will be hunted down and flogged. Many a patron has salivated over owning this bad scoot, so we want to see it go to a good home.

4th of July alternative…

If waterfront action is not your thing, and you’re looking for some funstuffs, we’re doing a little BBQ action of our own. We’re having a build-your-own-hot-dog-bar where you can experiment til your wiener loving heart is content (choose all-beef dog, polish sausage, cajun andouille, bratwurst, turkey dog, or one of our vegetarian sausages). Full self-serve condiment bar awaits you. Side your tubesteak masterpiece with potato salad, baked beans, and our cole slaw. Do it up for $5 a plate. Wash it all down with happy hour beer all day and all night ($3 a pint for micros, $2 a pint for PBR or Rainiers).

We’ll be giving away some beer swag, and some hot dog swag. Grand supreme bad-ass prize is a brand new Weber 18 1/2″ One-Touch charcoal grill. Get your own hot dog bbq action in full swing and become your own grill-master with this sweet rig.

Since Tall Ships is in full swing, you can also sample your tastebuds with Boundary Bay’s Tall Sips Blonde, made exclusively for the Tall Ships Festival. Highly limited, once it’s gone it’s gone. Very tasty.