30th
Great New Bar Last Night
I had read about Eli Cannon’s about a year ago during a spate of boredom with the Hartford bar scene, but it was 20 miles away in Middletown, so I scratched it off the list. Boy was that a mistake.
Eli Cannon’s is one of those bars that you immediately wish you could be a part of. “If this bar was in West Hartford, I’d probably be there every day,” my roommate Andy said. “This is what a bar should be like,” I replied. “It feels a little bit like home. If we ever start a bar, it’ll be like this.”
Yeah, there are places in Hartford that serve more beers on tap than Eli, but the quality of the 33 offerings on draft there is the best I’ve seen so far in Connecticut. Cool nostalgia was hammered all over the old brick walls and wood interior. Bar stools were converted from old kegs. Barbershop chairs and leather couches rounded out the decor.
There’s supposedly a 12-year waiting list to pay for the right annually to drink out of a personal beer stein hanging behind the bar. At least, that’s what the guy sitting next to me with a stein said. Once he got off the list (with a little bit of lobbying to the manager by his friends), everyone on the bar staff immediately knew his full name. Judging from our bartender, that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. She was nice, cute and really knew her beer.
Outside? A beer garden. “I don’t feel like I’m in Connecticut,” said my roommate Raaj. Exactly. They just don’t have this kind of stuff here in the Land of Steady Habits. Nor do they usually have deep-fried pickle chips, which might have been the highlight of the evening.
Is 20 miles too far to drive for a bar? Not anymore.
