suds: mateo

We walk in to Mateo at 5pm, as their happy hour is 5-6:30pm and it’s Friday night. We are professionals, after all.  There are a bunch of people assembled at the middle of the long bar and when we walk in they all turn and look at us like we just walked in to a private party we weren’t invited to.  It probably didn’t happen, but I could almost swear I heard the sound of a needle scratching off a record.

At this point it’s just me and “T” but we are expecting three more sidekicks, so  after standing there for a few minutes feeling awkward, we wandered over to the high table in front of the picture window, a perfect spot for happy hour for five!

Several very good looking guys…waiters? busboys? both? come by to inquire about our water preference. We opt for the filtered tap variety, in case you’re curious.  “T” orders the house sparkling wine… a prosecco, great at $6 a glass, and I choose the featured sparkling rose for
$5 and it’s delightful. Also available are the house red and white wines for $4 a glass, and the daily beer for $3.  Something for everyone.

Now what to eat? We start with an order of the frites (an absolute MUST at Mateo, as they are known for them. And for good reason. The frites are amazing!!) We also get the charcuterie plate….a selection of cured meat, cheeses, marinated olives, pate and grilled bread to deliver it to your mouth, which will be much happier for the experience. We were also given plenty of delicious bread with some kind of herbed butter, which the sidekicks said had a nice, sweet flavor.  And there’s more….

(Mateo’s happy hour menu. So much deliciousness, so little time)

The rest of the gals arrive. We proceed to have a great time, great drinks, great food and quite possibly the perfect table for conversation and food sharing.  I realize another thing… I’m surrounded by TLC (sidekicks “T,” “L” and “C”…two “C”s, for good measure). TLC. Really. Beautiful and amazing girlfriends who love and support me, and make me laugh (as I hope I do them).  Even if the refreshments were bad I’d be happy.

But they’re not, so back to the goods. “L” very smartly orders up another of Mateo’s signature dishes, the mussels.  They are steamed to perfection in a tomato and white wine concoction of almost indescribable goodness….avec frites, s’il vous plait.  And yes, we’ll need a little more bread to soak up the broth left behind in the crock.

(Delicious. That’s all)

Mateo’s food is very good and happy hour pricing is, too.  This restaurant has a beautiful interior, cool lighting, and some really beautiful art hanging on the walls.

The one thing that wasn’t awesome was the service.  Before I go any further, I must admit that I am from the east coast and worked for years as a waitress, so my threshold for poor service may well be lower than yours.   Our waiter was really nice, but we waited a long time staring into our empty wine glasses for him to come back and check on us, and waited again for our drinks to be delivered.  And it wasn’t just me who noticed. One of the sidekicks observed, “It’s like they realized we were here just for happy hour, and so we aren’t a priority.” Clearly, they don’t know us very well, as our every other Friday night “happy hour” often lasts until nearly midnight. I digress.  We also had to look for him to get our check. We quickly threw down our cards to pay, but he was already gone. “C” called her sweet thing for a ride home and we were still waiting for our waiter to come pick up our cards when her ride showed up.  “C” ended up taking her card back and paying with cash so as not to keep her designated driver waiting.

Maybe the service is better in the dining room.

If you enjoy good food and drink, by all means get yourself down to Mateo. In fact, they are celebrating their 10 year anniversary this coming Sunday, October 23rd with hors d’oeuvres and cocktails from 5-8pm. Call them to rsvp if you’re interested.

I’d go to Mateo for dinner, but not for happy hour. As one sidekick said “not sure it’s worth the trip for great fries. It’s much more a dinner place than a fun happy hour hang.”

Our crew was whittled down to the usual suspects after Mateo, and we strolled west on Pearl looking for inspiration. After a quick beer, we headed back to east Pearl and “Pizzeria Locale,” because they have amazing “spritz” cocktails….and I wanted the sidekicks to try their “Arancino.” The Aracino are essentially risotto balls with a little melty bufala mozarella inside, dipped in batter and fried for just enough time to make them one of the most delicious things we three have ever eaten. We got two rounds. Of cocktails AND Arancino. And it wasn’t enough, but we’d been out for hours so it was time to go home.

While there, however, we witnessed something that made us think of a great new iphone app.

“Take Me Home Tonight,” the virtual wingman.

The app will somehow know when you’re out on the town, perhaps one of your friends will alert it remotely.  It will periodically take an involuntary blood alcohol reading and text it to said friend (or two, in our case) along with a GPS reading.  If they find it’s warranted, your friends can take a stroll by your location and observe your behavior firsthand. If it’s anything like that of the woman we saw at the bar last Friday night (and suffice it to say she was old enough to know better) who inspired the app, your friends will be there to rescue you from your ownself. The app will also come equipped with a taser or some kind of stun gun, in the event that you are not happy to see your friends, and become belligerent when they tell you it’s time to go home.  I know a really good software engineer, who knows a couple of other really good ones, and I’m sure it’ll be tricky, but if we build it they will come.

And they’ll thank us in the morning. Of that, we are sure.

Cheers.

• Boulder
• drinks
• happy hour
• mateo
• pearl street