{"id":8598,"date":"2016-08-15T06:24:17","date_gmt":"2016-08-15T14:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pickydiners.com\/www\/?p=8598"},"modified":"2017-11-25T08:28:14","modified_gmt":"2017-11-25T16:28:14","slug":"gringo-gastown-cocktail-crawl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickydiners.com\/www\/gringo-gastown-cocktail-crawl\/","title":{"rendered":"Gringo – A Funky Start of a Gastown Cocktail Crawl"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have to admit that I wasn’t paying much attention to Gringo when I was looking at\u00a0Maggi (vieamaggi.com<\/a>)’s list of suggested places\u00a0for our Gastown Cocktail Crawl<\/strong>. \u00a0As I was happy to see Wildebeest, Tuc, PidGin and Bambuddha on the list, \u00a0Gringo was the only place I knew nothing about. Maggi proposed to start at\u00a0Wildebeest, and\u00a0Food Wench (drunkennoms.com<\/a>) gladly complied because apparently she is a fan of a young talented chef there, which would be a story for another post. \u00a0But just a couple hours before we met up, Maggi decided to start the crawl at Gringo. \u00a0She thought it would be\u00a0a good idea to\u00a0have some food in our belly before starting a long night\u00a0of drinking. Ahh it is always great to hang out with people who know how to party.<\/p>\n

After\u00a0going through the fun part of Blood Alley with walking by interesting figures hanging\u00a0out around dumpsters, we found ourselves\u00a0sitting on the neon stools in an\u00a0open area at the front of the taco bar. I was totally captivated by the fact that how funky\u00a0this place was.<\/p>\n

\"gringo,<\/a>
gringo, blood alley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was sitting right next to\u00a0all these vibrant items – the bar’s mascot flamingo with sunglasses on\u00a0a neon sign, a cheerful 2-D red parrot on a rainbow bicycle, and a bright purple fan. \u00a0While I was having the full view of the alley, the girls were sitting across from me and facing the bar, which was also filled with\u00a0flashy decors and colourful\u00a0objects.\u00a0 Hah I think I might as well\u00a0pretend that I’m partying in Tijuana.<\/p>\n

\"gringo\"<\/a>
gringo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"gringo\"<\/a>
gringo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"gringo\"<\/a>
gringo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So we ordered our cocktails in those Thai Buckets\u00a0<\/strong>with triple dosage of alcohol ($16). Each of them came with a colourful bucket and a tiny shovel which little kids use to build their sand castle. Well if the shovel doesn’t really help you to drink from the bucket, \u00a0there is a straw too of course. \u00a0So how did they taste? I had to agree with Food Wench, our cocktail snob – they weren’t\u00a0exactly super tasty\u00a0with way too much sugary mixer, likely fruit punch or pop soda. But it was all about “cheap”cheesy fun so I was actually having a good time.<\/p>\n

\"cocktails<\/a>
cocktails in thai buckets<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Food Wench chose the least ‘girly’ one\u00a0on the cocktail list, as her\u00a0Bourbarita<\/strong>\u00a0featured the use of bourbon, but her bucket was pink and the girliest – \u00a0how ironic! \u00a0Although it was also supposed to mixed with lemon juice, watermelon and\u00a0demerara,\u00a0it just tasted like\u00a0bourbon diluted with sugar water. Down her\u00a0whole bucket pretty quickly, she was sneakily\u00a0helping herself with Maggi’s and mine.<\/p>\n

\""bourbarita"\"<\/a>
“bourbarita”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Maggi’s Pink Flamingo<\/strong>\u00a0was indeed a pink drink but served in purple bucket, \u00a0and featured tequila, pink grapefruit and lager. \u00a0When Maggi liked\u00a0the whimsical gummy worms crawling in her cocktail, Food Wench again found this drink too sweet and too girly for her liking. I seriously don’t\u00a0remember exactly what it actually tasted like – \u00a0hmm, \u00a0kind of like the ruby grapefruit Palm Bay but weaker?<\/p>\n

\""pink<\/a>
“pink flamingo\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As indecisive as I always am, I didn’t have a lot of choices left after my buddies picked their type of bucket. I figured that the\u00a0Beera CoLada<\/strong>\u00a0with the little cocktail umbrella sounded a lot classier than the White Girl Wasted or the Poor Man’s Sangria… Well not really. But anyway, \u00a0unanimously it turned out to be the tastiest of all three buckets we ordered ! \u00a0As it’s mixed with rum, lime, coconut and pale ale, it proves that the fruity cocktails\u00a0are just better with\u00a0rum!<\/p>\n

\""beera<\/a>
“beera colada”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And here came the better part of the crawl stop, the tacos. They are actually quite tasty and the price is\u00a0very reasonable. 3 for 8 bucks? \u00a0It’s pretty hard to beat this price considering these taco are quite\u00a0decent. While I can’t say they are better than the ones from\u00a0La Taqueria or Tacofino, they are definitely not worse either with that price.<\/p>\n

As the Carnivore, I enjoyed all the meat tacos – The Chuck<\/strong> (house-seasoned ground beef), \u00a0The Wilbur<\/strong> (maztlan braised pork) and The Austin<\/strong> (brisket). The meats here all very well-seasoned and all surprisingly moist. I understand that a lot of people prefer a good balance of meat and veggie components with a kickass sauce on their taco. But I have found the impartant balance in a\u00a0taco for me is between the warm and savory filling\u00a0and the tortilla, which is like having a good meat bao bun in Chinese cuisine. Sometimes too much of raw veggie and the salad dressing like sauce is too distracting for the main flavour profile of the taco.<\/p>\n

The Encino<\/strong>\u00a0with spicy pulled roast chicken was not bad, although it could have been spicier as the name suggested. Ant it was dry as expected. Pulled pork is always so much better than pulled chicken because of the fat. But for a healthier option I would eat it more often too.\u00a0The Pink<\/strong>\u00a0is their stable white fish taco, almost the most important taco of all the taquerias. \u00a0The choice of poaching the\u00a0fish is interesting and pretty brave. But I still prefer fried fish in my fish taco for that crunchiness.\u00a0The Mugroso<\/strong>, their vegetarian option, is not as memorable as the other ones and my least favourite.<\/p>\n

\"tacos\"<\/a>
tacos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Overall, their affordable and tasty tacos made me happy. The flamboyant Thai Buckets were pretty fun too, but I doubt I would spend $16 for one next time. It might not be the greatest\u00a0spot for cocktails and cocktail crawls if the\u00a0quality of\u00a0booze\u00a0really matters to you, but\u00a0the experience is definitely one of a kind. However I would come back here for the tacos.<\/p>\n

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Website<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.gringogastown.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

More reviews:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Gringo<\/a><\/p>\n

Location:<\/strong><\/p>\n