En route to Sandestin, I stopped by this place for a drink. Â The place was almost entirely empty -- the emptiness made more apparent by the cavernous size with all its nooks -- but I liked this place and felt it a shame that it wasn't as crowded as what appeared to be the meat-headier places up the street. Â
First, they have a pretty big selection of beer (in bottles but it's uber cheap so if your preferred beer is not on tap it's not a problem); the drinks are damn stiff so you can sip on one drink for the entire night or you can get blitzed for cheap; and third, the bar keep was super cool (he's the former baseball player who gave us a free beer just because we inquired about local favorites' brew and he wanted us to try it and he was super helpful when it came to making suggestions about other places to drink). Â Overall, a pretty cool joint.
Well I've now been to Intermission twice in the past few weeks and it is growing on me. Â At first glance, there is nothing special going on here. Â It's basically a bar in Downtown Pensacola. Â Pretty much what you would expect. Â
Fortunately, my friend knows the owner so we got some pretty good stories out of him on both of our visits, including that the tiles that make up the walls in the front room of the bar are rare antique tiles. Â Apparently when he tried to look around for buyers, the Historic Pensacola folks barred him from selling them and so they remain. Â
Another is that this particular bar, for reasons I still don't understand, sells more Rumple Minze (a peppermint schnapps) than anywhere else in the country or something like that. Â Random. Â Okay when I said good stories I pretty much meant that they are different than your average bar conversations. Â
This place also makes some killer mixed drinks so if that's your kind of thing, this is a good place to get something elaborate since it's going to be awesome. Â Caution: These drinks do not taste at ALL like alcohol so you could easily stumble your way out of there without meaning to be quite so tipsy. Â
The downside (and this is a big negative for me) is that this is one of a few bars in Pensacola that has yet to ban smoking and, well, for someone who hates being around smoke, I'd just as soon go somewhere else where I don't have to be around it.