All-you-can-shovel food. A selection of complimentary soft drinks, tea and coffee. All the desserts your dentist will later profit from. And, for those so inclined, vouchers for up to six free alcoholic drinks! All for one (not so) low low price! Make no mistake; if you plan to arrive an hour or more before the first pitch, if you have a sizable appetite, if you can swill copious quantities of alcohol over a 3-hour period, and if you prefer not to be subjected to the elements then The Handlebar is worth the heavy price tag.
Surprisingly, we had The Handlebar to ourselves. No joke, we were joined by a young couple and later a family of four with two rambunctious children drifted in and out for brief periods. Otherwise, The Handlebar was almost like our own personal luxury suite. Sweet!
Aside from the friendly and helpful staff on hand, there was one other notable person in The Handlebar that Easter Sunday:
You never know who you'll bump into at the ballpark and on Easter Sunday Cincinnati Reds legend Tom Browning aka "Mr Perfect" bumped into me. For about 10 minutes before the first pitch we hung out at the bar, talkin' baseball. I asked Mr Perfect whether strike three is really the hardest strike to throw (with Homie's Opening Day pitching line in the back of my mind). The answer was "Yes, and it also depends upon who is the umpire calling balls and strikes." I axed Tom about young pitchers and whether they rolled into Rookie Ball with pitching mechanics that were already pretty close to Big League ready or whether they required a lot of work from their pitching coaches (with Reds top prospect Hunter Greene in mind). Browning said generally the pitching mechanics of young prospects in the system are fairly well formed. I asked Mr Perfect about pitching at old Mile High Stadium in Denver and we talked about some of his teammates from long ago; Lloyd McClendon, Randy St. Clair, Mario Soto.
Brunches with Browning is a regularly scheduled event for Sunday home games at GABP. $55 per person (not including the price of a game ticket).
The Handlebar offers expansive views of the ballpark and the riverfront:
The Ohio River was high, wide and mighty on Easter Sunday.
Held over for Easter from an Opening Day appearance was one of the world famous Budweiser Clydesdales.
This news just in; That's a large horse!
My Dear Elderly Mother is loathe to be photographed, so I had to be sneaky about it.
Befitting "The Year Without A Spring," the next day it snowed in Reds Country. Again.....
.....and the following day, a chilly rain washed away the snow on another damp, dark, cloudy day more appropriate for late November than April:
This was the dreary scene (above) that Tuesday morning in Hamilton, OH along the banks of the Great Miami River.
Roll the credits!
Brunches with Browning is a regularly scheduled event for Sunday home games at GABP. $55 per person (not including the price of a game ticket).
The Handlebar offers expansive views of the ballpark and the riverfront:
The Ohio River was high, wide and mighty on Easter Sunday.
Held over for Easter from an Opening Day appearance was one of the world famous Budweiser Clydesdales.
This news just in; That's a large horse!
My Dear Elderly Mother is loathe to be photographed, so I had to be sneaky about it.
Befitting "The Year Without A Spring," the next day it snowed in Reds Country. Again.....
.....and the following day, a chilly rain washed away the snow on another damp, dark, cloudy day more appropriate for late November than April:
This was the dreary scene (above) that Tuesday morning in Hamilton, OH along the banks of the Great Miami River.
Roll the credits!
