A21

The Tuesday Lunch was moved to Thursday this week because one of the primary members was traveling. The rest of us went to the Lil Wal (Little Waldorf Saloon) for lunch on Tuesday and it absolutely sucked. I had high hopes for the Wal when the folks from the terrific Red's 395 Grill took it over a year or two ago and initially was not disappointed. But since the Wal re-opened, the service has gone downhill considerably and the number of solid options on the menu seems to be shrinking. However, the Wal continues to be the top choice around the University of Nevada campus community for happy hour specials and other night-time shenanigans.
Enough about that. The Tuesday Lunch officially took place on Thursday this week for the group's second visit to Amendment 21 in the south downtown area. And we were all impressed again with the quality grub. Ryan went with the Tri-Tip Dip and is still licking his lips. Double-A had a weird salad with apples and nuts involved. He seemed happy.
The new addition to the Lunch went with the grilled chicken sandwich and we all enjoyed eating her french fries. Yours truly had a turkey pesto wrap with a house salad and it also turned out to be a solid choice. All in all, a good meal and we all agree that A-21 is officially on the lunch rotation now. The menu is diverse and has some traditional bar fare with some other great options. The Melt 21 stands alongside some of the great sandwiches in Reno and the pizza is a solid option as well -- I'll personally vouch for the "Man's Best Friend Pizza."
Downside to today's visit was the fact that the place was out of soda. Really? How do you run out of Pepsi? And if you do run out of Pepsi, we aren't you taking 40 bucks to the nearest grocery store for some 2-liters until you get Pepsi again from the distributor? Seriously.
Overall, however, another solid option for lunch in the downtown area. And the nightlife at A-21 is usually very good with a diverse crowd. It will be one of the main stops on the upcoming Santa Crawl.

The Imperial ... not just for boozing

A buddy recently moved to Reno and for the past few weeks, the Tuesday Lunch has been spent getting him acquainted with Reno eats. Some of the stops have been my normal haunts but we have also tried some places new to both of us. (I'll try to catch up on previous stops, but let's stay current for now)
This week's Tuesday Lunch was the Imperial Bar & Lounge, off downtown on Arlington by the river.
My only previous trips to Imperial had been purely nighttime social stops. It has built a nice rep for being a hot spot on the downtown bar scene and usually draws a pretty interesting range of people. So I was pretty surprised when I found out that they there was a lunch menu or even a kitchen. Perhaps that says something about the time of day that I am at Imperial.
The menu was not long but had some diverse options outside of the pizza section. My buddy Ryan went with the pizza (pepperoni, sausage, onions and black olives) and was impressed. I had a grilled chicken panini sandwich with goat cheese, bacon, pesto, tomato and a basil salsa. Great stuff. Service was fine and the atmosphere was cool. There was some good music going and the Imperial is always a good place to people-watch with the huge windows on the front.
The only drawback was that, even on a Tuesday afternoon, the place still smelled like a bar. And not the smokey smell, but more like somebody forgot to wipe down the tables and chairs and then mop the floor kind of smell. Not very appealing when you are sitting down for a meal and you have the feeling that someone might have recently puked within about 15 feet of where you are sitting.
Overall, however, I'll go back. Meal was reasonably priced and the menu, while not large, certainly had some other items (meatball sliders, fish tacos, baked mac and cheese, etc) that I want to try. And Johnny Blue is committed to supporting deserving downtown businesses first.