Bower Parkway Blues

It seemed like a capital idea.

Write a column about an evening spent visiting various Bower Parkway establishments in an effort to profile what has become, really, a mini, thriving Vista for the Irmo/Chapin/St. Andrews area. It ended with me stranded and my compatriot, who for the purposes of this article I'll call "Charlie," suffering from a massive concussion.But all good things in time.

First, we stopped by the Copper River Grill, taking time to speak to our bartender, the gorgeous and friendly Doreen, and to the appropriately named Jeff Friend, general manager and instantly likeable fellow.

It was around 6 p.m., and the crowd consisted of some college kids and a handful of women hitting the chardonnay hard after work. Nice crowd, though a bit small for the tremendous bar and restaurant seating area. But hell, it was a Tuesday night, after all.

What Copper River has going for it that, to my knowledge, no one else in town does is price: the restaurant has five $1 beer specials, all day, every day: Budweiser, Bud Light, Miller Light, Michelob Ultra and Yuengling. I know several places have $1 specials for Happy Hour or on certain days of the week (dollar Bud products on Wednesdays at Uncle Louie's, buck PBRs at The Whig and dollar Buds at MacDougals leap to mind), but I can't think of anyone else who offers five beers for $1. According to Friend, that's why his restaurant has become arguably the entire area's No. 1 gathering spot from about 9 p.m. until doors close at 2 a.m. almost every night of the week.

So with that going for us, Charlie and I drained about three apiece to go with our bowls of She Crab Soup ($5.50). As it stood, I already had some killer She Crab soup earlier that same day from Keg o' Nails, so the standards were high. Unfortunately, this didn't quite match Keg's, though only because it was a bit too thick and lacked the Sherry on the side. To its credit, though, I did enjoy theirs more than the Blue Marlin's version, which I had had a day before and which many people seem to think is outstanding.

Our next stop was the Tobacco Merchant, where we got two fine stogies, a CAO Brazilia Ipanema ($6.40) for myself and a Padron 2000 ($3.50) for my soon-to-be-concussed buddy. From there we strolled into Miyo's, where the beautiful and cheerful Whitney served up some killer sake and, in keeping with our crab theme, Crab Wontons in an Apricot Sauce ($5.95). These kicked some ass, to put it bluntly, and were by far the best crab offering we ran across all night. As far as atmosphere, I preferred the bar at Miyo's to any others we visited; though a little too brightly lit, it is in a comfortable area of the restaurant away from most diners, and the service was terrific. Look for Caty, Whitney's roommate, on Thursday and Friday nights, and the friendly Angelo early in the week. All are terrific bartenders, and their personalities are infectious.

With warm sake pleasantly coursing through our bodies, we ambled down to Willy's Foxfire Grill. No one was at the bar but ourselves and our capable, amiable bartender Pamela. Owner Ryan Dukes also came out to speak with us, and a couple of Stella Artois' later we were ready to launch into our Crab and Spinach Fondue ($6.95). Served with garlic toast points in a creamy mornay sauce, the crab itself was the best we had, but the large toast points kind of took away from the rich taste of the otherwise excellent combination.

Able to eat no more, we walked down to Wild Wing Café, where we sat at the bar area, moderately crowded, and chatted up the local produce. Wild Wing struck me, as opposed to the other locations, as being the most blue-collar of the places we went to, for whatever that's worth. Still, it was good fun and a lively atmosphere.

Now, here's where things get hairy. Wanting to enjoy our cigars, we walked back to Foxfire and sat outside there with Ryan. Needing to hit the head, Charlie walks inside as they're closing up where he promptly, bone-shakingly, hits his literal head after slipping on a freshly mopped floor. To hear Charlie tell it, as he was laying there in pain with the staff surrounding him, he asked them to give him a minute to get up, uttering something to the effect of "Just mop around me."

It was a brutal blow to the head, so much so that after finally getting to his feet and refusing an ambulance call, he was so totally confused that he walked to his car (my back was to the place, so I didn't see any of this go down, so to speak), got in, put the seat back and slept the night away.

All I knew was he was gone (the parking lot was full; it never occurred to me that he could be in his own damn car at the back of the lot) and wasn't answering my many repeated calls to his cell phone.

I thought he might have walked back to Copper River. So I head back, and I couldn't believe my eyes. Inside, and this was around 11 p.m. now, Copper River was jam packed, which is insanely impressive for a Tuesday night in the suburbs. That just doesn't happen out there, and I would know, having suffered through years of slim mid-week pickings at such places as Corner Pocket, Hemingway's and the Wild Hare. This joint was downright happening with a crowd any Vista bar would have been proud to claim.

Of course he wasn't there, but fortunately a chum from work lives nearby and picked me up. My friend, on the other hand, hadn't realized he'd stranded me until the next morning as he was checking his phone messages. I told him I didn't mind too much because I thought he may have hooked up with someone and gone home, unlikely as that may have been given his success so far that evening.

But all's well that ends well, and the bottom line is that I absolutely encourage anyone, especially if you live in the neon netherworld of the Irmo/Chapin/St. Andrews corridor, to consider a night at Bower Parkway. We didn't even get to Bluepoint Fish Club or CW's Tap Room, which is one of my favorites. Nor did we hit Columbiana Grande, which is Columbia's best cineplex, in my opinion. Just go, saunter around and have fun. You'll be glad you went ‹ just make sure you have some backup transportation in case anyone has one too many beers and/or head traumas to drive you home.

Got food news? Email food@free-times.com.