Introduction of why here:…read more
I was looking at something old from college and saw on old date from college at ASU way back in February 2006. Oddly enough in the wealthiest town in Arizona in Town of Paradise Valley, where the median home price even way back in 2006 was over $1 million.
The date here: I had met her at a party at ASU, got her phone #, & went on 2 dates. The 2nd of those 2 dates I suggested the El Chorro Lodge. My friend & roommate told me about the excellent happy hour at this fancy restaurant.
Background & History of area:
The restaurant itself is a historic relic. Some of the history from the middle part of the 20th century. I didn't realize that El Chorro been around since 1937! In the 1930's, this was all vacant desert land, maybe a couple of farms here or there in what is now in Paradise Valley. In 1934, John C. Lincoln built a resort, Camelback Inn, far out in the desert relative to the small Phoenix area at that time. I assumed Lincoln Drive was named after President Abraham Lincoln. There were no schools in this area, and he built El Chorro, a one-room schoolhouse for his daughters. It was in 1937 that it became a watering hole for the resort as the Camelback Inn did not alcohol, and it was a relatively short dirt road to El Chorro for those "thirsty for spirit and some old-fashioned revelry." In the 1950's, famous people like Clark Gable & Milton Berle visited.
Paradise Valley's population was starting to grow in the 50's & 60's. City of Phoenix & Scottsdale were annexing a lot of land during this time greatly growing their cities. Residents in this area were concerned about losing their quality of sustainability and wanted to avoid being absorbed by Phoenix or Scottsdale (as if being Scottsdale would've been so terrible, but compared with Paradise Valley, even Scottsdale is a downgrade) decided in 1961 to incorporate as Town of Paradise Valley.
Happy Hour & Experience Here:
In spite of being very expensive, their happy hour, which I think was 3-6 PM, was surprisingly a great deal. So, apparently if you brought at least one drink, you'd get a free meal; well it was happy hour food like nachos, sliders, or something like that, but when you're a relatively broke college student, it was a meal! Service was good. I really enjoyed the food, which I could tell was of good quality, even if it was just happy hour food, and I remembered my beer was delicious. My 2026 taste buds aren't into beer; I'll have a beer from time to time, but it's not a top choice. If I was coming here now, I'd probably get a wine, whiskey, or some cocktail these days, but in 2006 college days, I was all about beer!
So, her name was Bri, like the cheese, except without the E in brie cheese. On that Tuesday of this date (which just so happened to be Valentine's Day), I got to her house at 3 PM. We enjoyed our free late lunch with the purchase of at least one drink. We talked about music, family, and other assorted topics, and we stayed for about 2 hours; a pretty good time.
When I was ready to pay, she said she would pay for me too since she had more drinks than me. By no means was this outstanding, but still with my bad luck with woman, this was my best Valentine's in 6 years at that time.
We left the restaurant at 5:36 PM, and I said that I have 4 minutes to get to my 5:40 PM class. She said I should have said something earlier, which I responded I hate that class and needed to be there to sign in for attendance. I had about 10 miles to drive to drop her off at her house on the opposite side of campus. I made it to class about an hour late at 6:40 (it was a 3-hour class; so I only missed 1/3rd of the total time, so not too bad...haha) having to fight a lot of traffic. I had to risk parking illegally nearby for 20 minutes (7 PM parking was unrestricted) to get to class only an hour late! The teacher gave me a dirty look as I was significantly late 3 consecutive times.
In summary, a nice atmosphere with good happy hour albeit probably quite different 20 years later.