The spirit of Art Happy Hour! 3 was best embodied by barkeep Freddie’s Brandy Sidecar.

June 5 turned out to be one of those days in Minnesota — where the morning’s promise had turned, by late afternoon, to stormy skies. A midwestern menu of tornadoes, thundershowers, hail, and flash floods was looming by the time I reached Clubhouse Jaeger twenty minutes after 4 (late for my own happy hour!). There were three people in the bar.

“What’ll you have?” asked Freddie (pictured above), Jaeger’s semi-famous happy-hour barkeep. I wasn’t sure — the long commute, traffic, roiling clouds had unnerved me a bit. I asked him to make me something, “in the martini family, but not a martini, and not sweet (I don’t do sweet).”

He thought a moment. “How do you feel about brown alcohol?” I answered that I could do brown alcohol. “Lime?” Sure.

He said he had just the drink for me. And so he made a Brandy Sidecar: Up, with a lime twist. It was perfect. Happy Hour had begun…

Below are some more pictures from the event. Art Happy Hour! so far has been a great chance to meet various parts of the local arts community. The first three events have drawn, as intended, a wide range of local arts professionals: arts writers, painters, gallery directors, filmmakers, cartoonists, sculptors, designers, arts web managers, museum rats, and arts editors — in conversation and good spirits and in the name of the arts.

I’m currently contemplating options and suggestions for AHH!4, which will take place either in later July or sometime in August. If you have any suggestions, questions, comments, or words of praise, send them to me at admin(at)arthappyhour(dot)com or arthappyhour(at)gmail(dot)com.

Cheers!