First Cal Game on Saturday!

I can't believe it's true, but college football is back in six days! We'll have all the Cal games we can possibly show at the Standard, and we're now an official Cal alumni bar, which means we're donating 10% of proceeds during the games to the alumni association. So if you come here to watch the games, you can support Cal in more than one way. We've also got official NYC Cal Alumni Club t-shirts for sale, and t-shirts and pint glasses to give away, and so on and so forth. It will be festive, we vow.

And if all that's not enough we're doing bucket specials during the games, where you'll be able to buy 5 Miller Lites or High Lifes (mix and match) on ice in a bucket for $15. And we'll pour pitchers of microbrews for $2 off the cost of 4 pints of the beer.

Basically, get yourself here. Plus, the team looks to be pretty good this year (cross your fingers). The first game is a huge one, at home against Michigan State. The details:

Cal vs. Michigan State
Saturday, August 30
8 pm
ABC

If you're not a Cal fan, you can still expect us to show lots of the games you're interested in on our two big projection screens. Just ask.

The full Cal schedule:

Schedule (all times Eastern)

08/30/08 vs. Michigan State Berkeley, CA 8:00 p.m.
09/06/08 at Washington State Pullman, WA 6:30 p.m.
09/13/08 at Maryland College Park, MD 12:00 p.m.
09/27/08 vs. Colorado State Berkeley, CA 6:00 p.m.
10/04/08 vs. Arizona State Berkeley, CA TBA
10/18/08 at Arizona Tucson, AZ 10:00 p.m.
10/25/08 vs. UCLA Berkeley, CA TBA
11/01/08 vs. Oregon Berkeley, CA TBA
11/08/08 at USC Los Angeles, CA 8:00 p.m.
11/15/08 at Oregon State Corvallis, OR TBA
11/22/08 vs. Stanford Berkeley, CA TBA
12/06/08 vs. Washington Berkeley, CA TBA

Information on NYC Craft Beer Week

in which Pacific Standard will take part! We encourage you to sign up and try different beers at different beer bars all over the city. Go here:

http://www.nycbeerweek.com/

for all the info and to purchase tickets. The press release:

From September 12th through the 21st, New York's unique beer culture will be on display through the New York Craft Beer Week, a festival spanning ten full days touting libation education, neighborhood bar crawls and beer dinners throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn. An estimated 30,000 participants will stamp their beer passports at over 50 of Gotham's favorite watering holes throughout nine neighborhoods.

The week kicks off at 5:00 p.m. on September 12th, with the Third Annual New York Brewfest at South Street Seaport. The festivities continue with one-of-a-kind beer dinners, bridging the gap between beer geeks and foodies, providing the chance to enjoy their beers alongside the brewers with top-notch food to match; and neighborhood crawls for those looking to discover the best of the city's beer bars and the regional beer selections that they feature.

Every night features events in each of the following neighborhoods: Manhattan's East Village, Lower East Side, West Village, Midtown and Upper West Side; and Brooklyn's Downtown, Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Park Slope. Many area breweries are planning special events at bars throughout the week. The ironically named ten day event concludes with the 2nd Annual Manhattan Cask Ale Festival at the Chelsea Brewing Company.

The NYC Beer passport, freely distributed at all festival venues, contains information on all events taking place. Participants will have the opportunity to stamp their passport at each bar as they partake in the neighborhood beer bar crawls. The fun can continue post-festival, as passport holders can continue to collect stamps and become experts on New York's best craft beer bars. The ten days of events have been scheduled to provide non-stop craft beer appreciation. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit http://www.nycbeerweek.com/.

Probably, fery few will ever be here

at 11 am, like I am now (refrigeration problems; don't ask). But I think it's the nicest time at the Standard. Look at the late summer light:

T-shirt Ordering.

While our t-shirts won't be available to the general public until our anniversary party on September 5, Frequent Drinkers can get theirs now (using either $20 or 300 Frequent Drinker Yards), and those in remote areas who want them shipped can order them now, by printing, filling out, and sending to us c/o 82 4th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217 the form here:

www.pacificstandardbrooklyn.com/orderform.pdf

You also might be able to win one at our Baraffle on August 28.

Pictures of our newly arrived t-shirts!

Models include Pacific Standard owner John Rauschenberg, trying on his "Off-White Steel" look, and Pacific Standard bartender Ashley Stubblefield. I've also given you pictures of the shirts by themselves, in case the models are too distracting.

Women's:

Men's:

Robot update.

On our robot-building company, TellArt's, robot blog,

http://drinkingrobot.wordpress.com/

you can find an update from Alex, our previous robot worker, on the state of the robot. The update is pretty technical; the overall gist is that we're close, with several, but minor, remaining obstacles. The most important thing we need now is more labor in order to continue. Bottom line is, look for the robot in the winter. But there obviously can't be any guarantees, other than the one we have made, and will continue to make: the robot will be here, someday.

Star Trek pinball on its way soon.

After multiple headaches and delays, we decided to dump the incompetent entertainment companies we were dealing with and acquire a Star Trek: The Next Generation pinball machine ourselves. We've located one and are going to rent a cargo van and drive up to Rhode Island to fetch it either early this week or early next week, so it should be installed and ready for play by September 1, at the latest. We are excited, and you should be too. Resistance to this game will be futile.