Riding my bike yesterday I saw a sign in a window on SW 2nd Street: "FORT LAUDERDALES (sic) NEWEST IRISH BAR - BRINY CLUB."
Here, the title "newest Irish bar" has a shorter shelf life than "world's largest cruise ship." The new Briny Club sits across the street from Dicey Riley's (once the city's newest Irish bar) and two blocks away from its parent, Briny Riverfront Pub (a more recent, more festooned, newest Irish bar).
It's like Lewis Black said after walking out of a Starbucks and seeing another Starbucks: "The only possible explanation is Alzheimer's."
I have nothing against the Irish, or bars, but I do like a little variety. Couldn't we show some originality and open an Australian pub? Or some sophistication and start a Belgian bar? Or some initiative and build a microbrewery?
Life in Fort Lauderdale is as predictable as "The Truman Show." Every day is sunny, every front page of the paper carries a story for your pocketbook, every new building at a busy intersection is a drug store, every new restaurant is Italian, and every new bar is Irish.
Now that we have a new mayor, maybe we can get some new ideas. We need them.
