Block E is dead to me

Block E is a block in downtown Minneapolis that started out as an empty lot or some equally useless waste of space, and ended up getting developed into the usual desperate-attempt-at-revitalizing-downtown corporate oasis of chain stores. You have to appreciate what they made of the place: It used to be an area filled with crazy drifters and riffraff; now it’s full of crazy drifters, riffraff, and classical music piped out to the sidewalk.

Happy hour at Gameworks, a movie, then happy hour at Applebee’s. That was the standard “Block-E-a-thon,” a former mainstay of any vacation prolonged enough to see my Minneapolis buddies. I say former because after last night, Block E is dead to me.

Gameworks was fine. The movie, while not great, was unobjectionable. And then there was Applebee’s… They supposedly have great happy hour deals: $1.50 taps, half price appetizers. And the have good beers on tap, too: Leinie’s Honey Weiss, Killian’s, and one of my favorites, Blue Moon. In fact they specifically advertise their happy hour as “featuring Blue Moon.” Sounds good, right?

Well after getting charged $4 for my $1.50 Blue Moon, I don’t think it’s a great deal. My friend talked to the manager and he told us some cock-and-bull story about “the Blue Moon button being blinky” and he refunded us the difference… incorrectly. He shorted me by $1 and my friend by $2.50. Point of advice: If you’re going to go so far as to apologize and refund someone’s money, please do it right. Oh wait, that’s only if you’re not trying to cheat people out of their money.

After that was settled we went to leave, expecting to pay $2 for 3 hours of parking with their standard movie + parking deal. Oh wait, suddenly and completely unadvertisedly, that deal is only valid if you only stay 3 hours or less. After 3 hours it shoots back up to regular price and we were boned to the tune of $8.

Sure it wasn’t a huge amount of money involved, but still, I don’t like being nickeled and dimed by crooked waiters or tricky policy loopholes. I won’t be going to Block E again.