North River Tavern, owned by Taco Mac, and formerly, actually a Taco Mac, located in the Sandy Springs area, is a place that I wind up about 3 times a month.

There is this new guy there that people call ’80’s Dave’. Most of the night is usually spent trying to spot him. 80’s Dave plays cheesy 80’s songs all night long. If you have some singles you can squeeze in a few choice selections from any of hundreds of thousands of tracks from the jukebox, the newfangled ones you always see now where they download your selection out of thin air, like that stupid cell phone commercial where they compose every shot as if the camera is stuck on a tripod that automatically pitches downwards a little too far, just enough to make your shot look extremely pretentious and slightly stupid.

They have a pool room in the back with 4 tables. If you are good enough you might be able to get yourself a game with one of the following types:

1. A scruffy dude wearing a Nascar cut off T-shirt
2. A not-so-scruffy dude wearing a Polo
3. A Dunwoody type wearing the most obnoxiously overdressed attire possible

You can also encounter at least 1 or 2 wierd guys who sit by themselves and make wierd eye contact with you all night and listen to their iPod.

Some bands play there, usually ones I’ve never heard of. Always ones I wish would stop playing immediately after they’ve started.

They used to have Metalsome (Metal Karaoke with a live band) here, now they don’t. It was a good time when they did. They also used to have Guitar Hero II tournaments. Now they have trivia, apparently, like, all the time.

The servers and bartenders are really cool, if you are a regular they will make you believe they are your friend and can tolerate your company and even buy you free shots. I’ve found this to be an effective technique in making people want to come back. Predictably, they are all ‘hot chicks’ with one dude server.

The food is pretty good… I recommend the tater tots with queso or the bleu cheeseburger.

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