The Grant Catton Blog

If you were of legal drinking age in the mid-90s -- or if you weren't of legal drinking age, but drank anyway -- you probably remember Zima drifting through popular culture for a few years.

Yeah, you remember Zima...that clear, wine-cooler type beverage marketed in the wake of the early 90s "clear beverage" fascination and right around the time of "ice" beers. What was the 90s fascination with "ice brewing," by the way?

Zima, as it's creators probably imagined it, was best drunk in bars in Miami with sleek glass counter-tops, lots of neon lighting, and people who wore "power suits" with shoulder pads. Come to think of it, Zima was probably best drank in the 80s.

What actually happened was Zima ended up in the hands of either a.) women who did not like to drink, or b.) fascinated high school kids who didn't know better and quickly found out what the word "hangover" actually meant. Therefore, I think it's oddly fitting t…

We went out looking for a local bar and grill in which to have dinner, and Sunny Jim's magically appeared. The restaurant is tucked into a hollow outside Emsworth (which sits on the north side of the Ohio River, on Camp Horne Road). It's the kind of local joint where you find construction workers sitting at the bar after a long day's work, parents taking their kids out for dinner after little league games, couples canoodling in the back booths, and probably a healthy dose of trouble on Friday or Saturday nights (though maybe I'm just projecting). Great beer selection and great prices. The ribs and wings are worth making the 20 minute trip outside of the city for. So is the interesting setting -- the restaurant is built over top of a creek.

I'd rather have dinner at a place like Sunny Jim's a million times over a chain restaurant, and I think from now on I'm going to go out of my way to do so.