The Founding Fathers held their initial meetings in a neighborhood tavern, which explains why the Declaration of Independence's first draft had a long, rambling subsection devoted to how powdered wigs are natural icebreakers. Revolt against the tyranny of boredom with today's Groupon: for $10, you get $20 worth of pizza, burgers, and pub fare at The Evergreen Bar & Grill in Morrison.
The Evergreen Bar & Grill festoons tables in its expansive dining room with specialty pizzas, burgers and sandwiches, and traditional crispy bar eats. Patrons can plunge fingers into bottomless shrimp baskets ($10.95) for inexhaustible wells of deep-fried shrimp primed for dipping in pools of house-made cocktail sauce. Diners can bedeck personalized pies with two toppings ($5 for a 9"; $8 for a 12"; $12 for a 16") or more (+$1–$1.50/topping), or sift through the classic pizza's morsels of sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, and extra cheese ($10 for a 12"). Bacon and fried onions don tangy barbecue coats atop a third-pound patty and layer of american cheese on the Roadhouse burger ($5.95). The philly wrap ($5.95) mingles philly steak or chicken with mozzarella cheese and sautéed onions and peppers, swaddling its contents in an edible embrace to shield them from cutlery.
As they tone their jaw muscles with chewing reps, patrons can follow sports events on The Evergreen's stock of TVs and slake their thirst with drinks served over a forest-green bar. Pool, darts, and skee-ball keep nimble hands busy every night until at least 2 a.m.
Groupon Says
The Groupon Guide to: Advertising Soup
In this economy, soup isn’t going to sell itself. Only the perfect commercial is going to get those cans flying off the shelves. But what are the elements of a good soup ad?
The setting can make someone immediately yearn for a bowl of the hot stuff. Good settings include:
• A wealthy person’s farmhouse glowing warmly in a snowy wooded area (farmhouse should show no signs of actual farming)
• A small but cozy shack standing on a craggy cliff over a violent sea
• A bread factory
The main character is the viewer’s connection to the soup. It should be:
• A loving yet endearingly inept dad. He is in decent shape, not too handsome, and wearing a sweater and/or tucked-in collared shirt.
• A Victorian sailor’s wife. She is pale and beautiful, yet jagged. It has been a hard life.
• A bunch of working-class bread-factory guys who are hungry but tired of all this dry bread.
The story of the ad then whips the potential customers into a soup-eating frenzy by depicting:
• The dad’s son playing in the snow. The dad wants his son to love him but he cannot prepare a meal on his own. He makes the son soup, and the two bond over a game of checkers in front of a fireplace. Mom does not interfere.
• The wife gazes longingly at the sea during a windy, daytime rainstorm. She misses her husband’s warm, hearty arms but finds solace in a thick chowder that possesses those same qualities. Just as she finishes her bowl the husband kicks down the door. He has returned from his voyage and he has brought her many exotic hats.
• The bread-factory guys make some soup and have a crazy party wherein they dip the dry crusty breads into the steaming bowls with much joviality and merrymaking. What a day they’ve had.
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