Since taking over the site formerly known as Gertrude's Brown Couch in Fitzroy, the team at The Catfish has enjoyed a pretty damn good time. In fact, such has been the way they've hit the ground running with their combo of great beer, spirits, rockin' tunes and Philly cheesesteaks.
In fact, such has been their opening salvo it's hard to believe they're only just turning one. But they are, and they're doing it in style.
Their party will run over three days, with bands and DJs all weekend starting Friday night with Elvis on the wheels of Steel downstairs and Catfish fave's Holy Moses Heartache upstairs, followed by Jules Boult, the Tarantinos, PBS DJ Campbell McNolty and the Eighty 88's throughout the weekend – all free of charge.
The big one, however, is The Catfish 1st Birthday Poker Bar Game...
They've brewed a 7 percent pilsner called the Cavalier Catfish that will be tapped around various local bars and teams of three or more are invited to hunt down the five venues tapping it, head there, post photos of one team member with a pot of said beer (not them all – got to share the duties around) to social media with #CAVFISH and get staff to cross out their venue name on the game card.
Staff will also hand the team member a random playing card from the Cavalier Catfish deck before teams move onto another venue and do the same; after all venues have been visited they then return to The Catfish and hand in their five cards. This forms their 'Poker Hand'.
The best hand on the night wins a major prize and there will be lucky door prizes as well.
Teams must register at The Catfish, with Regos starting at 3pm on Saturday. They MUST also have their poker hands in by 8pm.
Only one person in a team needs to have the beer at each venue and there's a lazy five hours to get around so it's designed for nice, casual, social drinking rather than a boozy pub crawl.
Participating venues are:
Happy birthday!
