Certain places provide so many opportunities for entertainment, you never have to leave their confines, like cruise ships, or casinos, or retirement homes. For a one-stop, all-evening hangout, hit Park.Co-owned by ex-Green Room/Dragonfly "collision" chef Marc Cassel, Park's an airy, mid-century-rustic resto-hangout sporting multiple distinct zones: dual front patios (#1 covered w/ fireplace, misters; #2 open w/ bamboo garden, be-fished waterscapes, salvaged-cottonwood benches); a dining room with minimalist retro tables/booths, a random rainforest-frond mural, and a local photog's West Texas portraits; a chugging area w/ huge, distressed copper-topped bar; and a couch-strewn lounge proudly sporting its own daddy-juice station. Beyond daily specials listed on a huge mirror, inventive, mid-priced grub includes Swedish Meatball Yakitori, the Jones Taco Platter (braised rib, grilled chicken, refried black-bean), the 12-14oz, ancho honey-glazed Double Natural Pork Chop, five pizzas (Aloha State: caramelized pineapple, cream cheese, spinach...Spam), and Cassel's ginger/spinach/shiitake mussels, steamed in champagne 'til shiit-faced. For hooch, there's 10 by-the-glass wines, 20 taps (Dos XX/Shiner to Rahr Ugly Pug/New Belgium Mothership), and 12 staff-named cocktails like "Jagger's Lips" (vodka gimlet w/ strawberry, guava, thyme), the "Easy Rider" (Woodford Reserve w/ local honey, blackberries, peaches), and the Absolut/white wine/elderflower "Garfunkel" -- guaranteed to leave you poetically alone and forgotten.In the immediate future, Park's adding a tiny brick-paved side patio and, by October, a bocce ball court -- you'll get so addicted to playing, when your friends show up you'll complain that they never visit you anymore.
