Birdcage BINGO!

Last night we welcomed home one of Stephen's friends who spent the past year in China teaching English.  (Let's discuss that really quick - could you go to another country where you didn't speak a lick of the language and dedicate a year of your life?  I know that it was something that never even entered my consideration set.  I admire people who can get up and do something so out of the norm.)   He got to the house around dinner time and I was craving some food so we decided on Mellow Mushroom Pizza for dinner.  Let's be honest, I'd probably eat Mellow Mushroom 2 or 3 times a week if I was allowed, by my waistline.  Pizza isn't on the wedding/running diet.

There are a bunch of Mellows in the area so we had to make a decision on which one for the evening.  We had the Downtown location, the Midtown location and the Buckhead location - we ultimately went with Midtown because it had a good parking lot and I wasn't in the mood to try to figure out the parking lot situation Downtown since I've only walked to that location from my office.  This is when our night got awesome.

Wednesday night at the Midtown location is Birdcage BINGO.  What is Birdcage BINGO you ask?  Well, it's BINGO but with drag queens!!!  Yes, you read that right.  I had no idea this happened.  The hostess warned us as we walked in that there would be profanity and drag queens and if we weren't comfortable with that we could sit outside or choose another restaurant.  We were absolutely interested in participating and we grabbed a table.

My BINGO card

The night was hosted by, Ruby Redd, of course a drag queen.  She was hilarious.  While calling out the names drawn she would tell stories or give her opinion about the subject.  There was not a lack of profanity or inappropriate comments, which was refreshing.   Every participant was given a BINGO sheet with three different game options - Gay Atlanta, Dead Divas and Super Heros/Villains.  The audience selected the Super Heros & Villains for the first game and off we went.  If you look at my picture above, that was the game on the far right.  Yep, I WON!  I won a pitcher of Bud Light for another day and I got to pick a prize out of the "grab bag".  I love winning, a lot.  I was so happy.

After the first game was complete and my prizes presented it was time for three other drag queens to perform for us for tips, all to be donated to charity.  It was such a fun evening.  The second game, Dead Divas, didn't go as well as the first and by the time someone yelled BINGO, I only had two boxes marked off.  Oh well.  However, the winner of game two was Stephen's friend!  Yep, the only table of straight diners won both games.  If I'm going to lose to anyone, it should be someone at my own table.

At the end of the night, all participants are asked to write the name of their favorite Atlanta charity on the back of the score card and turn it in (which is why I don't have a better picture of my score card in good light - I tried to make it brighter for you).  The charity with the most votes after a given time (I forget how long) will get a donation.  How great is that?  I really like when fun events help charity.  Our table all wrote down Habitat for Humanity since Stephen is so close to the group.

Events like Birdcage BINGO are great fun and companies like Mellow Mushroom who embrace the gay community are even better, in my opinion.  I'm sure 90% of the restaurants in Atlanta would shudder at the thought of hosting a drag queen BINGO night but from what I understand, Mellow Mushroom has been hosting for a long time.  Bravo, Mellow Mushroom.