It’s bad enough when a few members of the League of Liberal Libations get together — fewer than five representatives is known as a “disconcerting” — but when you have the executive council and potential members, things quickly get out of hand. This is known as a “catastrophe.” By the end of the night, the group will usually share a single intoxicated brain cell, which will get in guy-humor hysterics at the mere mention of such words as futtock, masticate and penal.



In short, you really can’t take us anywhere. And never was this more apparent than when a catastrophe of us went to I Love Bento for Kirin, Sapporo, hot sake and sushi. We set Far East-American relations back to at least 1945.



The staff at I Love Bento went above and beyond to accommodate some of the most stereotypical, idiotic guys ever seen in North America. They quickly shoved us into a tatami room. We ordered giant, $50 bottles of sake. I don’t know what kind since it had Tokyo talk all over it. We knew sake was traditionally made with such ingredients as snake venom and designed to make travelers to Japan look like complete fools after two sips. (It was highly effective this night, for sure.) We drank it anyway.



The sushi was some of the best I’ve had. The tako salad rocked. The wasabi was so hot it set the Sleeper Drunks Department Head’s hair on fire, and he quickly doused the flames with about 15 tiny cups of sake.



I hope the proprietors of I Love Bento do not regret opening their doors to us, because we had a great time.  The staff tolerated way more than is required by law.



[I Love Bento, 1620 S. Mildred St., No. 1, Tacoma, 253.460.0675]