Cattoor’s or The Ridge?

Cattoor’s on Grand manager Frank Rhum shows off the bar’s signature 32-ounce big boy draft; The Ridgemont manager Tim Negrete offers the 40-ounce bottle.

Sarah Cattoor is the owner of three popular west-side watering holes: Cattoor’s on Grand, The Ridgemont and Keg Stand. We told you about the Keg Stand’s newest menu items and cushy new patio expansion earlier this year. But located only blocks away from the Cityview office, Cattoor’s on Grand is a convenient and comfortable fit for a young professional — or non-professional — with its offering of pool, darts, lottery and arcade games, sports packages on a score of flat screen TVs, a spacious patio buzzing with meaningful and friendly conversation, 32-ounce big boy draft beers and unbelievable drink specials.

The Ridgemont also offers those things. Located across the street from the Des Moines Buccaneers ice arena, it’s easy to see why it’s jam-packed with people wall to wall after a Bucs home game. But on any other given night, the true authentic identity of The Ridge, ingrained with the same DNA as its older sister Cattoor’s on Grand, shows itself in each song playing from the juke box, each guffaw coming from the smoke patio, each crack of the pool balls and each pop of the 40-ounce beer top. That’s right, 40.

They say size doesn’t matter, but if it did, it’s easy to surmise that The Ridgemont’s forties rein superior to the Cattoor’s big boy pioneer. Not only is it seven ounces richer, but if beer-drinking ever looked tough, it’s from a 40-ounce bottle. That would give The Ridge a couple points over Cattoor’s simply by design. So which of the two sisters is the favorite?

“I don’t like the term ‘dive bar,’ but this is not a club. It’s a neighborhood bar,” said The Ridge manager Tim Negrete. “It’s pretty chill, and we have good specials.”

That’s also true about Cattoor’s. Every bar manager claims his establishment to be “a neighborhood bar,” often throwing out the proverbial “Cheers” comparison. Cheers was a neighborhood bar in Boston, but I’m pretty sure you never saw Norm and Cliff nursing 40-ounce bottles of Budweiser.

Both The Ridgemont and Cattoor’s on Grand (and Keg Stand, too) have garnered local fame for offering drink specials that are incomparable to most establishments in the metro. Along with the buy-one-get-one drink-token-exchange weekday happy hours, both offer daily deals too numerous to name. Anyone looking for a truly happy hour where dollars stretch would be satisfied with either establishment. Therefore, the better bar of the two depends on which direction you’re heading that day.

LAST CALL… Central Iowa Shelter and Services’ fifth annual Des Moines Zombie Walk this year will include a Zombie Pub Crawl that will take place right after the walk at 6 p.m. Nine local bars in the East Village and Court Avenue district will participate, and 515 Brewing Company will provide a special Zombie Beer to be served at some of the bars. The Zombie Beer unveiling will be held at 515 Brewing Co. on Oct. 3 at 6 p.m. in conjunction with a Zombie Art Show. CV