Ah Monarch!

There are few better ways to spend an afternoon than settling into a nook at Monarch and enjoying one of their cold craft pints.

It’s like hooking up with an old girlfriend who’s moved out of town, and waiting in her apartment while she fires her boyfriend because you’re visiting. There’s a strange familiarity to Monarch – the old furniture, the hippy dippy Woodstock vibe, the found art – like an old story you used to know but had forgotten, retold in a lover’s voice.

The one word everyone eventually gets to when they try to describe Monarch (204 E Rio Grande) is “chill.” Monarch features $3.50 craft draft pints till 9, and what is widely regarded as the best coffee in town. Open from noon to 2 a.m., seven days a week.

Events at Monarch are usually free. Sometimes the cover is $3, but when there’s a cover charge, three bucks is cheap. You always get more than you pay for at Monarch.

And whether it’s a band or a DeeJay, there’s almost always something happening at Monarch. In the afternoons, there’s a patio.

To find out what’s happening at Monarch (and there’s always something happening), visit their Facebook page.

And now Monarch has the Lick It Up “food truck” on Thursdays through Saturdays, and sometimes for shows, for your tacolicious pleasure.

Check it out.