Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Club Crawl - Downtown: Harry Buffalo (Closed), Native, Rok Room, The Woods and Loft

I had drinks at these bars downtown on Saturday.

8-8:30pm: Harry Buffalo - They replaced Mojo's Cajun at the end of Church Street. Same exact layout. They now serve some bison burgers. The menu is Denny's like in look and substance. I bet it only gets people because it's the last place you see going to the game and the first place you see when you are coming out. It was semi-full. It seemed to be the first stop on some kind of fraternity scavenger hunt (they were all costumed up) or pre-rape...I mean formal. The rest of the crowd were just dudes watching sports.

8:30-9pm: Native - The new Mako's. Thank you for doing away with the hookers...I mean shot girls. The place looks great, but, has no theme. And they allow smoking. It's just a bar that looks nice.

9-9pm: Rok Room - I just took a peak inside because I had been in the spot before when it was called something else (Martini Lounge?). It looked the same. Some guy was stinking up the place with cigar smoke.

9pm-12am - The Woods - The time flew by at this relatively new bar above The Lodge (take the steps). It's owned by the same people. It's a place where they do mixology. If you knew how much I hate that word and what it stands for then you would shocked to hear that I loved this place. They have three bartenders making funky mixes. I had a Beet it Collins that has moonshine, St Germain, lemon juice, muddled beets, plum bitters and egg white. It was like a dare. It was worth the price to see it made. It tasted like tonic water and smelled like dog, but, what fun. Hilly billy juice and a concoction like my brother and I used to make on airline trips (out of the in flight meal liquids) when we were kids. It cost $11. I also had a beer for $5 and some absinthe for $10. The absinthe didn't do what the one I had in Latvia did, but, it did totally mellow me out. The place has a decent size front area. The rest is a little tight. It's bar and room to pass. They have a little area in the back. The decor is preppy chic. The crowd was pretty high end. A lot of dressed up people. It wasn't a dude fest. I think smoking was forbidden. It's my new favorite place. It was pretentious, but, didn't feel pretentious. Cool is cool when it's not forced. The one negative was that they played a little too much Motown on this particular night.

12-1am: Loft - A club above what now houses Urban Flats. It has a beautiful and sensible layout. The decor is sharp. The crowd is a little sketchy. The music was good. They separate the bars and VIP well. They have a patio area. It would be the best club if they could get the best people. Cover was $5.

Here's a quick list of defunct clubs - Bliss, Touch, the club that was across from Touch (now Urban Flats), Mako's, Antigua (thank god) and the club across from Gibson's Guitars (it now is called Tier and has a white audience now). I know there are other changes, but, that is what I remember.

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