February Flop = Alibi

Friday night was our much-anticipated excursion to Alibi which is a lounge in the bottom of the Liberty Hotel… the same building that houses Clink, where went for our first blind date. The actual venue is pretty cool, although VERY dark as it is supposed to have an upscale “jail” vibe (if there is such a thing). It has brick walls and floors like a historic jail and bars on some of the windows. The best part was the poster-sized celebrity mug shots; the one closest to us was Lindsey Lohan! Now we arrive to the cons of the place. First off the actual bar was pretty small and already full when we arrived around 10pm so we choose a corner table where we hoped to look approachable. Since we were at a table we had to be served by a waitress who seemed annoyed by our presence. She may have been annoyed because we ordered water and a drink but spent the first half hour only sipping water. This was due to a measuring mishap at home in which Rachel’s drink was given 2 tall shots. So we had to combine both of our cups and swish them around Starbucks style in order to make the proportions strong but more equal. We had already consumed one drink, so needless to say we were ready for some water.

Alibi

As we sipped our drinks the first thing I noticed was a couple making out in a dark corner. The woman was pinned up against the wall and they were full-on making out for at least an hour… I think it would have been a cheaper date to just stay home. Eventually Rachel shifted her seat to block their display. The next funny group of people was a pair of middle aged women (probably us in about 20 years) who were approached by a pair of middle aged men. They proceeded to be the only people who danced to Tupac and Biggie on the non-existent dance floor. It was quite cute to watch them bumping and grinding and salasing away with no inhibitions. That is another weird thing about Alibi, they were playing old-school hip hop which was great but it didn’t really seem to fit with the whole vibe. So we sat and observed and tried to make our body language seem approachable as groups of professional men walked by. At this point it was after 11pm so things should have been picking up. We were debating ordering another drink when one gentleman walked up to our table and we thought we might just have a point of contact, but he was only coming to place his coat on the ledge behind our table. So after that, feeling like nothing more than chop liver and a coat rack we decided to try our luck back upstairs at Clink.

At this point in the night Clink was pretty full and the bar was crowded so I squeezed my way in to order a drink. Here comes the only point of contact for the night: the man standing next to me asked what I was having and I replied with the obvious “rum and coke”. He said, “Oh yeah that’s what I’m having too, a Captain Morgan and coke.” I hope I didn’t literally role my eyes at him as I said, “I am going for something a little darker.” I think he felt embarrassed because he responded by saying that at the age of 40 he should have grown out of Captain and coke by now. His friend who was standing next to him was talking about his iphone ap that allows you to shake the phone and get a cocktail suggestion. The man said he would buy our drinks if we went for whatever the iphone ap turned up. I said the odds were pretty low that it would come up with something I like. By that time our drinks had been made and we exited the situation of two middle-aged men trying to feel young again. We did several laps of the venue only to feel claustrophobic from all of the groups of mid-thirty finance men in their button-up, collared shirts with khaki pants. So after finishing our drink we decided to depart as it was after 12 anyways and the T was calling.

So all-in-all Alibi was a flop and we had pretty high expectations for it. So we will be on the search for a new, more exciting venue and go into it with lower expectations. Also look out for the next blog entry in early March which will include a pair of out-of-town visitors!