July = Dirty Jersey Part 1

So here comes the Jersey Shore blog in two installments because it was THAT good. I think this blog may have to change its mission from exploring venues in Boston to exploring venues around the country that are in beach towns because that is way more exciting. Rachel and I went down to the Jersey Shore for 4th of July weekend and picked up my sister on the way. We found a great place to stay in Ocean City, the only problem being, Ocean City is a dry town. So on our first night at the shore we decided to go out in Sea Isle City which is just one town away but serves adult beverages. We dressed up in our best “scraps of cotton” otherwise known to most people as short sun dresses. When we got to Sea Isle though we were worried that we were over-dressed so we drove around for a bit scouting out the scene. We did see girls in all ranges of outfits so we felt confident enough to find a parking spot. The street signs said we had to pay the meter until 11pm which left 30 minutes but we only had dimes. We ended up parking right in front of a store front apartment with a whole bunch of guys out on the steps. I got out to investigate the meter and was immediately chatted-up and offered quarters. I did end up needing two from the guys because I put the first quarter in the wrong meter as I was flustered by all of the attention. This seemed to be a good omen though as in Boston I have had to run around the city searching for an ATM and then a corner store in order to get change. Here in Sea Isle City it was being offered to me without me even having to ask!

With full confidence now in tow we walked to the venue for the evening called La Costa. Allison and I got past the bouncers with our Michigan IDs with no problem. Rachel on the other hand was interrogated, had her ID checked in “the book” and had to sign a paper saying if she had falsified her age she would have to go to jail, rehab, AA, and church for the rest of her life. Apparently Washington State is a foreign country to those Jersey Shore folks. Once inside the venue I was transported back to college. My shoes stuck to the floor, there was a grungy, LOUD cover band, and bad beer for cheap. In keeping with dirty jersey style the venue was a bar connected to a liquor store, and a hotel, all-in-one. If you were inside the bar you could see through the grate into the liquor store. If you were in the outside area of the bar you were actually in a court-yard of the hotel so there were literally tables right outside some people’s hotel rooms. We made a circle of the outside of the bar and then decided to sit at a plastic table. Well we must have caught some people’s eye because almost immediately two guys came over and asked if they could sit with us. One was 23 year old Andrew the medical student and the other was 22 year old Ryan the ice cream shop owner.

It looks like just a regular hotel from the outside but....

Outside "Deck Bar" at La Costa
(note the hotel room balcony)

Needless to say we had lots of interesting conversations about Andrews gynecological rotation and how Ryan came to own his own ice cream shop at the age of 22. Allison was the pick of the litter this time and began engaging with Andrew. They eventually swapped phone numbers (this info is relevant to part 2 of the blog). Rachel and I spoke with Ryan as our “mutual friend”. Ryan seemed to have a good sense of humor and joked with us about all of the Guidos walking by (they really did look straight out of Jersey Shore!). Eventually Ryan and Andrew called over their two other friends one who was an accountant and one who was a nurse. All four gentleman had gone to “The College of New Jersey” (I had never heard of it before) and were fraternity brothers. So we had more conversation with all of the friends. It was a fun night and fun to have good conversation with guys who weren’t to shy to just come over and sit down. We parted ways not thinking too much of the whole evening BUT there was more to come….

June = Outside Bars

It is already June and the weather is finally getting better so for this month we decided to check out some outdoor bars near the harbor/waterfront area of Boston. Our first stop was the Landing which is right by the aquarium and on a dock (kind of). It is a completely outdoor bar with tables to sit at and space around the bar. They were playing country music which was fun and different and it was just a really nice place to be in Boston. You could people-watch and enjoy the ocean breeze. There were actually a lot of men at this bar and Rachel and I tried to strategically place ourselves in opportune spots and make eye contact. Unfortunately no conversations were struck up but I would go back to this place for sure because the atmosphere was great.

Tia's

Next we decided to hit up Tia’s which is right in the same area. It has kind of a beach club vibe because the inside building is all opened up and feeds into a back patio and a side with tables for sitting. Tia’s was bumping when we got there, lots of different types of people of various ages and such. Again we got a drink and then actively circulated around the bar trying to find a single-looking group of men. During our circulation we found a sign that proclaimed Tia’s to have the best summer singles scene…. hmmmm. After all of our circulating we decided to rest at the corner of a bar. After a few minutes we were approached by a nice gentleman in the 40s age range named Danny. Danny was originally from Lebanon so we chatted about our different schooling experiences and education in America. It was a very pleasant conversation and things were looking good when Danny said he was at Tia’s for a bachelor party! However he then explained that all the guys at the bachelor party were already married and were showing each other pictures of their kids on their iphones. I think it is interesting that the only guy to approach us was a few decades out of our age bracket. We parted ways, did a little more circulating, and then headed to one of our favorite spots in the area, Rumba.

On the way to Rumba we ran into yet ANOTHER bachelor party (I guess we really are in wedding season!). These gentlemen were hanging around outside of a limousine and called at us. At this point in the night we were 4 rum drinks deep so we stopped to talk. They were very native Rhode Islanders with accents to match and they said they were going to Providence. They asked where we were headed, saying they wanted to join in with us. We told them we were going to Rumba and bantered for a bit more. I think we expressed interest in going to Providence and so I was disappointed that we were not invited into the limo. So we trekked on and reached Rumba. Rumba was hopping, with a lot of people around. We got the official Rum Connoisseurs books and picked out two rums we had not tried before; one from Brazil and one from Grenada. We picked a few free seats in a conversational grouping that was already partially occupied. At this point I was feeling all the rum and this balding middle-aged business man tried to impress us by saying that his friend was an heir of the Chef-Boyardee Corporation. But then when I mentioned spaghetti-os he seemed to get offend. It was much too confusing so we focused on tasting our rums. The one from Grenada was delicious but the Brazilian one was so strange. It seemed ok at the beginning but then had a very strange barbecue/wood smoke after-taste. Rachel downed the rest of the Brazilian rum so she was done for the night. And after this being the 2^nd gross Brazilian rum we had, we will no longer be experimenting with rum form this country.

All-in-all it was a lovely outdoor evening in downtown Boston and I would definitely go back to any of the bars we visited this summer. In fact happy-hour could be an even better time to meet other people. Sadly the night was not so good for interacting with males. Short of wearing a bikini on our next adventure and throwing ourselves in men’s laps, I don’t know what we could do to make contact with some of the people in these venues. But, we go forward, and next month look for an out-of-town blog from the Jersey Shore!

May = Sports Bar Madness

We are in Boston and it is the NBA playoff which means you can easily be sucked into watching games just so you can say you’re following it and because you think that Rajon Rondo is cute. So for this month’s blog Rachel and I decided to try a sports bar near the Boston Garden so we could watch the game and try a new genre of going-out locations. We choose the Sports Grille Boston which is spitting distance to the Garden and was advertised to have TVs on every surface of the bar. Now Rachel and I were a little hesitant to go on this adventure because as much as I enjoy watching the Celtics, Boston sports fans can be a bit aggressive and I may even go as far as to say obnoxious.

Relaxing in the back yard before the big night out

Case in point as we were riding the T to our location we were on the same car as a group of young men who were pre-gaming with water bottles full of Vodka chased by their choice of OJ or red gatorade. They were loudly and excitedly talking about what they hoped would happen during the game like a little kid talks about what they hope they will get on Christmas morning. Then a guy wearing an L.A. Lakers jersey boarded the train. The group of young men told him to take it off and proceeded to grill the guy on how much better Boston is. Luckily the other guy handled it well and kept is cool but Rachel and I were nervous about the rest of our evening. We arrived safely at the venue and true to the Yelp review there were TVs all over the place. There were TVs circling the inside and outside of the bar, TVs at each booth and all over the walls. So we were able to get a good angle on the game. We ordered a pitcher of beer which seemed like the most economical way to go as beers came out to about $4 each and it was good beer. They also had Bud-light beer buckets which seemed a little weird because there were only 4 beers in a bucket and it still cost over $14. We got there a bit before the game started so we were able to pick our location at the bar but it was good we got there early because it did fill up quickly.

Sports Grille Boston
Yup, there is no mistaking this is a sports bar...

On Rachel’s side we had a gentleman that I called “Hostel Guy” because he was by himself at the bar, carrying around a backpack and looked like the type to stay in Boston’s only hostel. He stared at Rachel a lot but only talked to her to ask her to keep an eye on his back-pack while he went to the bathroom. On my side there was a big group of bro-ish kind of guys. The kind who wear sports jerseys and their ball caps backwards and they look like they only work out the top parts of their bodies because they have huge arms but not much of anything else. They were drinking lots of Bud-Light beer buckets and shots. As the night went on they got louder and louder. Towards the end of the evening they were trying to get one of their friends to talk to us but they were not being very subtle about it, in fact they were yelling right in my ear about it. I pointed out to one man that he was yelling right in my ear. Then a few minutes later I heard the gentleman saying that I “hated them”. So I turned around and apologized. That got a conversation going which included talking about our jobs and their lack of employment. One guy asked if I dated my students and another guy kept asking me if I thought his friend was cute. Unfortunately I didn’t think he was cute and in order to deflect the comments I turned to Rachel to repeat their question. So the guys said, “What is she, your life-coach or something?” Little did they know… Rachel is close to being my life coach.

The game ended soon after our banter with the bros and so we decided to leave. (BTW the Celtics blew the Magic out of the water, so there was lots of clapping and screaming.) As we left we became part of the huge mass of people leaving the Garden so it kind of felt like we really had been at the game! Overall I would say that the Sports Grille Boston did its job well by giving us a great place to view the game on many TVs, well-priced beer, and plenty of bros to interact with. I would go back to watch a sports game but not to pick up guys!

Oh and this is what happens when you try to take a picture using the self-timer feature on the camera…. Jen gets a little too excited and looses coordination.

April = No Sex at Middlesex

So where to begin with this night…. our energy was not too high to start with because although it is almost the end of April it is also rainy and cold in Boston. This bad weather meant yet another night of wearing tights with the outfit. We decided we probably couldn’t handle going to a big legit dance club but we wanted a place with music so after searching Yelp for a bit we found Middlesex which was rated four stars, only had a $5 cover, and offered Ten Cane rum. It seemed like a reasonable idea to go.

The weather was making us grumpy...

When we arrived the DJ was just setting up so we got a drink and stood awkwardly in the middle of the big industrial kind of room. There were maybe two tables along the wall and the bar at one end of the space but other then that the “lounge” was just like a big old empty store-front. I think they were trying to go for that sparse, unfinished loft feel but the effect was like being at a middle school dance, it was difficult to mingle with other people.

Middlesex Lounge

The DJ came on and played an interesting collection of 80s funk music. I am trying to think of the exact genre but it is difficult to say. The music was definitely 80s because one of the songs was George Benson’s “Give me the Night”. Now I know for a fact that my parents used to BLAST this song when we were growing up so I don’t think I ever expected it to be played at a dance club. Hey, maybe I should give my parents more credit for hanging right there with the hipsters all these years. So the music got a little old after a while because there wasn’t much variety. I am sure Rachel and I looked like wet rags on the dance floor because we didn’t really know how to move. However, there were several groups of enthusiastic dancers. One couple was really going at it from an early time. They appeared to either be on a very first date set up through an online dating website in which they each listed “dancing” as an interest or they were on the autism spectrum. They were both dancing very vigorously but left space in between them that could have fit a whole other couple. They did not speak to each other or make eye contact but the man was definitely doing the snake move and the girl looked like she was air-humping. There was also a middle-aged female duo who was really backing it up. Perhaps when Rachel and I get to that age we will finally loose all inhibitions on the dance floor.

Another problem with Middlesex was that the male-to-female ratio was definitely not in our favor. The men that were there seemed to have come with their own boyfriends or girlfriends. After a while of standing around and finishing our drinks we decided to leave a little after 11pm. As we left the place we were astonished to see that a line had formed all the way down the block. It was still rainy and cold outside. I am constantly surprised by people who wait in line to get into mediocre clubs when if they had come just an hour earlier they would be inside.

Outside: People were lined up past the club

After this lounge mishap we needed a snack so we headed to the Middle East which is such a trusty destination. We had delicious humus (they spelled it hoomis), falafel, and a very dark Dark ‘n’ Stormy. The only interaction of the evening came when the guy in the booth behind us turned around and asked us how we were doing and what we were eating. He announced he had just had humus for the first time in New York last week. What a pick-up line.

Conclusion: Middlesex is not a good or fun place to go if you are single. It may be more enjoyable if you go with your partner, online date or group of friends. Get there around 10pm to avoid waiting in line. If you really just want something reliable go to the Middle East where people drink PBR in cans and they play the Clash.

March Madness = Ryles Jazz Club

Dance Floor at Ryles

This weekend’s adventure was to the Ryles Jazz Club in Cambridge and we were accompanied by my sister Allison and her friend Kristin who are visiting from Penn State University. I had done extensive research before the evening to find a place where not-quite-21 year olds would be admitted. Ryles had advertised a salsa/swing night for ages 18 and up. They also had the phrase “dress to impress” on the website, and naturally we were excited about this because we already aim to dress to impress on our adventures. Therefore we all selected shiny, sparkly, or patterned dresses with heels. After some cocktails at home we tromped off to the club which is a little over ½ mile away from the Central T station. The club has a downstairs restaurant where a live band plays and the dance club is upstairs. When we entered we paid our cover charge and we were not carded. We were also not carded when we got upstairs to the club, so we ordered some more cocktails. The upstairs has a good size dance floor, a small bar, and a sitting area near the bar with a bunch of tables. So overall the venue was nice and cozy but the drinks are a bit pricey… what’s new.


When we arrived it was around 10pm and they were still holding the introductory dance lesson to learn some basic salsa steps. Men were lined up on one side of the dance floor and women on the other. Naturally Rachel and I were excited to learn the dance so Rachel lined up with the men and I joined with the women. A man near Rachel politely pointed out to her that she was on the wrong side and Rachel answered equally as politely that her partner was a woman. We learned our basic steps which sounded a little like back, back forward, quick, quick slow, turn to the bar, and to the stage. When the music began Rachel and I started to practice our new steps together but we were quickly cut in by a gentleman who asked me to dance. I made sure to tell him that I had never really salsaed before and I wasn’t really a good dancer. He seemed to take well to his role as “teacher” though and I have now learned that the salsa is a back back forward step, meringue (my favorite) is like marching, and swing is a hop step. I was also watching his feet most of the time and we may have smacked heads once or twice. Meanwhile as I was dancing with my new teacher Rachel and Kristin were out on the dance floor booty bumping and grinding together (aka dancing) as other couples around were VERY serious about executing the correct steps. At this point let me also state that we were some of the only people in dresses, most of the other women were wearing jeans. And I was the ONLY person in a loud street-walker type pattern… I don’t know why, I mean it was salsa after all! So by this point in the night we had already committed many faux pas, more were on the way. Of course everyone’s favorite song came on a few minutes later, Shakira’s She Wolf. So that got us all ‘dancing” pretty wildly, even my new partner. The music was a very interesting mix of traditional salsa and swing songs with a few top 40 hits thrown in every once in a while.


We took a break and sat down for a few minutes when Allison spotted her ideal dance partner from a far. He was definitely at the age where he would be offered the senior discount, wearing a shiny blue shirt the same color as Allison’s dress ensemble, and legit dancing shoes. Allison boldly walked up to him, asked him to dance, and they swung around the dance floor for a song. Rachel was also asked to dance by a gentleman named Doug but did not have quite the same experience as Allison or I. Her partner was constantly directing her moves, criticizing her technique and generally being an ass. Unfortunately the dance instructor form earlier in the night came over and gave Rachel a classic Dirty Dancing tip, “You have to follow his lead”. Well we know this doesn’t work well for Rachel who is used to being the lead herself, so she returned to the table with little excitement about trying another salsa. I continued to dance with my partner and I am ashamed to say I never got his name because it was so loud. But he did ask for my number and remembered my name. I think I must boost his confidence as I am so clumsy at something he excels in. We finally left the club around 1:15am which means that GASP, we took a taxi home!

Overall I would say that the place was fun because we made it entertaining for ourselves by not being stuck up with all of the etiquette. Some may say that we were obnoxious at times. If you are a serious dancer then the place would probably be a big hit and I would be interested in going back if there was more of a “beginners night” or if I was just with another group of fun people.

P.S. I apologize for any double posting on this entry. I know blogs are supposed to be fool proof but the technology got the better of me this time!

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!

First in February = Crazy Blind Date Weekend

So already some of the parameters have been broken… but for a good cause, Crazy Blind Date. This service was introduced to us by a friend living in Washington D.C. We went on two dates and while they did take us to brand new venues in Boston, we did not fully dress up for fear of totally blowing away our prospective dates. A quick run-down of Crazy Blind Date (here-on out known as CBD)… CBD is an online service run by the creators of another dating website. It cuts out all the work though because you simply fill out some basic stats about yourself (height, education, etc) and the kind of person you want to go on a date with. You also fill out maybe 4 short blurbs about what kind of date you want, select locations you are willing to go out in, and voila, you wait for your date to be set up. Of course there is the option to go on a double-date which Rachel and I immediately choose. The website chooses the actual venue you will go to, so you see, very little coordination has to be done on your part.

Clink!

Date #1 was on Friday night at a place called Clink in the Liberty Hotel right off the Charles/MGH stop. Once inside the hotel you go up an escalator which dumps you into a big lobby area with a small bar against one wall. The hotel is a former jail but it has been re-modeled in a very modern, hip way so the space itself was really cool. There is a tall, tall ceiling and multiple balcony areas that look like the old cat-walks of the jail. In order to complete the jail effect there are fake bars over some windows. The crowd at the bar is all very trendy, young professional people so when Rachel and I showed up in our jeans we felt a bit under-dressed. The drinks are expensive, $10 for a Mount Gay rum and coke. We got a round of drinks and waited for our dates to arrive.

CBD has this feature which allows you to send and receive text-messages from your dates through an automated number. So one date said he was running late and… imagine our surprise when the other date said he had been in a fender-bender and would not be able to make it. It seemed like such a fool-proof plan, almost like getting mail-order brides for the evening. But as fate would have it, Rachel and I ended up entertaining only one gentleman who was over 30 minutes late. He was nice enough and we all ended up chatting for a long time as two more rounds of drinks were bought. The place really filled up and we had a fun time people-watching as our own awkward threesome. The most awkwardness happened at the end of the night when we parted ways. Our date said something about getting our numbers (plural) and we both said ok but then continued to walk through the gates for the T. It is hard to explain how this happened but we left with no contact information on either end. In terms of the venue I would definitely go back sometime and I am actually excited to try the club in the bottom of the hotel called Alibi (has anyone been?). I will be more dressed up though!

When we got home on Friday night we had already been scheduled for date #2 so we figured we would try our luck at actually getting two different people to entertain. On Saturday night we were scheduled to go to a place called Via Matta in the Back Bay. Again it was very close to a T stop which was good. It was not the best venue for a blind date though. Via Matta is an intimate Italian restaurant with only a small bar area. Since we were not there to eat we had to sit in the bar area and ask if we could push together two of the tiny tables. Most other people seemed to be eating and the waitress was a bit snobby after we said we would only be drinking.

Via Matta

A theme with CBD seems to be that they take you to very expensive and ritzy places. I wonder if they know something specific about the economic status of CBD clientele. Again Rachel and I arrived first, and then came one of the male dates. We got a text that the other one would be late. The first date was not very talkative and so after we ordered a round of drinks and went through basic introductions things got awkward and there were many of those long silent pauses. Again the guy was nice enough but very normal, Boston, investment banker kind of guy. Luckily the other date showed up right as I was thinking… time to jet. He was very out-going and held the conversation together for a second round of drinks. By the way Dark ‘n’ Stormies were $10 a piece and they did not have any American beers even if you did want to go for something cheaper. Male date number two also fit into another other Boston category; lives in Cambridge and does IT work. But again he was nice and not offensive at all.

At the end of the evening Rachel and I claimed we had to meet other friends but the two males decided to go out together to another place! I think most people use CBD just to find other people to hang out with, obviously not as a real match-making service. This time we did exchange contact info as one of the dates whipped out business cards for all. So who knows if we will hang out again as a foursome of friends? I wouldn’t mind some new people to hang out with. But the verdict on the venue is that I never need to go back there… overpriced and a pretentious atmosphere.

And now we are also wondering if the venues are informed that they will be used by clients of CBD? Did our snobby waitress guess that we were on a double blind date? Do they get an advertising deal? So many questions about the strategies of CBD...