Review: Saturday Night

I met up with friends Guy and James at The Coffee Shop Saturday night. This place is cool. I went once over winter, but was nice to get back for a perfectly poured Ketel One and tonic. Guy's wife, Amanda, actually turned me onto Ketel One nearly 10 years ago, and it's been my preferred liquor ever since. It can be temperamental, however, as it seems more likely than other vodkas to mix poorly if the concentration is even slightly off.

After a couple hours there, we ventured over to Soho's cool Pravda, a caviar joint that welcomes drinkers of all ages. Guy and James are cool and all, but they were catching up with their old Aussie buddy Simon, so, as I like to do, I began to watch and wander.

Being at a Russian joint with Aussie friends, this Irish cat ended up talking to a bunch of Indian gals. While drinking Czech beer. It kind of reminded me of the St. Patrick's Day I spent in Chicago about 10 years ago, when my friend Dave and I ended up at a Polish bar in Chinatown, and I was hitting on a Puerto Rican girl as I celebrated my Irish heritage.

If on the rare occasion I'm conversing for more than 30 seconds with an attractive gal, it's quite possible that I opened with a line so ridiculous that she couldn't help but humor me.

But the lovely Ranu interrupted a conversation with two other dudes to stop me as I was headed past her toward the bar. I'm usually not a can-I-buy-you-a-drink? type of guy, so we chatted for a few minutes before she revealed she was done drinking for the night. Which, of course, I promptly followed with, "Oh, that's too bad. I was going to ask if I could buy you a drink."

Nonetheless, we talked for a good 20 minutes before I realized how glad I was that I got sidetracked from my next drink. I was starting to get a little tipsy, so I returned to my friends and we were ready to split.

And as I was waiting to pay my tab, two other lovely Indian gals struck up a conversation with me. They were impressed when I told them I was reading "Siddhartha," but then I remembered that I said that last week over drinks with my friend Sapna, also Indian. Why is this noteworthy? Because it shouldn't take more than a week to read a 120-page book.