Night Life Part 1

Nightlife in C-town is interesting. There are plenty of random hole-in-the-wall bars, a few nice bars/lounges, and a handful of dance clubs. Ok, there are more than a handful, but the others have "issues". For some reason, fools here think they are THUGGIN. For the most part, by attending a "black" club you have a relatively high likelihood of getting mugged, shot, and or stabbed. No joke. As a black man I won't even go to them. I can't even begin to tell you the number of clubs shut down due to violence (only to be re-opened later). One infamous club is the Red Zone. That place has been shut down and re-opened at least 4 times. Now you get frisked (typical club protocol) when you enter and you get the airport style metal detector wanding. You know when/if you set off the metal detector they wand (probe) and perform a virtual cavity search on you. Yep that one. Who knew Ohio was trying to be hard?

Anyways, there are 5 main (mixed) clubs that people go to: Carlisle Club, Lodge Bar, Brothers, GasWerks, and recently opened Spice Bar. All these places are located within a 3 block radius of one another and Brothers, GasWerks and Spice Bar are connected. Spice Bar has a "South Beach" atmosphere and it's a nicer place (more upscale but not uppity) than the others. However, recently I discovered something quite disturbing. You can wear flip flops to Spice Bar but not white tennis shoes (I'm from Ohio so it's tennis shoes, not sneakers). I was appalled. First of all, there isn't really a dress code, but it's preferred that you look nice/trendy etc. Secondly, there is no cover. A few weeks ago, I went there to meet some friends. Typically I dress nice/trendy (so I'm usually overdressed for Ohio standards), but this time I was in nice khaki shorts, a nice polo shirt and my white and red Adidas. Even though I was casual, I was still the nicest dressed person in line at the moment. I get to the front and the i.d. checker (do you have to be a natural born hater to get that position?) says he can't let me in with white tennis shoes. Ok, I'm fine with that, and if it was my club I wouldn't have let me in either. HOWEVER, the fool in front of me had dirty jeans (no they weren't designer, they were just old and not washed), a wrinkled shirt and flip flops. Just crusty, ashy (and he was white... that's hard to do) feet and was able to walk right in. Of course I pointed it out and even pointed down at dudes feet like "Look!" The door man shrugged and let him in. Ultimately I got in but it took a good 15 minutes, the group of boys already inside threatening to leave and this. As recently as last week, the same thing happened. It was my boys this time (and we didn't get in). Women can wear flip flops all they want. Men, if they are nice, designer, and work with the outfit. But don't let people in with random athletic sandals and then hate on nice tennis shoes. The place isn't that hot.