I totally hooked the hottie that I had met the night before at the bar, and he asked me to go out for drinks with him. Why not? We decided we were going to have a little Sunday fun-day. He said he would be at a concert with a friend during the day, but that they’d come meet up with me later on in the night. Since there were two dudes coming on this date, my new friend Dani had to come with me. We were so excited and planned to meet at the place at 11.
At around 10:30, I got a text saying that the concert was running late. That’s not a big deal though and Dani and I decided to go without our dates for the first part of the night. The trains were a hassle as we were meeting them at a classy bar near Chinatown, which is pretty far away from my midtown apartment. Dani got lost on the train for 45 minutes while I waited above ground near the bar. The area was a little shady to say the least.
My Maritime swim-team swoon told me at this point that another friend had tagged along with them, but he didn’t have his ID on him. Excuse me, when have you ever gotten into a New York City bar without an ID?! He then decided that he couldn’t ditch his boy and that we should meet another night. This was all occurring while Dani was still lost, and I was standing on a sketchy Chinatown corner looking like a high-class hooker. Cool. My least favorite thing in the world is having plans and getting all dolled up (I should have been sleeping), only to have people bail.
When Dani finally got off the train I told her the news. She was furious too, but we were all dressed up so we decided to make a night out of it. The place we wanted to go ended up being closed when we got there—what?! We went into a swanky place full of cigarette smoking hipsters. We had a glass of beer and decided it wasn’t the place for us. “Get us out of Chinatown,” we told the cab driver on our way to another bar. I decided we should hit up the 13th Step near Union Square because every college kid here raves about it.
Good plan. The Step was packed for a Sunday night and there were two gorgeous male bartenders. Oh, hello. They were extremely friendly/flirtatious as well. We asked them for their cheapest shot, which they gave to us and didn’t tell us the cost. As people were exchanging cash for drinks at the bartender’s order, we realized that they were not going to make us pay. We did a few shooters with the bartending-babes and played a few bar games with them. Then things started getting fruity as we threw some lime wedges at them.
The bartender grabbed a handful of limes and chucked them back at us, missing horribly and hitting the bystanders on either side of us. Free shots were given to everyone that was hit by an off course lime. We stayed until they basically kicked us out at 4:15am because we were having such a blast. The fact that we had been date-ditched was long gone in the past and our new favorite bar had been established. I don’t know if I’ve ever had that much fun drinking on a Sunday, or even if I’ve had that much fun drinking any day of the week. The bartenders made our night with at least $200 worth of free alcohol, and sealed the deal with goodbye hugs. I love NY.
Always,
Alena Netia Horowitz
