Last time I’ve been in New York, one night Ale brought us to Ludlow Street. Ale is a fan of Lower East Side, and I definitely approve his taste. That area is filled with strange and interesting places, for both dining and having fun. That night Ale brought us first to the Back Room (which I already knew, maybe I’ll talk about this in a different post) and then to Mehanata, a Bulgarian bar and dance floor.
You have to know it in advance, cause there’s no hint from outside. No name on the street, just a small door no different to an normal entrance to apartments. When you’re in, you find yourself in a bar room, brick-and-stone raw walls, amazing psychedelic lights, high-tech but retro at the same time. Do you remember those mirror spheres that were so common in the 70s? Same concept but made with LEDs, or maybe Lasers. Strange bottles are aligned behind the barman and people left Cyrillic messages on the restroom walls.
Downstairs, a crowded improvised dance floor with a DJ playing Balkan-punk-folk-gipsy-rock-ish stuff and people dancing like crazy, not the least afraid to show everybody their hormonal level, girls included. On the lower bar a board says “Get naked, get a free shot” and I guess somebody actually does every now and then. Everybody knows the songs they’re playing (unbelievable), so they sing out loud while dancing. It looks like one of the resident DJs, probably the local hero, is Eugene Hütz (the man in the picture), which by the way is Alex in Everything Is Illuminated.
As a girl told me, the place is “totally unpretentious” and you feel like you could do anything, like you shouldn’t care about what people think of you. You just get in the flow, dancing and screaming and teasing girls and having huge quantity of fun! Thank you Ale!
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HEY!! You were in New York and didnt venture up to canada?? I am so sad! i would have loved to see you and take you around toronto or even Niagara Falls for some Canadian wine tasteing!! How is work and life going on your end?
Hello Jessica! After reading your comment I checked the dinstance from NYC to Toronto. I didn’t realize New York State extended to the Canadian border and that Toronto is just on the other end of it on the Ontario Lake. As seen on the map, they’re not so far as I could think. Still, I wouldn’t talk about a 500 miles drive or two hour flight as a short trip, especially in my European mindset. You know, two hour flight is like flying from Italy to the UK. We aren’t used to long distances.
Anyhow, I’m also sad I haven’t had yet the opportunity to come there and spend some time with you, and enjoying whatever you like me to visit and taste.
In the last few months I traveled a lot for work, to the point I’m starting to feel the need to stay at home for at least some consecutive weeks. Lots of fun and things I’m going to remember forever, granted, but after a while you risk to get burned out. Hell, I don’t even know what happened in my country lately. Too much work, everything else is OK.
And you, how is it going? Have you found a teaching job? Is the Toronto already under snow?
