A night on the hill

We had an eclectic night out last night, which began with dinner at Six Arms. They make a good burger and have a fun decor with lots of interesting chandeliers, but the service is just as bad as any of the McMenamins restaurants I've been to. I was happy to find they've added tater tots as a side option, which were tasty but still no comparison to the best tots in town, found only at Noc Noc.

From there B and I walked over to The Hideout - a bar that always features great local artwork that are for sale. The place got packed and doesn't have enough space or seats to accomodate the crowd, but it's a great venue and I enjoyed my vodka - 7 with a splash of cran. B's margarita wasn't up to par, sadly, but I think Jer enjoyed the variety of martinis the bar had to offer.

Jer doesn't get out as much now that he has babies, so he suggested we go out dancing. Since J&C had joined us, we decided to hit up one of the gay dance scenes in the area. B had always experienced too crowded of dance floors at R Place, so we checked out Neighbors first. After a drink, B and I found ourselves on a relatively dead dance floor, strangely surrounded by other hetero couples. The tunes weren't inspiring the group to dance much, so we walked down the street to check out R Place. The line was full of a crowd you would normally see outside of the war room, and J was disgrunted the line of straight-seeming hip hop type crowd, so the group of us (undaunted by the irony that our group was 3/5 straight) made our way up the hill to The Cuff. Now this was where the party was!! A full tavern-like upstairs loomed above a large, full dance floor. The music was great and though it was a bit too crowded, the energy of the room was really positive and fun. As a girl in a sea of gay men, I didn't get any "what are you doing here" looks. I probably wouldn't venture there in on my own, but look forward to heading back with queer friends in the future. Having fought a cold for a few weeks, B and I made an early night of it but may venture back to the Cuff for a group disco outing some Sunday.

When we arrived, I couldn't help but wonder if Neighbors was so empty because of the Ricin scare, but the attendance at the Cuff made me realize Neighbors just isn't the place to be until afterhours.