Blondes apparently don't have more fun because Blonde's Lounge closed and stopped having fun altogether — as did Hef's Bar and Grille in Park Road Shopping Center.
Well, rumor has it the owner of Hef's and Blonde's just bought Fairview Grille and put the Park Road bars up for sale — according to the guy who bought Blonde's Lounge and opened Thurston's Bar in its place.
Thurston's opened about a week ago, sans a sign. It is a private club — meaning they don't serve food and have to call themselves one in order to abide by ALE law. So, they can lawfully serve their champagne cocktails. They tentatively have open mic night scheduled for Tuesdays and live music on weekends. Thurston's Bar's official grand opening party is July 10.
Meanwhile, Hef's Bar and Grill is having its "Grand Re-Opening"
They're keeping the name, but changing the drink specials and offering $1 Mondays (select drinks including Bud Light and house vodka are only $1).
And Duckworth's Cheese Steakery is changing theme and location. They are now Duckworth Grill and TapHouse — they dropped the cheese steak and added several new brews on tap and over 60 different bottled beers — they are said to have a beer selection to rival that of Revolution in NoDa and Mac's Speed Shop. But even still, the new IceHouse SouthEnd blows everyone out of the water ... hops and wheat.
As you can see, you can shop for nightlife over in Park Road Shopping Center, and with Montford Drive that runs parallel to it with bars filling every space between Angry Ales and Moosehead Lounge (topped off with a late night Taco Bell) Montford Drive is kinda like Bourbon Street ... well, Dive Drive.
Sorry T-Pain, you can't come this time - I've only got two free VIP passes aboard the Ragin' Uptown Party Yacht for Anchor Island
Every Saturday from Memorial Day to Labor Day, it's Anchors up for Anchors Island – which is actually a 90 foot Ragin Uptown charter yacht equipped with a cash bar, live music, Kiss 95.1 DJ and a water slide.
First person to e-mail me a line from "I'm on a Boat!" at brittney.cason@creativeloafing.com gets them ... then just show up at Fox and the Hound in Birkdale Village at 9:45 a.m. on Saturday morning!
But just so you know, there are more rules on Anchor Island than an elementary school field trip.
They say a picture is worth 1,000 words... but the word count for my column is only 350, so to better allow you to picture what I described in few words, I included some actual pictures. The following are the visual-virtual affects of my column this week Making Charlotte Metropolitan
The porch of the city ...
Meet Molly ...
This is Molly MacPherson, the real-ife person from Scotland for which the newest pub opening in Uptown is named: Molly MacPhersons Scottish Pub.
This authentic Scottish pub doesn't open its doors until Friday — and the ribbon cutting and official grand opening isn't until July 1 — but here's a sneak peek ...
Note the English pourers. Molly's will have 76 single malt whiskeys .. .or as we call it, scotch ... 'cause it's from Scotland.
No, it's not a hockey rink ... or even a brewery that brews IceHouse beer. IceHouse SouthEnd is what has replaced SouthEnd Brewery. And they certaintly replaced everything — including the brewery.
It's no longer a brewery, at all - just a place that serves brew, and the entire venue was cut in half. No wonder it took so long to reopen.
The Grand Opening party is tonight, June 15 starting at 6 p.m., but I went last night to determine if I should tell you whether to go check it out or not. And the verdict is, you should.
The waitress (who looked identical to the crazy girl in Swim Fan, which made me jump everytime she would sneak up to our table to refill our waters) showed us a beer menu and said they have more than 100 types of beers.
Intimidated by this list larger and longer than any wine menu I've seen, I asked her to direct me to the light and fruity section. And thus we tried a "fruit plate" - and assortment of pomegrante, pear and Apple beer. If beer has fruit in it that makes it healthy, right?
IceHouse will be open and serving pub grub, such as their sweet potato fritters with warm goat cheese, until 2 a.m. They have an upper level with pool tables and a private dining room, and a picnic-style patio.
I got a new tattoo!
Actually, a temporary cartoon crab on my hand, applied by a 3-year-old at Levine Children’s Hospital. I was there for what was not only the best party I’ve ever attended in Charlotte in all my years as a nightlife writer, but just ever in general … the Starlight Society’s Beach Bash.
In addition to fake tattooing, there was dolphin ring toss, beach ball coloring, picture frame-making, and face painting … in which I found myself in charge of. A little boy asked me to draw a dog on his face. Now this is well beyond my artistic ability, but I drew the best stick figure of a dog with spots I could ... and it pretty much looked like a kid drew it. Yet, he loved it — he even showed it off to the doctors and then asked me to draw a shark on his other cheek ... he was just as happy and grateful as could be. As were all the kids attending the beach bash. Those kids appreciate every moment, every breath and they find the fun in any situation ... It’s amazing the things children can teach adults.
The Starlight Society is a group of young professionals that exists to support the Levine Children’s Hospital — it’s kind of like a fraternity or country club of community service. Their first project is the Center Stage Entertainment Series Program, in which they hold events such as the Beach Bash, and the Prelude to the Dream race-viewing party at Strike City — that Team Levine led by Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch actually won. Because of Johnson’s win and Busch’s third place finish, Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte received 45 percent of the proceeds raised by the race and the pay-per-view broadcast. Perhaps the only time I’ll cheer for Jimmie or Kyle.
If you wish to join the club you can do so here.
The World Cup has (literally) kicked off, and Saturday is the big game ... USA vs England.
And seeing as how the U.S. has bought more tickets than any country outside of South Africa, futbol is the No. 1 sport in America for the time being. So don't worry if you couldn't jet off to Africa — there are plenty of places to watch the World Cup in Charlotte, on TV.
Kick-off for USA vs. England is at 2 p.m., but the parties start early.
Dixie's Tavern's doors open at 11 a.m., Hickory Tavern (Providence Road) opens at noon, and the party at Blackfinn kicks off at 1 p.m.
And Courtyard Hooligans is the premiere soccer bar of Uptown, and will be the place to be during the World Cup.
If you're looking for a list of venues to watch the World Cup, look no further than my sister site, CL's At Large blog
There's nightlife ... then there's nightlife so good that you literally make a night of it, and it turns into over-nightlife. Now I'm not talking about staying up all night snorting Red Bull, or doing the horizontal mumbo that results in waking up to do the walk of shame (or stride of pride as I prefer to call it).
I'm talking about adult slumber parties, such as camping. That's right ... camping.
Last Sunday I woke up on the ground, with the freshly risen sun shining through the screen of a tent like a spotlight, so hot it dried the layer of dew covering my body — while an off-key mockingbird was singing like a rooster. I'd gone country ... back to my roots. I roughed it for the weekend in the mountains surrounding Virginia Tech with my old college girls. And girls we were.
When pitching the tent after installing the poles, we realized their flimsiness made them good for fly-slash-spear fishing. So we proceeded to take them down to the river to fish, but then gave up after five minutes. Eventually, we got it up (the tent that is), and our temporary home stood even longer than the first two little pigs' homes did.
We retreated to the camp fire to have a little jam session with bongos and other unknown instruments — such as a stick with little jingle bells attached to it. We deemed this "Bells on a Stick" and proceeded to sing a song about it to the tune of the song "Pants on the Ground" ... "sounding like a fool with your bells on a stick" (you may had to have been there).
The worst thing about camping is the lack of water — to drink and bathe in. So we took our water bottles and had a water chugging contest. I felt and looked like a hippie … I was wondering if bugs were flying toward me because I smelled so bad. I started dousing myself in insect repellent hoping it would make my skin and blood a little less appetizing for the insects. Kinda like dipping a wing in blue cheese ... the condiment just ruins the flavor.
I've been obsessed with camping since and have asked around and scoured the Internet for places to go camping in and around Charlotte. And my research findings have led me to the conclusion that there aren't many places to go camping in or around Charlotte.
There's a campground in Carowinds, and being the home of NASCAR, there are countless RV lots. There are places to camp on Lake Norman, but it's illegal ... I'm not sure if taking a nap or passing out counts under that law, though. But it is legal on Lake Wylie — there's the McDowell Nature preserve and KOA in Fort Mill. There's also King’s Mountain, where I've been warned it's illegal to have alcohol.
Where else can one go camping in the concrete jungle? You tell me.
My friends and I wanted to go camping so badly last night that we got my tent that was conveniently still ready for use in the trunk of my car, and pitched it on the the roof of my Uptown parking garage … don’t try this at home kids. I got off lucky that the security guard in my building could be bribed with S'mores ice cream.
After BUTTER opened and started rivaling Suite as the hottest nightclub in Charlotte, I recall wondering what was happening at The Forum, and if nothing, then what was going to happen to it... well, now I know... it's closing.
The Forum is closing on Saturday, June 19 ... and they're not going down quietly, but with a bang rather.
Their blow-out bash will be held on Saturday, June 19 with Miami's DJ Craze. So go say good-bye to the three level nightclub equip with a rooftop garden terrace and ice bar top - where the likes of deejays like Tiesto, Paul Van Dyk and DJ AM have played, and Nelly and T-Pain have performed. That night they'll have extended hours as well so the service industry can say goo-bye too.
Bye Bye Forum, thanks for all the good times ... and for throwing me my 26th birthday party!
I would say I'll miss you, but I know you'll be back, reincarnated and reinvented. Because as in life, when one door closes, another door opens ...
“While this may be the last hooray for the Forum, we are very excited about our plans for the property located on the 300 block of College Street where the venue is currently housed. We have always prided ourselves on staying ahead of the curve and offering innovative entertainment options – our decision to close the Forum and forge ahead with a new concept is an extension of this philosophy," managing partner Andy Kastanas says in a press release.
To be continued ...
And for another installment of Brittney's random revelations ...
When a bar goes out of business wouldn't it be nice if they had a "going out of business sale" on the liquor the way retailers do their merchandise? Or even better, if a closing bar just equated to open bar.
I have watched the race at Charlotte Motor Speedway from the pits, the grandstands, the suites, in the infield on an elevated couch on turn one and from the roof of the National Tailgating League's motorcoach.
And then there’s the time I somehow ended up in Michael Waltrip’s motorcoach learning the Hannah Montana Ho Down Throw Down from his 13-year-old daughter. As well as in the Budweiser’s RV where the shower doubled as an elevator, which just so you know, will squirt water on you if you touch the shower head, which I learned the hard way.
Yet, the best place to watch the race (or drink while it’s going on) is the Red Bull Energy Station at turn three. Between the leather lawn couches, DJ, catering, cocktail waitresses and bartenders and big screen TVs airing race footage — they turn NASCAR into CLASS-CAR. And with the free flowing Red Bull and vodkas, Red Bull gives you more than wings ... it gives you a buzz! That, or the roar of the exhaust pipes that's so loud ear plugs are an essential accessory. I feel like they should invent a sign language for racing so that people can better communicate at the track.
Red Bull drivers Scott Speed and Brian Vickers tend to make pit stops in Class-Car as well ...
Between Speed Street, the Pit Crew Challenge, the National Tailgating League, the NASCAR Hall of Fame festivities and just Whisky River in general, when the NASCARnival comes to town it's a carnival of nightlife … but the biggest party is at the track, at the Red Bull Energy Station to be exact. I even got a little sun while I was at the track - cue to the red sunburn on the back of my neck. Does that officially make me a redneck?
Mobile
