I had an awesome Labor Day weekend. It started a bit early on Thursday night at Ava, where Wayne hooked up the Red Stripe and Asante hooked up the Appleton. They even had Obama’s Big Speech on in the blue room. I watched it, Red Stripe in hand, with about 30 other people. Fantastic.
Friday night I hit Seviche with George, and our friend, who shall remain nameless, went a little overboard with the Appleton (which is now one of my new favorite liquors). We moved on from there to Zen, which is a new nightclub in the space that Palm Bar used to occupy at Station Square. Basically, the same people who ripped off Prive in Miami for Privilege, ripped off Tao in Vegas for Zen. I’m not going to complain too much though, because it’s actually pretty nice. They’ve got the aesthetics down, and if they can manage to pull in a good crowd, I think it will be a good spot. Here’s hoping they can bring some more progressive sounds too — although the B-94 banners don’t portend well. In politics that’s referred to as “pandering to the base”. A necessary evil I suppose.
Saturday I went to Kennywood with a bunch of old friends from my Maryland Ave days. Also, it just happened to be Croatian Day, and I just happen to be 1/4 Croatian. I ran into my parents there too. Good times. After Kennywood, we all went back to our friend’s place in Bloomfield to light up the fire pit and drink some beers.
Sunday was Greek food and dancing at Holy Trinity in the North Side. Yes, my friend actually got me to dance — and there wasn’t even any Ouzo involved! After the food festival, I met back up with the Maryland Ave crew at Shootz for free pool (I stunk) before moving over to The Library for Karaoke.
Today was the perfect end to the weekend. Ohiopyle with Wayne, KJ, and KJ’s 2-year old. We walked around, checked out some waterfalls, and swam in the river. On the way home, we chowed down on some BBQ ribs at Highwater’s, which is becoming sort of a tradition.
All in all, it was a great long weekend. I got to spend some time outside, catch up with some old friends, and meet some fun new people. To all of you who were there (you know who you are): thank you for making this weekend memorable. To all of you who I didn’t get to see (you know who you are too): I miss yinz! We need to catch up soon!
