<-Worthy of Failblog? |Main|Oysy->

It's All About the Class

November 8, 2009 11:29 PM

'm not sure exactly who's idea it was, but chelsadilla and I decided that we had to go to Le Tigre Lounge, like, now. So, given that we had a bunch of people willing to go out but no particular idea about what to do Saturday night, we suggested it. Everyone was down, and we set off for parts unknown.

For those of you who aren't as hip and with it as me and my group of friends, Le Tigre Lounge is in an extremely dilapidated strip mall directly off of the Beltline on Midvale. It's next-door neighbors are an auto-parts store and a Mexican market. Further down the parking lot is Taqueria Guanajuato (pronounced by Mr. Vice as "takwERia gooanajoowato"), which I've been told is the best Mexican food in town (we couldn't verify that claim on Saturday because Taqueria Guanajuato closes at 10:00pm). It's a cash-only establishment, which we didn't know. That meant that we had to hike to the nearest ATM, which involved running across Midvale, traipsing through a little wooded area, and arriving at a BP where the cashier was behind bulletproof glass. Still, that all went off without a hitch, and, after nearly stepping out in traffic, we were able to get to the business at hand: exploring a new bar.

As the name suggests, Le Tigre is all about the tigers. Though I was initially disappointed because there wasn't a large, dead, stuffed actual tiger near the entrance as we'd been told, there certainly was no shortage of tiger paraphernalia. In fact, there was a clear overabundance of tiger shit everywhere. In addition to the numerous portraits of tigers, there were tiger-print lampshades and tiger statues in essentially every direction. There was even a giant picture of Tony the Tiger right when you walk in. It's good times.

We got there kind of early, so the place was fairly empty. The people who were there were older, laid-back types. More jaded observers might have called them alcoholic burn outs. As the night went on, though, a more varied crowd came in, but the place was never packed and it was never too loud to hear what your friends were saying, which I value.

The drinks were strong, and the fact that it wasn't crowded meant no one felt guilty ordering more complicated drinks. Chelsadilla got a sweet brandy old fashioned on her first round; I got a white Russian. PH got a bloody Mary, and I think she liked it.

We sat towards the back at what appeared, at first glance, to be a giant table. We realized once we were sitting that it was actually a piano with a bar built into the outside edge--I tried to imagine what sort of terrible lounge-y performances this piano was party to. Of course, there was a giant stuffed tiger spread out on top of the piano. It was cute.

We'd heard that the owner of Le Tigre hand picked the jukebox music and that the most recent song was from 1985. I think that's bullshit--there wasn't a song on there that was recorded after 1969. Still, the music was fun and fit the atmosphere perfectly. And it was never too loud.

One of my main concerns with going to Le Tigre was that we'd read that there was a strict no-cursing policy because, as that article noted, at Le Tigre, it's all about the class. We were never called out on our cursing, though I think we were fairly careful about it.

Another concern that popped up as the night went on was that the bartender--who may or may not have been the owner--had two small greyhounds behind the bar with him. I'd never seen a dog in a bar before, and it was strange. But the bartender later came out and assured us that the dogs were cute and not disease-infested. I was reassured.

We called it a night fairly early, but I think everyone had a good time, and I know that I can't wait to go back. I don't think I'm going to have a problem finding people to join me, either.



5 Comments


tRJ said:

They don't have the stuffed tiger anymore? Total BS.

November 9, 2009 8:08 AM



chelsadilla said:

giant stuffed LION on the piano? no lions!

November 9, 2009 9:31 AM



Ismael Tapia II said:

tRJ,
So they DID have a stuffed tiger? Why the fuck would they get rid of it? That's just such a fucking cool thing! Maybe the owner got sick of sharing it and moved it to his house so that he could hog it for himself.

chelsadilla,
I've fixed my stupid, stupid typo. How not classy of me. Le Tigre would be pissed.

November 11, 2009 11:53 PM



tRJ said:

They 100% had a stuffed tiger. I think the last time I was there in 2003, so that's been a while ago. Maybe it's hard to clean gin out of stuffed tiger pelt? Regardless, a total loss.

November 12, 2009 8:11 AM



Dee said:

but was there tiger beer? AND this post has two instances of you calling things "cute" in what appears to be a non-ironic way. what the hell is happening to you out there?

November 16, 2009 6:11 AM



Leave a comment


Type the characters you see in the picture above.