by Valrie Sphon on Authentic Israeli food and a good place to try food you won't get elsewhere (i.e. duck hearts, pickled persimmons). Their menu is constantly changing, to don't get attached to some of the seasonal specialties and don't be surprised if you don't recognize their new dishes. ALWAYS get the haloumi cheese. Mm.
by Inocencia Gembler on I was inspired to come into the King Cole Bar after tea and lunch in the St. Regis restaurant. Throughout lunch we kept hearing these loud, amplified laughs... what we like to call the "business laugh".. it's funny and we wanted to experience it up close and put some faces with the laughs. Especially the one that sounded like a straight up ghoul! Total Scooby Doo villain laugh..love it. The King is pretty packed during the day, especially during lunch hours. At night however it's definitely a bit more laid back. The daytime crowd is very business lunch, or just getting out of work. At night the crowd is a mix of some of those people and people on dates.. one of which let out a conversation so vapid and senseless my friend and I actually left to go to a nightclub. This older guy who looked like the dad in American Pie, younger girl who looked like Fantasia(it wasn't)... she's trying to sound smart and says the mural reminds her of the "photo of Dorian Gray" and that if she had one wish "I'd wish to be beautiful forever, I just don't know what it will be like to not be beautiful anymore". One get the title right, two I don't see the Dorian Gray connection at all, three thanks for making me laugh. The drinks were ok. I ordered a mojito, which was bad.. no sweetness at all. The Kir Royale's were tasty tho, very fresh and light champagne with the perfect amount of chambord. The specialty drinks menu wasn't offered until I asked for it and I ordered something off of that menu that was quite tasty but I umm, can't remember what it was. The bar itself is very traditional in style and a great place to sit and have a couple cocktails. It's not a place to get drunk, it's a place to enjoy your cocktails. I say go for the experience, it's worth checking out at least once.
by Hallie R. on What was it that I did instead of going to Bootie with friends back in wintertime? I don't remember. But after last Friday's party, I'm absolutely positive it was the wrong decision. This was as fun as everyone else is saying it was: the crowd was into it and EVERY song was fabulous: hip hop, top 40, 60's girl band, classic rock, hair bands, there is literally no genre left untouched (even the nod to classical with the Beethoven/Kanye West mashiup). Bootie itself is a mash-up: a live concert, regular and guest DJ's, drag and/or burlesque-ish performers, and an intriguing, if somewhat skewed, sample of Bay Area personalities. The August show was the Bootie 4th year Anniversary. It was a pretty long wait outside and crowded enough on the floor that I was forced to dance kind of up and down instead of out. We were packed like sardines, yet I still danced hard enough to wake up the next day in severe bodily pain. And yes I did find myself knocked to the floor a few times, but someone always helped me back up! So to wrap up, prepare yourself for crowds and prepare yourself to get down and funk-ay. OH! And wear ear plugs (which are made available to you at the coat check) . Or else be prepared for a crunchy cotton feeling rolling around in your head for the next 24 hours. UPDATE (1/14): Lessons learned from additional Booties Everybody will find something they like. Have picky hard to please friends? Try Bootie first. My Bootie-doubters ended up smoking me, leaving me passed out under a pile of their coats upstairs while they danced into the night. It is ALWAYS crowded. Finally, I got wise and started buying my tickets online ahead of time. The three dollar surcharge is worth not having to stand around for an hour. To deal with the crowding once you get inside, it helps to have come with a big crew or find a few extra folks to pull into a dance circle when you get there. The more of you there are, the less likely that you will find your space usurped, and the more likely that when you get pushed to the ground (petite dancing queen+spilled drinks+drunkards=me on my back) people will be there to drag you up before you die an ironic crushed-by-ecstatically-dancing-feet death. They are now having Bootie twice a month instead of once a month, which hopefully will cut down on the crowding. To be honest, I have been thinking about ceasing my outings if the crowding continues at the same level. I would rather not have my good memories tainted by a suffocation incident.
