ABUJA IS HUNGRY- Confessions of a city crawler(pt.4)

friday night, i convince my sister amisdt struggle and frowns to a night on the town. we had dinner and drinks and caught up with some old friends,oyibo style and then i decided the night was still too young to head home. so off we went to The Wine Shop. i was amazed at he sight that caught me, it was brimming with people. first of all parking was a problem and then curiousity took us inside, we wanted to know wat happened here that the white rabbit wasnt aware of, amazingly nothing, it was just a normal friday night abuja crowd, searching for good music, well priced drinks, see and be seen crowd and unrestricted fun. when i first discovered the wine shop it was located at aminu kano and it was a place for u to buy wine period, i went in there to pick a bottle of wine for my oga, by the next time i went to wine shop, they had 4 white chairs outside,no table,a couple of guys were sitting there having a meeting i think and sipping their wine from white disposable cups, why take it home when they can drink it right there. by the next month, more white chairs, more people.this was 2007.

fastforward to 2009.

which brings me to this, ABUJA IS HUNGRY!

as a city crawler i can confidently tell u that the vibe of every lounge and club and hangout is pretty much the same every night. same music, same drinks, same food, nothing new. some clubs have the illusion that they are grander and posher than others, but we'll let them live with that illusion i guess because really really its the same ol' same ol'. and some how lounges manage to morph in to clubs which kindof creates a problem for the owners or not,some owners encourage this.

i still havent seen a chilled out, loungy inspired place that has some how managed to stay that way(look wat happened to krystal lounge) or a posh club with an ultra chic no nonscence dress code(where are our fashionista/fashion forwards), people always default.

well,in conclusion to friday nights outing, we ended up at bassment. My first friday night at basement and i had a blast,first of all it had a dance floor the size of an actual dance floor, the vibe was grand but unpretentious, the crowd was great, people came out to have fun although there were some people who were just out to ruin it for everyone else but generally people came to have fun and then slip into the night(u know). but the way people crowd into places just goes to show that there is a market out there and club and lounge owners need to tap into it, up the ante on your place. if u want to be a 'after work with the guys' kind of place be that, if u want to be a 'gathering of cool party people' kind of place, be that, if u want to be a normal resturant just be that, but have focus really because people are getting confused.

P.S thanks basement, u helped me give my sister the time of her life.