Saturday, August 13, 2005
The Foundation Lounge.
After a delightful dinner (marred somewhat by the squabbling couple next to us. Note: Airing dirty laundry in public, while fascinating for eavesdroppers [and we weren't so much eavesdroppers as we were seated NEXT to them, thereby unable to actually avoid the argument] isn't so hot), Leigh and I went to The Foundation Lounge, a bar in the Hotel Commonwealth.
I really wanted to like the place. Really. It reminded me of the ubiquitous sleek dark hotel bars commonly found in New York, which I generally enjoy. And there are a dearth of places I'd go to repeatedly in Boston, and was hoping that perhaps this would make the list. Not so much. This place was full of people decked out in Red Sox gear, perhaps a result of the fact that there was just a game, but ew. Ew. It did not help that the drinks commanded steep prices and were not particularily inventive nor very good (too cloyingly sweet). And their bar menu was ridiculously overpriced! Bar menus to me should have the majority of their items under $10, because if I wanted to pay more per dish, I'd just eat in the restaurant. And service was slow, slow, slooooooow.
It perhaps says something when the most fascinating activity in the bar is not checking out other guys (or people in general), but trying to hack into the free (to hotel guests) wireless system with my palm pilot. It took a little work - they wanted to know the room number and we had to guess at several possibilities, but we prevailed. The system isn't so secure. Then we changed the password, because the system asked if we wanted to. Why not? Hopefully, the guests of that hotel room didn't want to actually access their wireless. It's silly when you don't have to enter in the old password. Not very smart. And then we checked our email and read websites and realised - oh, wait. This is what we can do at home, and we're supposed to be out meeting people. Oops.
I really wanted to like the place. Really. It reminded me of the ubiquitous sleek dark hotel bars commonly found in New York, which I generally enjoy. And there are a dearth of places I'd go to repeatedly in Boston, and was hoping that perhaps this would make the list. Not so much. This place was full of people decked out in Red Sox gear, perhaps a result of the fact that there was just a game, but ew. Ew. It did not help that the drinks commanded steep prices and were not particularily inventive nor very good (too cloyingly sweet). And their bar menu was ridiculously overpriced! Bar menus to me should have the majority of their items under $10, because if I wanted to pay more per dish, I'd just eat in the restaurant. And service was slow, slow, slooooooow.
It perhaps says something when the most fascinating activity in the bar is not checking out other guys (or people in general), but trying to hack into the free (to hotel guests) wireless system with my palm pilot. It took a little work - they wanted to know the room number and we had to guess at several possibilities, but we prevailed. The system isn't so secure. Then we changed the password, because the system asked if we wanted to. Why not? Hopefully, the guests of that hotel room didn't want to actually access their wireless. It's silly when you don't have to enter in the old password. Not very smart. And then we checked our email and read websites and realised - oh, wait. This is what we can do at home, and we're supposed to be out meeting people. Oops.
Gloria 12:59 PM
3 Comments:
If you were choosing to read email and websites in the bar, this is not a good sign. It sounds like the place had a lot of potential. Sorry it was such a disappointment.
Maybe you'll get lucky in LA and won't have to pay for wi-fi there either. Just borrow the neighbor's connection.
You know, if I saw someone checking their email in a bar on a Palm with wi-fi, I'd think that person was pretty intelligent. And smarts is sexy.
You know, if I saw someone checking their email in a bar on a Palm with wi-fi, I'd think that person was pretty intelligent. And smarts is sexy.
See, but when I see guys checking email on their Blackberries, I think "pretentious shit" and make fun of them.
Bleh. I think I fall into that category now. But at least it wasn't to show off my nifty technology. It was because I was SO BORED.
Bleh. I think I fall into that category now. But at least it wasn't to show off my nifty technology. It was because I was SO BORED.
