For everyone who was wondering why Zocalo stopped being crowded at midnight and why Blue Light looked like a Darden reunion last night…..Oxo opened its “late night lounge” last night and had quite a successful opening. All of Charlottesville’s regular lushes were out checking out this new venue right off the mall and the place was really hopping from 12a-on.
Notes:
-They do not have a soda gun, so you will actually get Canada dry club soda and tonic water that tastes great.
-People were actually dancing! They really need to get a better music selection but the Justin Timberlake and Michael Jackson were great. If this takes off, there is actually a great area to dance and they would be well served by getting a DJ who knows how to get people dancing.
-Move the couch AWAY from the bar. On the most accessible side of the bar there was a couch you had to stand/lean/kneel on to order a drink. Other than the damage to furniture, this was just not a well thought out idea.
-The front porch is great. Good people watching and the addition of a “bouncer” who held the door for you and a waitress collecting glasses frequently was really nice. I only saw one glass get broken the whole night and this was cleaned up in about 5 seconds.
-The bar setup was clearly not setup for quick serving from rail or otherwise and they would be well served by getting someone in there to retool it so they move quicker. It looks pretty but if they get slammed, prepare to wait for a drink (but at least you won’t wait as long as you have to @ Zocalo now that Polo is gone..wow they have got some amateurs working now…anyways).
Anyways, as far as openings in the past couple of years that I’ve been to (X lounge, Maya, Ten, etc.), this was a huge success and hopefully they will do well with it. It would be great to have a nice new place to enjoy a libation and maybe (keep your fingers crossed) shake a little ass.
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Tagged as: Bars, Downtown Mall, Raves, Reviews, Singles Scene, ZO.CA.LO
Iron - I so wanted to go to this..but I was completely hung over from prior nights. Great review…
Were the ladies nicely dressed and seductive?
It was wonderful to see so many people who braved the heat to look fabulous that evening. However, since Oxo does have the lowest light of any bar in Cville - this could have helped.
Iron, good stuff. I got the invite by e-mail from a friend, do you know who started it? I didn’t see any public advertising…
1) There wasn’t a decent-sized dance crowd until about 1:00 am. Before that, it was a fucking lame-fest.
2) I don’t know how long you decided to stay, because by the the time I was there, there wasn’t a door-guy and a friend and myself counted at least five broken glasses(that we heard).
3) I aggree that the music was whack, and the fact that you could have a very easily audible conversation on the dancefloor is a NO-NO(I’m told that next time there will be a PA and an actual DJ).
[…] it was the beginning of August when Iron (who is now deceased, apparently) first first discovered OXO Late Night. I think I’ve experienced enough of OXO. The flirting was awesome, the dating got heated, the […]
[…] August 5th, 2007 - cVillain’s Iron discovers the late night scene at OXO. We rave that “people were actually dancing!“ We also critique some of the shortcomings of a restaurant that had little experience with the late night scene. […]