Cocktails and The City

A New York Coincidence

When you are faced with the land of endless opportunity, you expect coincidences to be one in a million. Well in New York, think again.

Coincidences happen more often than you think in the city that never sleeps, and this week completely proves that. When you go out in New York, you need to realize that the hottest places are the hottest places for a reason. Everyone knows about them, including the people you wish didn’t.

Coming up to midterm season at college is a great time to blow off steam and go out with your best friends, and it’s also a great time to meet knew people. Or perhaps bump into someone you’ve met before…

It’s funny that you can go to the same bar every week, order the same drinks, go with the same friends and still meet people you have never seen before. Like tonight for example, we assembled our group together and made our way to the bar. For an Ivy League University in the center of New York, we Lions certainly know how to party on a Wednesday. With the music jumping and the need to relax imminent, we always have a good time and tonight was no different.

To return to the topic of how to approach a girl at the bar, have you ever tried giving her a nickname? Well, my nickname for the evening, as curtesy of two hilarious guys, was strawberry. And of course, they therefore referred to themselves as Vanilla and Chocolate. Now, not only was this a very unique way for me to get approached at the bar, but is it also one of the more memorable encounters of the night, following a few too many Rum and Coke’s. Was this encounter supposed to mean anything at the time, of course not, why would it?…

Sometimes I feel I only talk about the night before. Well, that’s because 8am classes are never eventful when all you can think about is the pounding in your head from lack of sleep. But the only thing worse than getting up for an 8am class after going out the night before, is the knowledge you missed a good time. So that was motivation enough for me to get myself out of bed and across campus to discuss the political system in Hungary… that and the knowledge that we were doing it all again tonight.

This week is the week of Mardi Gras, and if you’re from the States, unlike me, then you know what that means; green, purple, and a whole load of parties. This year, one of the Columbia frats was hosting at a club downtown and had been promoting the event all week. So naturally, we had to go.

Prior to this, the student Latino group was also having a cocktail party to celebrate in the lounge. So naturally we did what anyone else would…. Stole as many cocktails as possible and took them back to our room for the pregame.

It really is a feeling like no other, when you are sat next to your best friends, each doing your makeup and comparing outfits with the music far too loud for your neighbors. And that’s exactly what tonight was for us.

After multiple mojitos, countless cosmos and dozens of daiquiris, we made our way to the subway for the party downtown.

Interactions with members of a fraternity can always be considered…interesting. Peculiar, confidence-infused and interesting. However, my interactions with them were in fact not the most shocking of the evening. Despite the gold mask covering my face, and the neon beads draped over my neck, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and suddenly, to my shock, I see a guy that I had met three weeks prior at a bar down by NYU. What was he doing there you may ask? I still have no idea. But we ended up having a conversation that lasted most of the night. Coincidence one of many this week.

However, he was not my only choice for the evening. If you’ve ever been to a frat party, you know you will not be lost for options for the night. In fact, you’ll probably be beating them off with a stick by the end of it. Once you’ve met one frat guy, you’ve met them all. So, it quickly became time to leave.

The next day I had much work to do. I took myself to the gym, because you can’t do work hungover, and then, following my new healthy habit of planning to drink more liquid, I found myself at the newest wine bar on Broadway. I opened my laptop, ordered a glass of Chardonnay and looked up to the faces of two guys I met a few weeks ago at Amity. Coincidence number two. Now, this would have been a fair interaction, however the night I met them, me and my friends thought it would be fun to play a little game. The lie about our identities and see if someone believes us game. So, they knew me as Kayla from Toronto who is doing her PHD in Yiddish studies….. not quite the person I really am. Safe to say I downed the glass of wine, finished my economics notes and was out of there like a flash. Lovely wine, less so the company.

Later that evening, me and my friend Trevor decided to do dinner and a show. Except we would become the show in the restaurant that we would be dining in. La Caverna is a restaurant like no other. By day, it is a delicious Mexican restaurant in the heart of the East Village that serves some of the best tacos in town, at some of the best prices you’ll find, by night it turns into an underground club where you can dance the night away. Naturally, me and Trevor decided to share the tacos and margarita pitcher for dinner, and it was absolutely mouth-watering. We opted for a later reservation as to wait for the fun to begin. There, we watched as around 10pm the waiters began to clear away the tables and chairs to make room for the dance floor and at around 11 when the DJ emerged. I don’t know if any of you have ever partied in a cave before, however this was an entirely new experience for me. One I will definitely be returning to. Whilst enjoying the clay cemented walls and the decorative ceilings, I once again felt a tap on my shoulder. And, low and behold, there was Vanilla and Chocolate in the flesh. Coincidence number three. Okay, I feel like you’re beginning to get the point here. By now this was getting a little spooky for me.

However, it also got me thinking, are all people supposed to meet again, is it fate that we meet certain people more than once in our lifetimes? Or is it merely the New York way?

I don’t know if I will ever have the answer to this. But what I do know, is that Vanilla and Chocolate certainly know how to dance.

The next day, after two many coincidences around campus, I decided to take myself to the West Village in true Carrie Bradshaw style, to do some work. I began my afternoon doing work in the place where I work best, the bar. At Dante, a unique cocktail bar with the best martini hour, I pulled out my economics notes and finally began to study. If you’re ever in need of a place to meet new people, over the perfect vodka martini, head over to Dante between 3 and 5. As I once again proceeded to open up my Economics notes, I began to look around and caught the eye of one of the bartenders. Economics out the window and martinis on tap it was form then on out.

After feeling a little martini tipsy, I decided to sober up with a coffee from Fellini’s. The cutest part about Fellini’s is that they operate their takeout coffee shop from a small window facing the street. I don’t think I’ve ever felt more like Carrie than walking down Greenwich Avenue, coffee in hand as the sun sets beside me.

I was heading off to meet Annie for dinner at Catch, a suave Japanese restaurant that is famously known in New York for it’s hand-crafted Sushi. As soon as you walk in, you feel the glamour and specialness of this restaurant. It envelops you like the sushi roll you are just about to eagerly consume. To start we ate the famous Catch Roll which is lit on fire in front of you. Something I can honestly say takes your breath away with every bite. Then, we followed it up with the Waygu fried rice. A dish partially prepared in front of you by one of your servers. This is a must try restaurant if you are ever in the West Village, an area of New York that absolutely cannot be missed. The meal was absolute wonderful, and what made it even better for me was the company.

Once we finished our meal, we left to go back home for the night. But that’s the thing about New York, the night was only beginning, and we weren’t ready to leave yet. After a little deliberation as to where to go, we headed to a local bar called Do Not Disturb, as recommended by our server. This underground bar could easily be looked over, yet as you walk in, the small space is crowded with people, all having a great time. We stayed for one fabulous cocktail and then left to meet the rest of our friends back at Amity.

All of us knew that this would be our last night out together before Spring Break next week. So, we planned to make it a good one. We danced, laughed and drank our way though the night, and perhaps did some last week questionable activities. Sometimes you do some crazy things on a night out, and waking up with a fire extinguisher sitting next to your bed is definitely the sign of a great night. No more coincidences but a super amount of fun.

This week really got me thinking about time. Is every second of our lives controlled by fate? Or is life just a series of random occurrences? Sometimes it’s hard to tell, but what we do know is that the right people will enter our lives multiple times and will never leave them either.