You have to hit the clubs at 9:30 to avoid lineups

Welcome to Vancouver!

I'm not a big fan of clubs, but once in a while, it's fun to go out with a few girlfriends, maybe do a bit of dancing. On Saturday, Lara and I decided to have a night out and after getting a few recommendations about some good places from Raf, we picked Ginger 62 as our venue. By ten, we're both ready to go, waiting for the cab company to answer the phone, quite in a good mood. 10:25, the cab parks in front of the club and there's a lineup. Yes, lineup. OK, we're thinking it can't be that bad, so we go directly to the source and ask the bouncer how long the wait will be. 45 minutes. Right. Oh, you're actually serious. Ouch.

Neither of us has ever waited 45 minutes to get into a club and we're not about to start in Vancouver when it's cold and windy outside, and we're not dressed that well. So we walk to another bar close by, Bar None. Again, there's a lineup. Again, 45 minutes. They train you at bouncer school to answer pretty girls who are trying to avoid the lineup with the same line: it'll be about 45 minutes.

We're not discouraged yet, we walk to Lucy Mae Brown, also close by. Fortunately, downtown Vancouver is small, clubs are all within the same area. No lineup at Lucy, but the club (downstairs, the top floor being a restaurant) is full and hosting a private function. We ask if we can have a few drinks at the restaurant and the host is about to show us to the table when some other manager comes up and says we can go downstairs afterall. So, we crashed someone's birthday party and had a great time. Nobody seemed to mind the two strangers, and the two other who dropped by when Gerri and Joe came after the opera.

So, if we want to get into Ginger 62 and Bar None, what time do we have to hit the place? 9:30? That's dinner time, way too early...