It's Tuesday Night and Jerusalem is Open for Business!!

My friend residenttraveler and I started our bar hopping at Artel, a sophisticated jazz club, with a very nice manager, who opened the place when he got fed up after working 7 years as a product manager in Amdocs. Unfortunatley, the joint was packed and there was no place to sit in the whole club! I even tried the usually less-crowded second floor.

Now, I just came back from New York and had the pleasure of catching some jazz at Small's down in the Village on a Tuesday, and guess what: it was maybe 40% full. Of course any comparison is misleading, all I'm saying is that I am very proud of post-intifada Jerusalem, whose bars are full to the brim, after the big slump during the times of terror. Needless to say, one bombing can change all that so let's not liftoach peh lastan.

Speaking of terror bombings, The next place on our itenerary was the Restobar, formerly the Moment (which had a terrible bombing in 2002.) The place is still a Tel Aviv style pick up bar, with a regretably Tel Avivian menu (Hummus-Shrimps anyone?) At 11:30 PM The place was almost full with a solid 50/50 ratio between the sexes. Notable patrons were ladies in their late-twenties who come in twos and occupy a table, chatting the night away. Residenttraveler was wracked by the problem of how one can approach such a table and hit on a lady one fancies, without coming off as bumbling and obtrusive. While I have some ideas of my own, some of which I implemented tonight, I'm opening the floor for debate on this one among my many many many readers!