Under Yee's, Bones delivers a birthday bash with class

Twenty-first birthdays are strange. Despite the weeks of anticipation and the promise that you won't spend a dime on drinks, they never quite end up the way the birthday boy (or girl) plans. After all, you almost always wake up with a killer hangover from the eclectic blend of mixed drinks, shots and anything else someone decided to conjure up and declare birthday surprise. And, if you're really lucky, your twenty first will happen to fall right smack in the middle of the weekend, prompting all your friends to use your entrance into the adult world as a cause for supreme celebration: not to mention throw shots at you all weekend long.

And so, this past weekend, in the midst of celebrating someone else's twenty and one year-old festivities by purchasing a shot of Grand Old Bourbon for the birthday boy, I proudly voiced my glib opinion to the table in the face of vain attempts by my other roommates to convince me otherwise.

"Hey, it's not supposed to be fun for him. It's supposed to be fun for us."

Needless to say, I'd had a few drinks.

And how could I resist? We had managed to find the classiest establishment in all the Greater Boston area to celebrate our roommate's first day in the legal drinking world. Just a hop, skip, and jump from the Tufts campus, we found a place where the Scorpion bowls flow like water and cost nearly the same price. We were, of course, in the palace of all Chinese Cocktail Lounges -- Yee Village.

Despite the common declaration that I bear a scary resemblance to the fifty something waiter/bartender/chef that presides over the cheapest Chinese wonderland in all of Boston, Yee's turned out to be the perfect place to start the night. The extraordinarily cheap prices hardly hinder the quality of the scorpion bowls, and although the same can't be said for the more normal cocktails (stay away from the Roy Rogers, Gin and Tonics, Screwdrivers etc), it's hard to pass up a dangerously large bowl of fruit juices and alcohol priced at just over six bucks.

After we had pummeled our birthday boy with scorpion bowls upon coronas upon shots of bourbon and the most amusing tequila shot I've ever seen (you're supposed to lick the salt first, Mr. Montalvan), we were amazed to find that the pain in our wallets could never do justice to the hangover our roommate would have the next morning.

God bless Yee Village.

But the night wasn't over just yet. After paying our miniscule bill, we realized that for the first time in our lives, a bar (a.k.a. Lounge) hadn't crushed our piggy banks, thus causing yet another reason for celebration.

But where to? Already nearing midnight on a Thursday, we knew The Burren and its neighbor, The Joshua Tree would be jam-packed, and despite the price controls at Yee's, none of us could afford the cab ride downtown.

Then a brilliant epiphany: Underbones. A little outside the mainstream Davis bar scene, Underbones seemed the perfect way to continue our birthday bash. And when we heard about the late night nachos, everyone was sold.

Underbones, the basement of the popular Barbecue pit Red Bones, combines a young crowd with a touch of hip southern flavor and some good (though loud) tunes. The dark, yet very comfortable setup with more than enough sitting room for a decent size crowd offers a unique alternative to the more traditional Boston bar.

Although not quite the place you would want to head for a quiet night of conversation, Underbones definitely provides an atmosphere perfect for those who have quenched their thirsts beforehand and in the mood shout a little louder and get a tad rowdy. Plus, the late night menu, featuring killer nachos as well as other Red Bones favorites, is a perfect way to appease the after-hour munchies in style.

Food, it turned out, was just what the occasion called for. After the plethora of drinks at Yee's, some late night PBR's and nachos at Underbones was just what Mr. Twenty-One Year Old desperately needed. Besides, we didn't want to go too hard on the guy. It was, after all, only Thursday. He still had the rest of the weekend looking him in the face come Friday morning.

I happened to get out of bed, drink a glass of water, and use the bathroom just in time to glance the birthday boy trudging off to class the next day. Happy birthday, Los, I said with a smile.

I'm pretty sure he didn't smile back.