The Lush had a downright stressful week last week. There were job interviews to worry about, a paper to write, an exam to prepare for - all that activity left depressingly little time for drinking.
Sad, right? I know. The one place I thought I would get to booze a little - Senior Dinner at Gifford House - was dry as a desert. Come on Larry, you couldn't spring for a few bottles of red?
Needless to say, come Saturday night the Lush was ready for some liquid refreshment. So, vowing to try somewhere new (the Lush is very much a creature of habit), we hopped a Red Line train to Central Square. Bolstered by four or five games of Up the River, Down the River, most of our party was feeling rather giggly.
Quick note on the T ride: Double thumbs up to the random dude drinking a Corona on the train. You thought we didn't see you, but we did and we were proud to be in your company.
We got up on the street and were
somewhat unsure of where we wanted to go. First we hit the ATM, where we encountered a maybe-security guard, maybe-criminal who was packin' heat and trying very hard to get into the bank. Scarred by the harrowing experience at the ATM, we needed a beer, so we headed for the nearest bar - the Middle East.
To be honest, the Lush was not really all that impressed with the Middle East, although to also be fair, we were only there for about 20 minutes. That was really only long enough to finagle our way to the front of the bathroom line (the Lush is one smooth talker) and have a beer. The bartender, however, was rude and mixed up our order.
Highlights from the Middle East included seeing Jon's Physics TA, the Lush repeatedly yelling, "I love Physics" in an attempt to get said TA's attention and make sure it was him and leaving because our table was right over a super-powered heater and the Lush overheated rather quickly.
We headed down the street, past a hotel called Hotel@MIT, which was so ridiculous that the Lush mentioned it about every 60 seconds for the rest of the night.
We ended up in a bar that was so MIT I think my IQ went up 30 points just stepping in the door. It was called the Miracle of Science and the menu was on a massive chalkboard in the form of the Periodic Table. The Lush was in love.
The bar was so nerdy, yet oh so excellent - mostly because we were definitely the coolest people in there by far. I could have stayed there all night, but we really only stayed long enough for a round of beers, a round of Kamikazes and an order of chips and salsa (Atomic Symbol C on the menu, Atomic Weight $3.75). Despite the nerd factor, the vibe was great. It definitely was not a place you would go to meet someone (unless skinny MIT boys are your poison), but it was the perfect place to relax with friends.
The Lush wanted to stay, but was forced back out into the cold and across the street to the Asgard. The Asgard is a big Irish pub of the sort the Lush usually loves, but she was less than enamored with this place.
For starters, I hated our waiter - so much so that I pulled the completely jerky move of going directly to the bar to order all of my drinks instead of ordering through him. Karma punished me for this by my ripping a 10 dollar bill in half. I was punished again later in our time at the Asgard by spilling an entire pint of far too expensive beer.
The good thing is, however, I made a friend by spilling my beer. This is because I spilled it all over some dude's leg. Now, while the Lush would have gotten extremely belligerent should that have happened to her, my new friend Matt was a lot more forgiving. The rest of my group came over to join Matt's group and we had ourselves a little party in the corner. Turns out, one of his friends was a recent Tufts grad, so we ended up having a great time with some fellow Medford folks.
Soon enough, we were getting kicked out of the bar and the Lush had no idea where the time had gone (this seems to happen a lot, huh?). Luckily, earlier in the evening we had spotted Hi-Fi pizza and noticed that it was open until 3 a.m.
For that sole reason I think Central Square is better than Davis. The Lush is a drunken eater and the Medford-Somerville area just does not cater to my tummy's late-night rumblings. Jon and I split the largest order of fries they had and I did not even care that I kept burning my fingers.
Even though our wanderings in Central Square had their ups and downs - their ripped tens and their spilled pints - the fries@MIT made it all worthwhile.
