During a recent Saturday night, I went out to the downtown area of Jersey City to visit the main hotspots. I brought along my cousin Carla and her friends Jenn and Kelly.
Kelly is a senior at New Jersey City University and lives in Hudson County. She just turned 21 and goes out with her friends to meet guys and drink.
"I hear the Sandbar is off the hook on Saturdays," Kelly said. "Hopefully a lot of cute guys will be out. I don’t want to dance with no scrubs."
After several minutes, my cousin came down with her friend Jenn. They’d just gotten highlights in their hair and their nails done. They were all wearing tight black pants and even tighter sleeveless club shirts. The perfume of choice was Davidoff’s Cool Water.
We first arrived at Hamilton Park Ale House on Jersey Avenue for a quick drink. The venue was packed with patrons having dinner and several guys at the bar drinking. It is a spacious venue with a fancy interior and a large bar area. The girls ordered Malibu Bay Breezes, while I enjoyed a Sam Adams.
At around 10 p.m. we took the party to P.J. Ryan’s on First and Marin Boulevard. With plenty of parking, P.J.’s is a great place to relax and watch a good sports game on a flat TV. Every Thursday, the Eamonn Ryan Band plays traditional Irish tunes starting at 8 p.m. Jenn saw a guy from one of her classes and they sat together by the end of the bar and talked. I felt like I was a bodyguard, watching over the girls in case something happened to them.
"Relax. Just have fun," Carla said to me. "You ask us to hang out, but you never have fun."
I spoke with a guy named Eddie and his friend Mark. They were from Secaucus, and they come to Jersey City to go barhopping before hitting the Sandbar on Marin Boulevard.
"This is a fun spot to be," Eddie, who is in his early 20s and is in the Police Academy, said to me. "I meet girls from different towns when I come to Jersey City. It’s a good mix."
Carla and Jenn chilled with me at the bar. I ordered chicken tenders and a bowl of baked potato soup. I didn’t have dinner, but I’ve always enjoyed the soup. It was almost 11 p.m. and I wanted to stop by Katie Ryan’s down the road. Katie Ryan’s was roomy and cozy.
After a round of Malibu Bay Breezes for the girls at Katie’s, it was time to go to the Sandbar. Arguably one of the best clubs in North Jersey, the Sandbar is the premier spot in Hudson County. Saturdays are "Latin Night," and the girls who go there are very attractive. On my way there I got a call from my friends Jason and Brad. I had told them I was going to be in Jersey City that night, and they wanted to meet up. They were chillin’ at Booney’s Saloon at 141 Bright St. Since they knew I was "Mr. Designated Driver" for the night, they wanted me to pick them up. I dropped off the girls at the long line in front of the Sandbar, and I turned around to go to Booney’s.
This new bar, with a Western cowboy look, is unique and festive. It features Tennessee BBQ home-style cuisine. And every Saturday night, charismatic DJ Ramblin’ James plays popular country music. Like a hidden oasis of nightlife downtown, Booney’s offers a happening bar scene with friendly people.
As I walked through the bar, I saw Jason and Brad talking to two girls.
"Hey, Gene! Come here," Jason yelled out to me. "This is Randa and Danielle. They’re coming to the Sandbar with us."
The five us got in my car and we drove just a couple of minutes to the Sandbar. It was around midnight, and the line was out of control. I got a call on the cell from Carla.
"We’re inside. The guys at the door picked us out and let us in," she said.
I’ve heard that the door guys at the Sandbar let the pretty girls in right away.
It was time I used my connections. So I called one of the managers I knew and asked him if he could put me on the guest list with six people. He said he would, and so I proceeded to walk all the way to the front of the line with my friends and their girls.
"What’s your name?" the doorman asked. After I told him, he looked at the long list. "OK, you can go."
The guys were a little impressed, and I then became the hero of the night.
Randa and Danielle were teachers in Union City.
"We come out to meet guys," Randa said, after I bought her and Danielle Long Island Iced Teas. "Your friends are really cool."
As we walked around, I saw Carla, Kelly and Jenn talking to a group of guys. I approached them and Carla looked at me and nodded. That meant she was doing fine.
"This place is awesome," Jason said to me, as he stared at a sea of attractive girls.
As we walked around, we ran into a group of ladies from Pompton Lakes. They had come out for their friend’s birthday. They managed to suck me into their circle and we all went to the dance floor. I ended up dancing with the birthday girl.
After briefly dancing with them, I managed to sneak out and reunite with my friends. They were talking to a group of about a dozen guys. The group of guys looked tough, but Jason, who had been talking to them, said they were cool. I talked to one guy. His name was Chris and he said he was a private contractor and construction worker from Lodi, who comes to the Sandbar almost every Saturday.
"This is a great place to meet single women," he said. "Almost everybody here is Latino, and me and my boys get ripped and meet people."
Not good to drive
My friends kept buying me drinks, which worried me. I had come to the conclusion that I couldn’t drive home. Jason, Brad and me went to the indoor dance floor. There we ran into my cousin and her friends. Since Brad has always wanted to kick it to Carla’s friend Kelly, he walked up to her and danced. Jason and I went to the bar with Carla and Jenn. Jason bought a round of Captain Morgan shots, and Carla bought Jason and me beer. I was feeling buzzed, and I wasn’t the only one.
Carla was disappointed that she didn’t find anybody she knew from work.
"I wanted to see this guy, but I guess he never showed up," she said.
"Call him," I suggested.
"No. If he likes me he’ll call me."
Kelly and Brad danced to the salsa music. I grabbed Kelly and danced with her. We’ve been friends for a while, so we just danced for fun.
I noticed that Jason’s girls were walking by the dance floor. I got his attention and he went up to them.
"Yo, I have to go to work. I think the little one likes me," said Jason.
"Go kid. Go to work," I said to him.
As the night progressed, I kept drinking. Some of the bartenders gave us free drinks after I told them I was with the newspaper working on a story about the nightlife in Jersey City. Mike, one of the bartenders, told me that people from all over North and Central Jersey come to the Sandbar for the music and the good vibes.
"In many ways this is the place to be," he said.
Mike, a financial analyst in Weehawken, lives in Jersey City, and bartends on the weekends.
It was almost 2 a.m. and we decided to walk outside and sit at one of the bars. We joked around about our jobs, and some of the people we had met.
"I can’t believe that guy asked me for my number," Kelly said, laughing. When Kelly first walked in the Sandbar, a guy had grabbed her and danced with her. According to her, he was not friendly, but proceeded to ask her for her number anyway.
“If he looked good I would have given him my cell," she said. "But he was stupid.”
It was closing time, and I called a taxi to take us to my uncle’s house. I left with my cousin and her friends, while Jason left with Brad and the girls they’d met. They got a ride to their car, and the girl Danielle drove Jason’s car back to his place in Irvington.
When we arrived at my uncle’s, the girls went upstairs and fell asleep. I stayed on the couch and crashed.
The next morning, Carla drove me back to the huge parking lot where, luckily, my car was still there.
"You see, it’s still here," Carla said.
"Did you have fun?" I asked her.
"It was cool. I met a bunch of people. Hopefully this one guy calls me this week." q
Fort Lee resident and freelance photographer Gerald Cadena took the photos for this story. He can be reached at cadenage@hotmail.com. His web site is home.att.net/~capedkingprod.