Sunday, December 7, 2008

The Joshua Tree: Over-hated

As I thought about things to write in this blog, everything was negative. I may become known for being negative because I usually have more to say about something I don't like than something I do like. And when it comes to arguing, I'm better at convincing people why something sucks than why something else is awesome.

Thursday night I was at the Joshua Tree in Allston, not far from where I live with some friends from work. We settled on the J Tree because it's close, and we almost didn't go because we were afraid that at 9 p.m. it might be in "dance club mode." Because of their tendency to become a douchebaggy club on certain nights, I have heard a lot of people say "I hate the Joshua Tree."

Well, in my opinion, it's over-hated. In a lot of cases, bars get written off because of how they are on a Friday or Saturday night. The problem is that you are going on a weekend night, when all the little college kiddies are out to annoy you. The music has to change to suit their needs, it's cramped, it's busy. Pretty much a douchebomb goes off and it sucks.

The Joshua Tree on this Thursday night was actually kind of awesome.

* They have a good variety of beer without taking Budweiser or more mainstream beers off the menu to seem classier. Sometimes you want your classy beer and then your old college standby.
* The music was a little old-school that night. When "It Takes Two" by Rob Bass came on, the 24 year old was left out for not knowing all the words instead of the over 25 crowd wondering what the hell music is this? Other songs and artists included Lauryn Hill, Mary J. Blige, OPP, LL Cool J, and the Beastie Boys.
* There were several options including my two new favorite things: bleu cheese and buffalo anything. Most places have one option for Buffalo- the J Tree offers it in a burger, a dip, and a quesadilla. Their bleu cheese fries were quite good.
* It wasn't busy so the service was great and everything came quick.

This all may seem obvious-if you're like me, you think a bar is better when it's not packed with annoying people. The point is, sometimes it's the people, not the bar. Don't write off a bar entirely though if you haven't seen it on a good day.

1 comment:

S said...

I think I needed to read this. I've been avoiding a formerly favorite restaurant/bar because suddenly it became popular and on a Saturday night that I was DD-ing, it got so crowded that a drunk guy pushed me to the ground. Hard to forget about when you have no alcohol in your system when it happens.

I guess I'll have to go back someday soon. Just maybe on a Wednesday instead of Saturday.