Our Urban Experience: Evening One- JRs and Pete's Satire.

This "Urban Experience" is an exercise in making yourself feel like you are not the majority. In addition to going to a number of schools where we do not look like everone else and going out to eat in restaurants where we do not know the food on the menu, we are supposed to experience some alternate cultures, to the best of our ability.

To be honest, I did not feel entirely comfortable going into drinking establishments in some neighborhoods of Denver. I would welcome the chance to meet with people of diverse cultures, but they may not want me visiting them. As an exercise in diversity, Robert, Carolyn, Lynn and I decided to spend our first evening in Denver at a gay bar.

After asking around, we decided to go to a bar named JR's, which was only a mile or so from the Chalet Bed and Breakfast, where we were spending the week. We parked around the corner and went in. It was a nice looking place from the outside (the picture is from the bar's website, I am not sure why it is tinted blue, I didn't do that...). We halted in the doorway for a few seconds, as you usually do when you walk into a new bar or restaurant. For the first time in quite a long time in my life, I felt severely out of place. Almost everyone stopped to look at us. I could tell that the look on everyone's face said, "Do you know where you are? Are you supposed to be in here?" After an awkward few seconds, we found a table on the far side of the bar. We waited for a couple of minutes before the bartender called over from the bar that service was at the bar only. We went up to the bar and ordered a round of beers. We were amused by the fact that the bartender looked Robert and I in the eye and made comments as he handed our drinks to us, while he merely placed the ladies' drinks on the bar and walked away.

All in all, the bar was very nice, clean and comfortable. The music was a little loud, but very tolerable. It was amusing to see little groups of couples scattered about the bar, all men. There were lots of hugs to be seen between bar patrons, much more than you would ever expect to see at a sports bar.

Eventually, we decided to pack up and get some dinner. We walked down to the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver. We ate at a little sandwich shop and then walked home again. As it was relatively early still (10:00 p.m.) we decided to go to a little bar up the street from our Bed and Breakfast, a dump called "Pete's Satire Lounge." I am not sure who the hell Pete is, but apparently, he had lots of money to invest in the neighborhood in which we were staying. His name was on at least 8-10 different businesses on our street, from Greek restaurants to Convenience stores. His Satire Lounge was a desperate, cramped little place, with 1970s style booth seating and a appetizer style menu. We had a beer, then left. The place gave me a headache.