Reno Santa Crawl 2009
Experience Date: 12/10 – 12/12/2009
Stars: 5+
2009’s Reno Santa Crawl wasn’t just a Saturday night of pub crawling for my friends and I, but truly a Friday through Sunday experience (dubbed the Reindeer Games by some, we’ll see if that catches on). Thursday through Sunday if you count the costume-making get together we had before the weekend really even started.
Friday: Santa Crawl Pajama Ball
At The National Bowling Stadium
Santa Crawl Pajama Ball
This charity fund raising event was held at the National Bowling Stadium downtown (and I thought I’d never get to bowl there!) Two games and shoes for $15, with proceeds going to Hashimoto Widows and Orphans’ Fund for families of fallen police officers in the Reno/Sparks area, was a fantastic deal. If that wasn’t reason enough, it was Holly’s 27th birthday and this was the perfect setting for her celebration. We honestly arrived first, literally had bells on, and I think somewhat scared the less-than-organized volunteer staffers with our enthusiasm. Our group was even interviewed by Channel 4 News (would love to get my hands on the segment) and had a blast bowling and of course taking about a gazillion photos. I hope this event comes back in ’10.
Saturday: Santa Pub Crawl
Jingle Ballers
Foregoing the Mt. Rose Santa Crawl skiing extravaganza for another commitment (Reno Passport photo shoot), our group headed downtown around 7 to get settled in to our rooms at the CalNeva (thanks again for the $10 room offer to crawlers!) and avoid getting stuck somewhere along the way in the snowstorm. When dressed, ready and flared to the max, we opted for the classic Reno budget dinner of Awful Awful and then began our night.
The crawl took us all over downtown Reno on Saturday night; the snow and slush did not stop us! Santa Crawl 2009 brought out a whole new breed of creativity with costumes ranging from the giant gingerbread man, to a polar bear and a myriad of Dick-In-A-Box dudes. Crawlers amassed at the arch at midnight and the night went on and on and on from there.
Sunday: We Don’t Stop
Sunday Morning Angels
Having had the CalNeva hotel rooms, we woke up downtown Sunday morning pretty much still in full crawl gear. My little sis was in town visiting, and in true Blahnik vacationer spirit, she had a cocktail in hand within 15 minutes of opening her eyes. I followed suit, as did the rest of the team by the time we reached our morning breakfast spot at the Eldorado casino. We decided during breakfast that the crawl was not over and proceeded to march around downtown Reno for the rest of the morning, hitting the ice skating rink, one of the many fine liquor stores and finally finishing at Sierra Tap House (on Patrick’s dime, thanks bud).
All in all, there was a wonderfully positive energy this year at the Reno Santa Crawl, and in keeping with most all other things we do…we tore it up nonstop with grins from ear to ear.
Halloween in Reno!
Gotta get a pic under the Reno Arch
Reno is a community that constantly invents reasons to dress up and interact. I couldn’t have picked a better place to relocate after finally getting out of Michigan. Halloween in Reno is of course no exception.
Halloween 2009 in Reno was a total blast. Friday night we started at Patrick’s house, getting ready together and eating pizza and preparing to roll out for a hellafun night. The evening took us downtown Reno to participate in the Reno Zombie Crawl, a great bar crawl event founded by fabulous Ed Adkins.
210 North
We only managed to hit Imperial (one drink), Divine (a dance or two), Silver Legacy casino (various running around) and 210 North. We stayed at 210 most of the night dancing away. I’m not gonna lie, the crowd at 210 has in the past scared me a bit (and not just on Halloween) but as of late the club seems to attract a bit nicer crowd (maybe all the social media workin’ its magic?) and I’m no longer afraid of mean girls trying to fight me. 210 also has the nicest restroom attendant ever, tip her ladies!
My friends and I were ready to rally again on Saturday night, and opted to join a larger group and get a room in the Tuscany Tower as well as skip-the-line accommodations to Peppermill’s Edge Nightclub. Edge was just ridiculously packed, but it was a blast to see all of the people in costumes lining up as early as 9pm to get in (even better to pass right by them with our host.) Saturday night is fuzzy, but I do know that I should have entered the costume contents (c’mon Matt and I were WWE wrestlers and we even had a routine! We’d have killed it.) we ate late night snacks at Peppermill’s casual dining option, Coffee Shop (I passed out for a bit at the table, but-YUM), and enjoyed some much needed sleep in the comfy Tuscany Tower room. Great show, Peppermill.
Pre-party at Peppermill
Looking forward to the next big Reno dress-up event…Reno Santa Crawl!
Cadillac Ranch in Sparks = Lame
Experience Date: 8/7/09
Stars: 1
Cadillac Ranch celebrated its grand opening at The Legends in Sparks on Friday, August 7. After dinner and hitting Hot August Nights (ie-Freezing Cold August Nights in 2009!) we thought we’d swing by the area’s newest bar to check it out. A bunch of our friends we already there and I’m generally a big fan of new places.
Oops. Spelling Error.
Cadillac Ranch was immediately, and I mean IMMEDIATELY, disappointing. They apparently think that they are worthy of charging cover (really? Cadillac Ranch is just a bar…and there was no band…?) for patrons to enter their sidewalk gate. Only to have to stand at the bar for 15+ minutes waiting for one of the many snobby bartenders to even acknowledge my presence. The kicker was that at around 17 minutes I received my check, but still hadn’t received our drink order. Cadillac Ranch…really?
Being that we had to wait such a long time for the first drink, we didn’t bother going after another and were gone within the hour. It was fun to see some friends and take a look at people riding the mechanical bull, but good customer service is what would bring me back to Cadillac Ranch, and they definitely came up very, very short.
I am, however, looking forward to checking out Rack & Pinz next door to Cadillac Ranch, and to the Forever 21 opening!
Update:
I was so annoyed I even yelped.
Nada Dada Motel at Reno’s El Cortez
Experience Date: 6/20/09
Stars: 4
This particular Saturday night, Matt and I decided to explore the underground cultural side of Reno, and headed downtown to visit an art exhibit called the Nada Dada Motel held at the El Cortez.
The view down Arlington from Hotel El Cortez 6th floor fire escape
This was the third year for Nada Dada, and our first viewing. The gist of the show is that artists, both local and from across the country, each take over a hotel room at the El Cortez and create a space for their art–whatever it may be. Each room between floors 2 and 5 was completely unique and many really amazing. My favorite artist overall was John Molezzo. Molezzo does these wicked digital murals of Reno–and if I had any extra cash at all, I would have loved to buy a print. (I settled for snagging a couple of his postcards.) Also showing were my friends Jamie Kingham and Rachel Milon, displaying his photography and participating as players in one of the many weekend productions.
always so smiley
The folks over at Reno Passport and Metromix did a pretty good job summarizing the event, so I’ll suggest reading up over there for real detail. My final comments will note that this event was completely free and open to the public, and even cooler because you can bring your own beer (or etc….) and sip as you browse, interact and enjoy. My only disappointment occurred due to my own ignorance–not all rooms are open during viewing hours, so we missed out on some cool stuff.
This is definitely an event I’d go to again in ’10. And I’ll plan to hit it twice.
Paul Oakenfold at Grand Sierra Resort
Experience Date: 6/19/09
Stars: 5+
All I can safely say about this fantastical night is that we got to meet Paul Oakenfold before the show. Kick Ass. Everything blurs together after that. I love going to the Grand Sierra Resort. It is by far still my favorite casino in Reno. Nothing is better than going to an event there and being able to run around the casino, escalate between floors, crash our friends’ hotel rooms and slam beers at that corner bar (and okay, in the car in the parking lot) instead of forking over huge amounts of cash at The Beach poolside club. And they have a 24-hour bowling alley. Not that I’ve ever bowled after about 11pm, but still. Love it.
~yay~
Reno ’09 Summer Clubbin’ Kickoff at the Grand Sierra Resort (!)
Experience Date: 6/6/09
Stars: 5+
The GSR was all set to open their re-branded outdoor poolside club “The Beach” on Saturday, June 6 and we were stooooked! Unfortunately, Reno was having a stretch of rainy days to rival the record set in 1911 and plans were thwarted.
Luckily, in our extreme excitement to take on The Beach, we’d booked VIP Cabanas in advance, and GSR being kickass as they are, contacted all the VIP’s early in the day to invite them to take over Dolce inside the casino, and party all night with DJ Skribble and an OPEN BAR.
Photo stolen from GSR's facebook...click for more!
Our group took full, 100% advantage and did our best to party like rock stars. Thanks to The Beach and Grand Sierra’s terrific VIP hosts for making it a night to remember.
Keep tabs on what will be going on at the Grand Sierra Resort this summer by following these cats on the twit. They’re already giving away concert tickets to Paul Oakenfold, and I’m willing to put some cash on bigger and better prizes as the days get hotter!
A concert at Reno’s The Underground…
Experience date: 4/2/2009
stars ~ .5
My second time at The Underground in Reno, was to see a show by an underground hip hop group Matt liked called Swollen Members. According to their website, show was starting at 7:30, doors at 7. Naturally, we hung out at Matt’s until about 9ish eating some fantastic Papa Murphy’s pizza dinner and having you know just a couple Coors Lights. My roommate/cousin Holly was joining us tonight and we were all pretty excited it was almost the weekend and we had something fun to do on a Thursday evening.
Anyway, getting back to the review. I remembered why I don’t go to The Underground. Its lame. We paid 20 bucks to see the show, arrived purposefully late and the show still didn’t start for a couple more hours. (Why do some venues promote obnoxiously early start times?) We could only hang out and enjoy a beer in the half of the establishment that allowed 21+ to drink (the other half–where the show actually happens–had some sort of restriction, though it had a huge bar fully stocked with no people and empty bar stools). We did find some entertainment in Holly and I switching I.D.’s and still making it past the door guy between rooms.
Swollen Members was pretty good, but by the time they came on I was a couple deep (seeing as how we were segregated to hours of drinking in a room with no live music, forcing us to slam beers and go back to check on the show status several times, wondering if we were missing it). After so much waiting around I was less interested in bopping around than I normally would be at a show, and didn’t enjoy having to deal with avoiding fights started by punk little white boys.
Entertaining OURSELVES at The Underground
Over it before the band ended, we took off and hit McD’s on the way home. But that’s another review. I’m giving The Underground .5 stars.
.5, and that is taking in to account the first time I was there and the owner bought me a shot. Sorry Underground, I’m not coming back.
