In February, I posted an article entitled Club Bouncer Egos. Well the club I was referring to is an after work bar in Toronto called Shmooze. A girl I know through a friend had a bad experience at this same club and shared her experience by writing an article to a Toronto Newspaper (The Metro). I decided to post it here:
Hello Chris,
I caught your recent profile on Shmooze in Friday’s (April 22) metro and thought I would share my recent experience with you.
Having visited Shmooze a few times in the last month, I have come to identify a certain method in the madness of the infamous ‘Shmooze line up.’
Getting into Shmooze after 5 is somewhat like getting into the gates of heaven, (to be expected when $2 drinks are on the table.) The disconcerting thing about it is that entry into heaven seems to be a heck of a lot easier if you are Caucasian.
Here is a little story from this Friday. We got into the line up at 5 o’clock and it was moving along. We happened to be waiting for a few people so we had the opportunity to watch the goings on for a while. Oddly the line ground to a complete halt once it got to people of color. In fact, the bouncers actually went through the line tapping certain ‘lucky’ people, granting them entry. All of these ‘lucky’ people had one thing in common, they all happened to be Caucasian. After waiting for an hour, we girls ended up being let in. However when we requested the bouncer to let our two male friends through as well, we were pointedly told that it was quite likely that they would have to wait an additional hour to get into the Mecca that is shmooze. Once inside we were told by another bouncer that if our friends were ‘brown’ there was really nothing he could do to speed up the process.
Perhaps I am naive in wondering how things like this can still happen in our wonderfully multicultural city? Does common decency fly out the window once an overweight man is given a clip board and head set? I understand that Shmooze is a private establishment, which reserves the right to refuse entry to people, but is it acceptable that such entry is subject or rather delayed through a test of skin pigmentation?
My advice to all is ‘you won’t Not get into shmooze if you are of colour, you just have to be prepared to stand in line an extra hour or two, and put up with unnecessary attitude and fleeting looks of disgust from the bouncers.’
A conundrum really: Dignity vs. $2 martinis.
Darlene
That makes me wanna roll some heads. seriously. Screw them and their 2$ martinis.
I go with dignity…I can’t understand why people would wait in line for at least an hour to get into a place like that when there’s about a thousand other bars in the city…maybe it’s the small town in me talking!!
I gotta say… and this is coming from a guy who can drink about as much as a pygmy ant whose just ingested a plump african elephant… 2 dollar drinks are pretty sweet… considering the average price of a drink in downtown Toronto is 6-10 dollars (with tip) on average… I wonder if the bartenders get a little extra since their tips are likely to be much less generous on a per drink basis…
Jimmy Fuck Schmooze I’m sick of that place.
So, Wanna go next Friday?? 😛