What do they have in common? They were all apart of my Thursday night. And, no, not literally hash (although the invitation did promise “hash brownies”); it was the opening party for Hash 55, a new modern, eclectic lounge and hookah bar in Midtown.

Generally, I’m not one for Midtown bars, but the timing worked out perfecting since I scored two tickets to Bon Jovi at Madison Square Garden and figured, why not? I grabbed my date, got a drink and endured an over-booked party –we lasted about 20minutes. I don’t care how much free alcohol is in tow, it’s not worth being constantly bumped into because a party is at capacity. And I’d love to comment on the food (mainly the brownies), but literally the poor waiters would come out with horderves and would get pounced on. The problem was the party was thrown upstairs in the lounge, which is a very cool, intimate space that on a non-open bar, invite-the-entire-city type of an evening, would be a great hang out. And their signature cocktails are great! The downstairs is a large seated restaurant with bar. I wish they extended the celebration into that space so we had more room (the restaurant only had a few reservations). So naturally, my date and I