Alex I.
Yelp
In the summertime, when the mojitos are flowing and the cotton is high, I like to take out-of-towners (or "normies" I like to call them) to the back garden of Nublu to knock their socks off. It's hemmed in by a low brick wall and adorned with plants, tables and ottomans that may not be kind to your knees but (wisely) foster a sense of being enclosed still in the open air. On the other side of that wall is a rarity: an undeveloped field quietly being ignored. Believe me, it feels like paradise in the early evening, chatting with a few friends, laughing your ass off in what quickly begins to feel like your own personal deck.
This is my city, one drink at a time.
Once you step through the velvet curtains on your way back into the main dance/bar space you're greeted with a muted green palate, more ottomans and a live band getting ready to tear the roof off the mutha sucka. Bodies start to file in and fill the place up pretty quickly so by 11 it's a wall to wall skin fest (of the best type). You can hear several different languages at Nublu at any given time: Porteguese, Spanish, some French and assorted international fare. This is mostly because while Nublu is an exciting place to be it does so without the pretentious grandiosity that often mistakes itself for style at places in the meatpacking district.
International tunes shake the main room and the meager dance floor fills up with grinding crotches, so if you're shy about your crotch keep to the backroom or bar area. Also, revere yet fear the mojito. A tasty concoction to be sure but muy muy pelegroso, mon ami. You'll stand up after three or four and a conversation with a Russian girl only to realize that you can't stand or all your friends left you an hour or two ago. Not that it's ever happened to me, mind you. But I've hear it told. You'll stumble through the crowd, looking a bit green, overheated perhaps, barely making out of the bar, with a fervent desire to return the last four hours of drinks to the land outside your body. And that's just not sexy.
The back area closes after 10 (I think) so if you're going to enjoy it get there early. If not--and should you get there in the full swing of a Friday night--get ready for a live band that elevates the intensity level in direct proportion to the dimness of the lights. That's to say yes Nublu is a laid back, sexy environment and it knows it.
It's the girl in high school who you wanted to hate but just couldn't. You couldn't help yourself could you, when she spoke to you, from lighting up like the cops on unarmed black people. Yeah, she's that girl.