Event Review: The Strawberry Drillpress at The Attic

After catching The Dark Knight on Sunday evening (a film I highly recommend), the boyfriend and I decided to check out The Strawberry Drillpress “homo social” at The Attic, conveniently located across the street from the 24th Street BART station. We found a really cool dive bar with some ladies on the decks playing an eclectic mix of 70s R&B and psychedelic rock, and wound up staying for three drinks.

First, the bar itself is a classic dive with a long narrow bar area leading into a larger back area with tables and booths. The walls are painted black, where they’re not covered with silver and white graffiti, and the lighting was all a lovely shade of bordello red. We loved it the minute we sat down.

The crowd was a pretty good mix of hipster kids, who I assume were of the homo persuasian, boys and girls and some of those kids who you just have to guess. The three girls we saw behind the decks were all having a good time, and when we left after our third drink there was even a cute little dancefloor of about a half dozen kids shaking it to some classic R&B. It might surprise some readers to learn that I really like this stuff; I don’t like it when it’s being thrust upon me as the greatest music of all time, but I started off my musical habits listening to my Mom’s old 45s from the 50s and 60s, and when I can sit in a bar and have a drink and conversation with a little old soul in the background, it’s actually quite nice.

Although there was a moment when the boyfriend and I both felt like we had walked into a college party somewhere, I found that to be a refreshing and unpretentious change from the relentless scenesterism of a typical night out in the Castro. These were kids who just wanted to hang out and have a drink and have fun, and the spirit of that was infectious. We left only because we both had to get up and go to work in the morning; otherwise, I’d have gladly had a couple more drinks and started requesting Otis Redding.

I’m not sure if the Strawberry Drillpress makes any kind of regular appearance at The Attic, but I think I’ll check back again during the 4th Sunday in September to see if I can have another chance to shake a tailfeather.