Thursday night at Bymark – Emily’s Perspective

July 26, 2009 experiments999
Tags: Bars, Dating Scene, Life, Love, Men, Relationships, Summer, Toronto

After speaking with my investment banker friend as part of the market research to identify what places are good to hit to find our prospective male counterparts, it turns out that Thursday is a hot night to go for after work drinks. Therefore, Aida and I have decided to check out Bymark for our first official Mission Possible project outing. The other suggested places for Thursday include Ki, Cheval and Brant House, and perhaps Easy on the Fifth and Schmooze on Friday nights for their happy hour.

Before arriving at Bymark, we’ve passed by Ki and decided to quickly drop in to check out the crowd so that we’ll have a backup place in case Bymark is not happening. The crowd at Ki is definitely 25+ professionals. It has a small patio and it was already filled with the after work crowd and inside was busy as well. We were pleased with Ki’s crowd so it’s certainly a contingency place if Bymark is a disappointment.

Bymark is located on Wellington in the TD Center. However we got confused and thought it was at the TD bank tower attached to the BCE place. We finally found it and boy we thought Ki was busy, but Bymark was jam packed, both the patio and lounge area. It also has a much bigger patio area compared to Ki.

I felt a little intimidated by the unanticipated huge crowd and also the type of crowd that it is. Similar to Ki, the clientele is 25+ professionals but here they probably range from 25 to early 50s. I would guess that 97% of them work at the TD Tower in the investment or consulting business, which leads to me to believe they make at least 70K to over 100K annually.

I mean I expected professionals, you can say casual professionals, but this crowd is like formal professionals where all the men were in suits and the women were dressed very business-like as well with majority of them in dress pants or pencil skirts with blouses. There were a few women, who are older, and I would guess that they’re in their 40s, who wore skimpier outfits, such as a very low neckline top or body hugging dress that shows off their clearly surgically enhanced breasts. These women may be in their 40s but you can tell that they work hard to stay in shape and to look young with their trendy sense of style and wrinkle free skin. Even the older men don’t look so bad themselves, despite the gray hair, you can tell that they workout to stay in shape as well. 

Aida and I on the other hand, I would say that we’re under-dressed compared to them. I think we may have stood out because of that. I was wearing a fitting high-waisted knee length pencil skirt with a fitted round neck, short sleeve blue top along with my patent Steve Madden sandals and gold and white Micheal Kors satchel. I guess I can pass for semi-professional but I really felt like changing into dress pants and a pretty blouse. Aida was dressed even more casually but very trendy and summery with her short sleeve floral printed dress that hits just below her bum, accessorized with a gold belt, tan coloured Betsy-Johnson purse and finished off with tan coloured gladiator heels. I can’t help but wonder if we gave off the gold digger vibe…maybe it’s a little bit of the guilty conscious talking. Also, in order to take in the crowd, we can’t help but scout around, so that may have given off the “I’m here to be picked up by a successful man” vibe as well.

Aida and I wanted to get seats in the patio but they were only seating people who were planning to have dinner so we settled for seats inside the back of the lounge because we’ve only budgeted for drinks and appetizers. The prices are quite steep but of course they suit the salaries of their clientele. Each drink is at least $12 and appetizers are over $15 except for the fries and mini burgers, even so it’s $7 and $9 respectively. We were both hungry so we agreed to sharing appetizers and decided on the fries and calamari. As for drinks, I ordered a pineapple mojito and Aida ordered the Bymark signature martini. I have to admit despite the high prices, the drinks and appetizers coupled with their dipping sauces were delicious! Like the saying goes, “You get what you paid for.” Also when I think about it, the prices are pretty average for a martini and mojito.

As we ate and sipped our drinks, we can’t help but scout around the room and peek through the glass windows to the patio for potential candidates. I also noticed that people were either chatting or messaging on their blackberry. I felt embarrassed bringing out my regular Samsung phone when I was texting. Aida has her blackberry from work and she says, “Oh, I can pretend I’m doing work on my blackberry too.” I then joked, “Um, but yours is such an old model, it’s not any better than my Samsung phone,” and we both laughed.

We ventured out to the patio once we were done the appetizers and Aida has finished her drink. I on the other hand was still nursing on my mojito, one reason is that I’m a light weight, and second is that I prefer not to order another drink if I don’t have to due to budget reasons. Both reasons are pretty sad. Oh well, luckily the mojito has a lot of limes, pineapples, leaves of mint and ice to make it look like it’s still full =)

Inside the lounge has died down a bit but the patio is still packed, we literally had to squeeze our way through to the patio bar so Aida can order her drink, not to mention there’s a line there too. While we’re waiting for the bartender to take Aida’s order, she attempted to start a conversation with the man in the suit who was doing little dances behind the bar. The dances were quite funny and he seemed friendly and easy going, however he didn’t seem too intrigued when Aida commented on his dance moves. At first I thought he was just a customer who’s such a regular there that he gets to pour himself a drink at the side of the bar, but Aida suggested that he’s probable a manger or owner there. That probably makes more sense so Aida being her usual strategic self made a point to chat with him, unfortunately the man didn’t take the bait.

We moved around to a few different spots to better check out the crowd, as well to secure better spacing so that we’re not pushed or bumped into when people are trying to get to the bar. By then we were both ready to head home.

Again, it was certainly another good learning experience. We’ve agreed to definitely come back with a new strategy and of course to enjoy the yummy drinks and food again =)

Entry Filed under: Bars,Dating Scenes,Life,Love,Men,Relationships,Summer,Toronto

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