Nightlife

Suburban radness: A Remedy’s bash brings back the ‘80s

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The ‘80s got a sweet send up at Remedy’s.

The couple to my left is hammering through a game of Hungry Hungry Hippos, the girls on the dancefloor are hula hooping in rainbow strobes, and the guy next to me is chuckling about the time he drank Crown Royal with The Outfield during a rainstorm in Delaware. The Brit band’s 1986 chestnut “Your Love” cuts through the bar chatter even more than usual, because this crowd is thick with side-ponytails. And Remedy’s homage to the ’80s is just cranking up.

The neighborhood tavern is part of a collective (with Elixir lounge, two Distill outposts and another Remedy's) focused on locals, and they’ve gathered in force for the $3 Bartles & Jaymes and the DJ spinning Cyndi Lauper, Mötley Crüe, Wang Chung, The Bangles and everybody else who was hot when shoulder pads were. I’m tempted to dial an ancient banana-yellow telephone on the off-chance Christian Slater answers.

Once my eyes adjust to the visual feast of mullets and shredded denim, I’m able to appreciate the underlying cozy-cool of Remedy’s, which was already hopping when I arrived around 8:30 p.m. There’s a family vibe, like most of these people know each other. A bartender shakes my hand and asks my name, and he remembers it. I tell the guy next to me I’ve never been to Remedy’s, and he says they’re happy to have me and puts money in my poker machine. “It’s like Cheers on St. Rose,” he says, and it seems true not only because we look like extras on that show, but also because as the hours pass, I never feel like I showed up alone even though I totally did.

I totally do not win the midnight costume contest; a Madonna doppelganger named Amy crushes it. I take third, thanks mostly to my fanny pack, and maybe the radness of strangers.

Remedy's Tavern 3265 St. Rose Parkway, 702-982-3026. 24/7.

Tags: Nightlife
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