Alright, so almost everyone knows that this is my favourite bar. Great music, great drinks, great ambiance, great service. That's what I always said. But as with all good things, this too now has to come to an end.

The drinks are still fabulous. The music, is usually great (although they have been showcasing some not so good bands lately). But it's the ambiance and the service that has started it's decline to ruin.

Let's talk ambiance first. I still love the décor and the setup of the place. This is indisputable. I like the fact that the place is not too big, and not too small. And just the general layout of the place as a whole. I loved going to Alleycatz because even though it got really packed at times, the crowd was older and less immature. Some nights it was too much older (all those cougars and horney old men, yuck) but in general, it was usually alright.

So what's wrong with the ambiance now? Well, for starters, there has been a dramatic increase in the oriental attendance. I'm not saying anything against Asian people (don't forget, I'm Asian). I'm just saying that I don't like my space to be over-run with the Asian demographic. This started becoming a problem at Alleycatz a few months ago, but it's become more defined and prevelant, of late. I guess I shouldn't have said "for starters," since that's pretty much the extent of my ambiance problem.

Next major problem is the service. I cannot believe that my friend and I had to sit at a table for a full 15 minutes, completely ignored. No one brought us a menu or asked us if we wanted drinks or anything. We just sat there on the patio and waited. And it's not like no servers came our way. Eventually, I had to make some noise and force someone to pay attention to us. I won't mention names since I believe it's bad taste to point fingers, but I will say that I was wholly unimpressed.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the extent of our bad service. I have no idea why, but for some reason, the female staff in this place have absolutely NO CLUE what the term "customer service" means. I don't even need to put a "good" in front of that term. I have been at this place countless times. I'm not unknown. But even if I was, there is absolutely no excuse for the incompetence of their waitresses. The term "customer service" as I understand it is that they are there to "serve" the "customer". That's what I did when I worked retail. It didn't matter if I was having a crappy day or if I had a fight with my boyfriend. I was being paid to help the customer and look like I enjoy it.

I know I have raved on countless occassions about how I thought the service there was great. But upon reflection, I must say that there is really only one consistant source of good service, and it's not the barstaff. Only one waiter has consistantly provided me with good service (i.e. on every visit). All the other waiters and the barstaff provide good service if they are "in the mood." I have, on several occasions, been ignored by the various bartenders and once I was even told to get a lemon for my water by myself (it was inconvenient for him to walk to the other end of the bar to get me a lemon). Such attrocious service from moody staff is unacceptable in the service industry. That's right. SERVICE industry. True, I'm not the ideal customer.... and I'm not the easiest customer, but I have been more than accomodating at this place just because I love it so much.

My favourite drink is still my favourite drink. You can't offer me anything to make me give up my Crazy Catz. Even when my bartender told me that the new drink with Soho in it was his creation, I could not be convinced to give up my Crazy Catz (I tried his drink, but the Crazy Catz is still my drink). Not to knock the other drinks though. All their martinis (that I've tried) are great (except the Sexy Catz, which is a vile and disgusting drink that I would not recommend to anyone). And it would be wise of you to order from the younger barstaff since they make the better drinks.

What else can I say? Well, I was very unimpressed when they started charging cover on Thursdays and when they jacked up Saturday's cover to $10. What were they thinking?? Their drinks are already quite pricey and they are a bar not a club. It does not warrent a cover charge. I think it's absolutely insane for them to charge cover at all, let alone $10 on Saturday. On the plus side, they've gotten rid of the horrible hostest that was overly rude and wore more make-up than Ja-Ja Gabore and replaced her with a pleasant and friendly girl. To bad they replaced their short, curly-haired mediocre waitress with a tall, straight-haired nightmare equivalent. I mean the first waitress wasn't that great, but this one is just terrible.

Okay, I'm gonna stop harping on the service (or lack thereof) and move right along. Not gonna say much more since I'm only working myself up into a tizzy for nothing. Despite everything, I will likely still go there for the music and the drinks. I usually avoid Fridays because of the crowd (really do NOT like the Friday crowd), and Saturdays because of the insane cover (I absolutely REFUSE to pay $10 to get into Alleycatz). Thursdays aren't bad (although the last Thursday wasn't that great) and Wednesdays are just downright dead (but they've got good mellow music that night). I tried their salsa Mondays twice and they weren't bad, but I'm not much of a salsa freak so I probably won't be doing that again for a while. I've never done a Tuesday or a Sunday and likely never will (I think there is something inherently wrong with drinking at a bar on God's day of rest; yes, I'm still Catholic). So yeah, don't know when I'll be going again. But if I don't have a good experience next time, I will definitely pull my support from this place - no matter *how* good the drinks are.

Final rating is:

Service
Ambiance
Martini	I'd give more for this category if I could.

Their website is: Alleycatz Live Jazz Bar.