LVL Three Bar & Lounge: Night Out on Calgary's 17th Avenue

Living in Calgary near 17th Avenue and not going out for two years started feeling weirdly unnatural at some point, so a while ago my wife and I agreed to have some fun on 17th once in a while, simply checking the spots one by one.

This was our second outing, and this time we already knew that all the somewhat brighter spots would have unnecessarily loud music (like REALLY loud - you have to scream into someone’s ear), so we decided to just go and “whatever”, knowing that chatty time might not happen at all.

Since Maryna had never tried hookah before, I figured it would be a good excuse to visit a place that served it. It was also within walking distance from home and had a nice interior and some music.

From the reviews, I figured out that most nights there were in reality “Punjabi music nights”, which was fine for both of us, but the most convenient day was Saturday, and it happened to be a “Latin night”. Also Ok, table booked.

And just as we expected, as soon as we entered, we saw a bunch of fancy-dressed girls dancing, several groups of guys sitting and drinking or smoking hookah closer to the dance floor, enjoying the view, and several small groups of the local crowd celebrating something here and there.

Music was… well… not what we thought it would be, definitely not for us… and then it only got worse. Although the DJ seemed to be doing his best, and if we could turn the volume down to about 25%, it might have even been okayish.

Also, the waitresses were forgetting drinks, not paying attention overall, then rushing us to pay when we were not even going to leave yet, and so on. The only person who was really doing his job well was the guy changing the coals in the hookah. Pretty much he was the reason I left any tips.

Otherwise, the night was awesome. We had lots of fun, Maryna was gorgeous… as always! And now, scrolling through her photos while posting this note, I know exactly why “the spark” has not faded after 21 years together.