currents - Pacific San Diego Magazine

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Opening Doors
Helping bar-goers break the ice
By Alyson Baker • Photos by James Norton
Wild chicks in leopard print mini-skirts, cougars
running around like college girls, dudes behaving
like party animals—it’s a jungle out there. In the
hopes of catching free-range singles in their natural
habitat, PacificSD hits the town to help otherwise solitary souls
mate…or at least meet.
Closing deals isn’t part of the game—the goal is just to open doors.
It’s Friday night and it’s freezing as we arrive at La Puerta in the
Gaslamp to spark hook-ups with firewater. (Puerta means “door” in
Spanish. If you don’t know at least that much Spanish, please return
to Wisconsin immediately, and may el dios help you.)
Armed with a photographer and a bar tab, the PacificSD crew
approaches La Puerta’s wildlife with a simple proposal: point out
whom you’d like to meet, then we’ll buy that wild thing a drink on
your behalf, as long he or she agrees to pose, with you, for a photo.
Game on…
ICE-BREAKER: Keith P., 25, New York
TARGET: Mia P., 23, La Mesa
KEITH SAYS: “The girl in the stripes. She’s pretty cute.”
RESULT: The couple hits it off and ends up sitting together for hours.
ICE-BREAKER: Tyson G., 25,
East Village
TARGET: Natalie E., 25,
Pacific Beach
TYSON SAYS: “That chick in
the red. She has nice eyes.”
RESULT: Natalie’s scores twice
in one night—picked by two
guys in less than hour.
ICE-BREAKER: Dan The Man,
28, Bay Park
TARGET: Me (Alyson), 25,
Pacific Beach
DAN SAYS: “You. You have
beautiful brown hair.”
RESULT: He sweeps me off my
feet, but I need to finish buying
drinks for everyone else.
ICE-BREAKER: Alex S., 37, Downtown
TARGET: James M. (left), 23, England
ALEX SAYS: “This guy, ‘cause he kind of
looks like me.”
RESULT: Age ain’t nothin’ but a number—
these two forge an instant connection.
See more photos
and animal
attractions
online at
pacificsandiego.com
La Puerta
560 4th Avenue, Gaslamp
619.696.3466, taco619.com
The same guys who own La Puerta just
opened The Lincoln Room (901 Fourth
Avenue, across from Horton Plaza) on
the site that used to be Confidential
Restaurant + Loft. The new spot offers classic American dishes and drinks, wallto-wall
Lincoln logs and an 1850s vibe. It’s like pennies from heaven.
ICE-BREAKER: Roger D., 45, Downtown
TARGET: Rafael N., 42, Freemont,
California
ROGER SAYS: “There’s no cute chicks here,
because I would already have bought them
a drink. So I choose him, ‘cause he’s a cool
motherf#cker.”
RESULT: BFFs, single and staying that way…
for the moment, anyway.
82 pacificsandiego.com {January 2011}