I had a great time, but then I got lucky.
* * *
No, not that way!
Buck Wild is not a pick up place.
People come with large groups of friends whom they socialize with.
Later on, as the night progresses, you get the standard telephone poles.
Telephone Poles are wandering males plowed out of their minds, hoping to find women, or find fun or find something.
They are called telephone poles because they just stand there.
But mostly this is a place for good buds, either male or female.
It is a place to enjoy life with the people you like and love.
I will talk about my own good luck in a minute,
But first the lowdown on Buck Wild itself.
* * *
Buck Wild is a shot bar.
Yuppies do craft cocktails. Undergraduates do shots.
Craft cocktails are generally better than shots, but this is not a hard and fast rule.
There are shots out there that are Absolutely to Die For.
There are craft cocktails out there that should send their bartender to the Drinkmeister's Hall of Shame.
You drink craft cocktails in a mellower room than you drink a shot.
But once you change your expectations concerning the ambiance, a case can be made for drinking in either place.
Sixth Street shots range from the magnificent to the foul.
Some are intentionally foul because the customers want to be shaken up.
(Hey, when I was an undergraduate, we paid good money for Velvet Cups - which were great silver trophies filled with champagne, beer and stout. Those did not stay in your stomach long.)
I have had much worse than a Velvet Cup on Sixth Street.
I have had much better too.
The selection of shots and shot alternatives at Buck Wild is vast.
One whole section of the menu is adult milkshakes.
They have a lot of them.
Samuel C. kills for adult milkshakes.
The two I had earned grades of B and D.
A Pink Squirrel (Chocolate Hazelnut incongruously colored pink) was a comforting pleasure.
I would happily have this again.
An Orange Julius Caesar (Creamsicle Orange Vanilla) was unpleasant.
But vanilla ice cream and booze is vanilla ice cream and booze. I got my Orange Julius Caesar down.
* * *
The primary source of entertainment at Buck Wild is watching patrons ride a mechanical bull.
This is where the name of the bar comes from.
Mechanical bulls can hold my attention for maybe two hundred and seventy seconds.
After that, the joke gets old.
They have sports on TV although nobody watches.
They have some arcade games which a few people use.
There is people watching, which is always good on Sixth Street.
And then they have the dance floor.
The Dance Floor, heh heh.
* * *
Buck Wild is not a serious dance club.
If you want major dancing with people who come to majorly dance,
You want to go to Barbarella on Red River or the Container Bar on Rainey.
All-out in-your-face merge-with-the-music dancing is my idea of an outstanding night downtown.
But Buck Wild does have a fine dance floor, a great sound system and they play some great pop and hip hop.
Usually no one pays attention because they are watching the bull.
What you need is some live wires in the club to gravitate to the floor and start dancing.
I got double lucky.
In the half empty club of the nine o'clock hour, there were two parties.
One, a bachelorette party, were wholesome UT women in matching lumberjack shirts, one of whom was a gymnast. She really wanted to dance and her friends were drunk and happy enough not to object. So the whole group migrated from the bull to the dance floor and started circle dancing.
Then four African American guys showed up who could dance up a storm.
For one solid hour, it was major moves city.
Samuel C. was in there with the major moves.
When these two groups left, the dance floor was as deserted as an empty blimp hanger.
But for one spectacular hour, a fine time was had by all.
* * *
Mostly, Buck Wild is about talking to your friends, watching the bull, and shooting a kaleidoscopic array of mixed drinks.
Kaleidoscopic arrays of mixed drinks are a good thing.
I usually hang out just off Sixth Street, at places like the Mohawk or Russian House or Barcelona.
But I can totally see the appeal of Buck Wild on Sixth Street itself.
Find the drinks you like in the top half of their taste distribution.
Bring your favorite company, or luck into a dancing crowd.
Set up everything just right, and you can have a blast here. read more