Friday night at the Curtin

My friend told me that if you want to meet the critics, you go to the Curtin Hotel in Lygon Street on a Friday night.

I arrived at about five and took up a stool at the end of the bar.

“Are you a barfly?” a girl asked me after my first beer.

I wished I was. The Curtin has a great vibe. Within seconds I imagined myself coming here every week.

“No. Are you?” I replied.

“Yes,” she said. “I’m a barfly at places where my friends work.”

She had her laptop up on the bar and seemed to know everyone.

My second drink was a vodka, lime and bitters. It was delicious. I ordered another.

It was only 5:25pm and I was ready for a third drink. Slow down. A barfly has to sit and linger.

I asked the barmaid, who’s been at the Curtin for five years, if she knew of a group of theatre critics who met here on Friday nights.

“They could,” she said. “It’s very busy on a Friday night. All of the tables are full.”

I was a bit disappointed with her response. “What makes a critic so attractive?” I asked myself.

The answer was easy. They take some time to express their own feelings about something rather than jump on a bandwagon.

A guy arrived in a black hat and an orange scarf. He was quite expressive then he was gone.

His hat was distinctive compared to the usual cap.

I was beginning to enjoy myself. Everyone has been pretty keen to get back to pub life. It was a mistake to think you could track down a particular school.

There were two men with beards at the end of the bar. They’d been there quite a while. They looked like engineers.

It was time to head home. I’d expressed myself at the Curtin and enjoyed the experience of being a barfly.

The Curtin has a great vibe for barflies. You can sit up at the bar and admire the locals. Some were wearing hats, others beards. One had just volunteered at the op shop •