Here's the thing about Ladies' Night: It's not for the ladies.
Sure, they enjoy the tangible benefits -- no cover, discounted or free drinks, the occasional clothing/salon/massage giveaway -- but the real genius of a night for ladies is that it draws in men. Bar owners know as well as anyone that if you get the girls to come, the guys will follow.
So does it go both ways? Would a night that offers dude-centric discounts actually attract more ladies? We traveled to Scottsdale's Blue Wasabi to find out. The hip sushi bar rolled out its first "Rocks and Rolls" men's night on Wednesday. Running from 6-10 p.m., the weekly event features a discounted, manly menu as well as Diamondbacks ticket giveaways during the first month.
"There's no shortage of Ladies' Nights around town, so we thought it was about time the guys had a night of their own," says Blue Wasabi owner Jim Moran.
If the concept feels novel to you, it was the same for the guys at the bar. An actual quote: "I get a discount? This feels weird."
The man-centric menu is fun, at least. With prices ranging from $4-7, it features drinks like the Chopin 'CEO' martini; the Fightin' Irish cocktail (which is basically a whiskey ginger); the Wild Turkey Man-hattan; sake bombers; and the Tiger Woods cocktail, made with sweet tea and passion fruit vodkas, iced tea and lemonade.
On the food side, male role models appear in the form of the Gordon Gecko roll (made with shrimp tempura, jalapeno and cucumber topped with avocado, seared tuna and spicy mayo) and the Chuck Norris roll (spicy salmon and panko-crusted shrimp topped with sashimi salmon, avocado, lemon juice and tograrashi). The tempura chicken and sweet chili-glazed Get Clucked roll and the soy paper-wrapped Me Soy Horny roll take advantage of the male fondness for sexual innuendo. And what manly menu would be complete without hot wings?
But the question remains: would men looking for discounts turn this place into a regular sausage factory, and would the girls looking to get a taste quickly follow?
Hard to say. The ratio seemed to be pretty even when we checked, and the clientele didn't seem any different than your standard post-work snackers. Guys' night out this wasn't.
But who knows? Maybe, given time, Blue Wasabi will make men's night a Thing, and, as they finally get to experience discounted drinking equality, men everywhere will grunt in appreciation.
