Date Night: Temple Bar and the Philharmonic

The art of dating is in danger of degenerating into a series of hookups, hanging out, clubbing, and the occassional dinner. There, I said it, you heathens.

Alright, so that's crap, but it's undeniable that pulling off a date, as classically defined, is harder and rarer than it used to be. First, we do live in a casual culture, and it can be difficult to ask someone who you've only been seeing a short time to do something very formal like go to a theater performance or a charity function. And us married folk often neglect to force ourselves and our spouses out of the various ruts we fall into.

But a date is good for you. The person your with is likely to take it as a compliment that you'd go through the trouble of planning something beyond the ordinary, and you'll feel good for having spent a bit more time and effort on thinking through a nice evening. Fortunately, Rhode Island does have some good 'date' venues. Some of them, like Trinity Rep, are well-known. But there are lots of lesser-known performing art groups, galleries, and other cultural happenings in our state that can help you to class up your Saturday.

And, gentlemen, you look better in that suit than in your tight jeans and a polo shirt. Trust me, she will agree.

This past Saturday, I went on my first such date in a month or two. It went well enough that I'd recommend the itinerary to you. We had two tickets to the opening night of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, which featured Beethoven's 5th Symphony, but thought we'd first head over to Temple, the bar in the new Marriott Renaissance hotel in the Masonic Temple Building. The first cool thing you'll notice about Temple is the grafitti art scattered throughout, a reference to the massive amounts of grafitti that covered the inside of the building before it was rehabbed:

But Temple is a lot more than a cool space. They have a great bar menu, which includes basic bar foods and good seafood dishes (try the stuffies!) at reasonable prices. They also have a good list of wines by the glass, and have even figured out how to make a decent caipirinha. (If you want the best one in the state, you'll have to find your way to my house. I learned from a pro.)

After our drink, we headed over to Veteran's Memorial Auditorium for the concert. My chief complaint about this facility is the small seats: it's the Fenway Park of concert halls. But the space is very nice, and like Fenway you are very close to the action. The acoustics are good, and the Philharmonic itself compares well to the orchestras in much larger cities. Larry Rachleff, the music director and conductor, brings a great deal of energy, enthusiasm and good humor to the ensemble. (True story: at the end of intermission, he announced he'd stay after to take questions from the audience. This being the middle of the Red Sox-Indians game, someone yelled out "What's going on with the Red Sox?!" He smiled, pretended to be confused, and said, "But my socks are black!" Then he turned and started conducting Beethoven.)

Afterwards, we went back to Temple for another drink and to check the Sox score. Surprisingly, the place really fills up with a younger crowd after about 10:00. Still, they had enough bartenders to handle the crowd.

You can probably have a round of drinks and a decent array of bar food at Temple for around $40, maybe a bit more if you get cocktails and more expensive dishes. The tickets we got for the concert were $65 each in the front section. They can still be expensive in the upper level, but students can get really cheap tickets with their IDs in many cases. At any rate, for under $100 a person, you can have a high-society night of sophisticated drinking and music that can compare well to one you'd have in a much larger city.