Raise the (Red) Roof (Inn): Tales from K-Town

With my beloved co-ed soccer team's season coming to an end, I have little left to do during the winter doldrums except blogtari.

Last night was the end-of-season/holiday party for said beloved soccer team, and for the party, we went with dinner in Koreatown followed immediately by karoake in KTown. To begin with, it's always weird and cool to see everyone on the team dressed in civilian attire, and not the usual orange n' black or black n' black that our team dons on the pitch week to week. I almost didn't recognize half the people at first, or knew what the women on our team look like with their hair down.

We started at Baden Baden, a fried chicken place in KTown. Allow me first to say how rulio I think KTown is. Chinatown is big and sprawling, as are a lot of ethnic neighborhoods in NY or other cities. What I like about KTown is how they cram all of it into a couple blocks. Every building contains all of the following: a Korean bank (Nara Bank one time!), a restaurant with e-dash-gregious fried chicken, and a karaoke place.

As an aside, Koreans are pretty rad, I gotta say. Their food, whether fried chicken (served at Baden Baden with fries and onion rings, a kind of Seoul-style Roscoes Chicken n' Waffles) or short ribs, absolutely drop kicks other Asian cuisine. Their soccer team and club teams pwn the rest of the Far East, and I would take any electronic Made in Korea over Made in China any day. Also, randomly, Fort Lee, NJ is like Koreatown but surburban Koreatown. Still haven't figured that one out yet.

So after crushing fried chicken, onion rings, and other grub, the well-dressed maitre'd gave us a round of shots that looked and tasted just like Vicks 44. Count it. Then, onto karaoke. Karaoke Wow, the place I found randomly online after learning my tried and trusted I-Bop Karoake was booked, is sweet. To begin with, unlike most karoake in KTown, they have an elevator, and since it's new, all the private rooms are filled with plush couches, a sic sound system, and flat screens.

Oh, and lasers. EVERYWHERE. When in doubt, add lasers and smoke machines and everyone wins. That is essentially the Karaoke Wow m.o. The booze selection is extremely limited, but nowhere's perfect. Since it's new, KWow's song selection is growing, but not quite there. I shall write a letter to the proprietor advising them of their unacceptable lack of 90's West Coast rap (Ain't No Fun, Regulate, Express Yourself, et al.). The team sang well, and one of our ladies is a singer/dancer/actor by trade, and so obviously, crushed the vocals on some of the harder songs. But she was very wise to use her talents modestly, and didn't use soccer team karaoke as her personal showcase.

The singing ended around 12:30, but no one wanted to go home just yet. With it pouring outside, we looked for the closest bar, and found the "lounge" at KTown's Red Roof Inn. Now the Red Roof Inn isn't on the same level as, say the W or even a Sheraton, but the Red Roof Inn had a bar, a PhotoKhunt machine, and it was open.

So pretty much KTown is a top 3 neighborhood in New York. Cheap and delicious fried chicken? Yup. Smoke and lasers? Fo' sho. Red Roof Inn with a PhotoKhunt machine? Damn skippy. That's a combo that's hard to beat.