Going Out With...#3
Tess of bookiwrites talks IPAs, musician gig work, and her enduring love of a dive bar.
Going Out With Tess
Tess and I go way back—all the way to our freshman year high school English class where my only memory is us constantly digging on our teacher. Not much has changed since then, although Tess is no longer practicing for a career in classical viola (but she still does freelance music and session work) and I am no longer a practicing Harry Potter zealot. Tess and I reunited at a cafe in New York where she gave me the inside scoop on the places that make her Chicago-born heart aflutter. Get a taste of Tess’s Cheers-like sensibility below…
Who are you? Tell us a little about yourself.
My name is Tess, I’ve been living in New York for close to six years now. I’m like your “general freelance friend,” someone who has many-an-odd-job [laughs]. I like to say I’ve had many different masks: I’ve been a vintage seller, I’ve been a nanny, I’ve been a barista. I’ve been a freelance musician as well, so anything but you know, sucking up to the big dog. Right now I’m working at a restaurant, a coffee shop, and applying to grad school.
Freelance musician is cool—can you elaborate on that?
I play for some of my really good friends, many who I met through the Bushwick music scene—but also people who are just my friends—so whenever they need strings. I play with one friend Kelsea, who [plays under] Blums. She’s a beautiful singer, a little indie, a little pop, singer-songwriter ambience, but she can rock out. She’s also a really dear friend for whom I adore, I’ve known her for almost three years now.
Sometimes I do session work, but usually I just play as a freelance musician with my friends—I just played a show at Nightclub 101, in the East Village, with Kelsea and Eliza Niemi. I really like Nightclub 101, it’s a good new venue.
Where do you go out? Are you a regular anywhere?
A lot of the shows that I’ve been seeing lately have also been at Night Club 101. But also I think, in a Chicagoan-kind-of-vein, a classic corner bar is where I’m at. I like a casual local local joint where I can walk to, where I don’t have to worry about a train or a car. I live in Crown Heights off Nostrand and Lincoln, and there’s this bar that opened up recently. It’s kind of divey, but it’s also kind of nice, it has lots of windows.
When I was living in Bushwick, I’d say I was at Lou’s Athletic Club a lot. They have darts, a pool table, a photo booth, everything you need. Also, I like when it’s not super pretentious, AKA even though I’m not a sports enjoyer, I love that it’s a sports bar.
When I find one spot that just hits everything that I need, I will always go back there. Lou’s is definitely one; another one in Bushwick that I do really enjoy is Hart Bar. It gives Chicago—it has the music-venue basement, there’s a little outdoor space, sometimes there’s good DJs. Once I went on a whim and there was a disco DJ night and I was like, thank fucking God. Another spot I like in Bushwick is Ornithology. It’s a cool, smaller, more intimate jazz bar. There’s an upstairs space, where you can play chess, and an outdoor area. Genuinely some of the best [jazz] music you’ll hear.
Do you have any rituals or patterns when going out?
I’m kind of a sucker for getting the same thing always, which is an IPA beer and a whiskey shot. Like am I fucking 65 years old? One thing I learned over the years, in college I could drink anything, you know, take shots of anything, and as I’ve gotten older, I genuinely cannot process clear liquor anymore. I can’t drink vodka, gin; I actually learned recently I can barely drink soju, which kind of sucks as a half Korean. If I do drink any of that stuff, within 10 minutes, you can smell the alcohol coming out of my pores, just seeping out of me. It’s not even a pukey thing, it just makes me feel gross. The only things that don’t do it is whiskey and bourbon, and a Lagunitas for sure. I do like the fact that it’s a higher alcohol content. If an IPA isn’t the move, a beer and a shot combo is classic. I love an Estrella, and I love an Asian beer, like a Sapporo.
You’ve been here [in New York] for 6 years. Do you think your going out has changed?
I’ve never been a club person. When I moved to Bushick for the first year, it was very fun to go to the club. It genuinely hurts me to say Mood Ring, so I’ll also say Happyfun Hideaway and Market Hotel, all on Myrtle Ave. Honestly, anywhere on that block was just super easy to go to. But going out that frequently was wearing on my mind and body, so I gravitate to a more casual vibe these days.
One kind of place I especially avoid—I can’t with a wine bar. It looks too nice to be in. I need a little bit of grime, I need to feel okay if I spill something on the floor instead of being like, oh no! It seems like so many of those places have popped up out of nowhere. All these damn places are natural wine bars. I just wanna hang, or dance on the dance floor, like when Hart Bar had the disco DJ.
Another place I think that’s too nice for no reason—Carousel. When you get into that newly pretentious Bushwick, Ridgewood vibe, it’s too much for me. An experience I’ve had—also in broad daylight—but definitely I’ve experienced more at night, is when you walk somewhere and everyone turns their head to you because they want to see if you’re hot. I just want to go somewhere where I can show up in a t-shirt and that’s not crazy, you know? Anyway, that’s what I got at Carousel. I was like, why the fuck does everyone just look?
I really respect the spots that have a stage, so shows and other events can happen. It’s a nice intersection. Like the basement at Nightclub 101. I went alone one night, which was scary, for this Substack reading and it was so great, it was so personal and intimate. There’s a bit of a platform there, but it's not a real stage so there’s really no separation between the readers and the audience, so everyone’s just right there. The end was an open mic, which was really cool, and we were able to talk to the writers at the end. I talked to some girls and we’ve hung out a few times since then. I love the downstairs space because you could have a reading down there, or DJs, which is what it’s known for most nights.
Tess’s Picks:
⭐ The Corner Store
⭐ Nightclub 101
⭐ Cassette
⭐ Lou’s Athletic Club
⭐ Ornithology
Tess’s No-No’s:
❌ Wine Bars
❌ Carousel
When do you go out?
A good excuse is when I’m playing a show, but when that’s not happening, then it’s me and Daniel and our roommate Jameel. If we’re not feeling a movie—because we program so much, the three of us, it’s actually really adorable—but if we want to just chitchat, it can be a Tuesday night, a Sunday evening, you know, just any night. They get their Guinnesses, I get my IPA and we just chill and drink our tall beers. Sometimes I do love like a fucked up Monday night, you know? On a rare occasion.
When do you go home?
If it’s not a weekend, I never like to extend past midnight. I feel, especially when you’re just around the corner, getting home at midnight to brush your teeth and just conk out—it’s easy peasy. But the one good thing about being relatively unemployed is that I never have to clock in in the morning, so a few of the past times Daniel and I have gone out, it’s been until a good 2am, 3am. I love when you’re just yapping till two.
I make a point to not have much alcohol in our home—it’s nice to go somewhere instead.
Why do you go out?
I know this is such a cliché term, but it really is kind of a third space in a way. I think, in terms of us being humans, being social creatures, I make a point to not have much alcohol in our home, because it’s nice to go somewhere instead. And as someone who’s been working in many small businesses, it’s nice to literally go out to support a small biz, to feel social and surrounded by other people. There’s a necessity for programming [watching TV/movies], but it definitely can’t be all the time. It feels good to be out in the world.
I’m actually kind of a scrooge in that I don’t really like talking to other people at bars. But I really do like talking to bartenders. I like to have a rapport when I’m a regular somewhere. I’ve been there, as a service worker, as someone who’s been treated as a nonhuman by customers, so it’s nice to talk casually, have some banter. I’m not even a huge fan of small talk, but sometimes you [as a bartender] really just wanna pass the time a little bit.
Day or night?
I gotta say night, because I’m like a daytime smoker into a nighttime drinker, essentially. Like, I smoke weed during the day.
Are you ever smoking weed and going out at night?
Of course. I wouldn’t say I have a crazy tolerance but one thing that I always attribute to my socialness with weed today…being social has never affected me because in college, in conservatory, especially my last two years, I was living with my roommate, Alan. Both of us were heavy pot smokers. We’d wake up, like, 8:30, 9am, rip bong and just blow right into the practice rooms. You’d just kind of get into the zone; it would be very relaxing, unless you’d accidentally run into a teacher, or even the president [of the conservatory], totally out the wazoo, which did happen a few times. So I got it out of my system then. If I smoke now, I don’t feel like stony bologna.
Tess of bookiwrites is a frequent shape-shifter, dealer of the antiques, and writing freakazoid. Sometimes she wonders if life is merely chasing the rush of being fifteen in 2013. Her hands bear many fruits, which include playing the viola, taking film photography, and shuffling a deck of tarot. You can buy vintage from her @bookivintage, book a tarot reading by DMing me on instagram @tesskrope (I promise it works), and stay connected with my writing on substack: tess krope
Long live feeling like you’re an old man while drinking! Love you Claire ❤️ Ty for having me!