Posted by Nicole

Last night, “Wine Wednesday” was taken to a whole new level. My dance team friend Erin turned 21 yesterday, and being one of her craziest partners in crime, I mentally prepared for a wild Wednesday celebration. I met Erin when I visited USC as a freshman, and when I transferred sophomore year, we became instant friends. Throwback to the first few weeks of sophomore year:

Anyways, back to dinner.

She chose Bacaro, a popular destination for USC students, for the first part of our night.

Bacaro LA Wine Bar

2308 S Union Avenue, Los Angeles 90007

Website – Yelp

Bacaro serves Italian-style tapas for $8 each (or 3 for $21). The dim atmosphere of the restaurant and the “classy” college students make this a hot spot. In fact, everyone was surprised to hear that it was my first time at Bacaro. (Fun Fact: USC’s Campus Cruiser safe transportation program drives students to-and-from Bacaro… that’s how popular this place is with students.)

Even though the food has a good reputation, the $20 all-you-can-drink special is the main reason to go to Bacaro. We got pitchers of housemade sangria, white and red wine, and champagne. Beer is also included in the deal, but we kept it mostly ladylike.

Our 2.5 hour stay can be summed up by the following snapshots:

The starting group… over the night about 6 more people joined in on the fun!

The first CHEERS!

Dessert surprise of a banana nutella panino

Me and the birthday girl princess

This is our “candid” pose

Cheers and “chug chug chug!”

The dancers of the group

Love this girl!

Ready to listen to music and dance around like the crazy people that we are, we called a cab and all headed to the local dive bar by campus. It wasn’t too packed when we first got there…

…But that didn’t stop us! For the rest of the night, we danced and danced and danced. Erin was such a good sport and I think she had a successful 21st (hopefully her day after isn’t too bad)!

[And don't worry Mom, I made it to all my Thursday classes :) ]

***

In other news, Happy Valentine’s Day! Special shoutout to my wonderful sis for the surprise gift :)

I’ll be wearing the heart socks to practice today, Lauren!

- Nicole

Question: How did you celebrate your 21st?