Date: Sun Aug 14
Place: Chapel, 1600 Melrose Ave
Time: 9 pm

There are a lot of things to like about this former funeral home turned cocktail club. The drinks are fabulous, most notably the cucumber kamikaze we're enjoying at the moment. The food isn't bad either. Spaghetti Bolognese was not something I was expecting to find on the menu and the sauce is superb—well developed, rich with tender pork and beef, and pleasingly garnished with fat shavings of Parmesan. The staff is adept and friendly, save for the inexplicable gaffe of leaving us to awkwardly box up our leftover pasta in the dim glow of the bar (and into a container that no one can seem to close properly). The décor and soundtrack are exceedingly hip—from the petite, stylish fixtures in the bathroom to the downtempo beats being spun by DJ Bryan Jensen on this sultry Sunday evening. But one feature is distracting: the ridiculously elevated bar stools. Unless you are a basketball player or a supermodel, getting on to (and even worse, off of) bar stools this tall is at best unglamorous and, at worst, potentially injurious. I'm grateful I'm wearing practical shoes; I can't imagine trying to vault into my seat wearing heels, though some patrons seem to be pulling it off. HANNAH LEVIN