Power & Light vs. Westport

Westport 1:19 a.m.

All the tables at Joe's Pizza are occupied by late-night snackers. Several more people stand outside to eat.

A group of skater guys stands by the counter. They're clad in black hoodies and stiff black baseball caps. They burst out in "Happy Birthday" for a young-looking guy in black-and-white-checkered Vans. Some of the other customers join in the singing and call out, "Happy birthday!"

Around the corner, Karma looks like the hot spot of the night. From the view through the large open front windows, it looks lively. And better yet, there's no line to get in. My friends and I stroll up to the bouncer.

"It's a $20 cover," he says. "Just so you know." Apparently, DJ Shad, a Saturday night staple, is spinning inside.

We continue down the street to America’s Pub. I'm showing the bouncer my I.D. when we hear some commotion from inside. The door guy tenses up a little bit. "Everyone back up, please," he says in a calm voice. Just then, a wiry security guy pushes a screaming woman out of the bar.

The woman's red top has slipped down, and one boob hangs out. She seems oblivious to her exposed breast for a moment. The cops, who have been standing around and assessing the situation, approach and cuff her against a nearby squad car.

In the meantime, another hysterical woman is carted out of the bar. She's equally braless, as her low-cut, shiny pink halter top attests. Her eyes are red. "I don't even know the girl. She hit me with a drink!" she protests. "I didn't throw a drink in her face." The cops cuff her, too.

After that excitement, going into the bar just seems anticlimactic. We head over instead to the Foundry for $4 pints. Located between McCoy's and the Riot Room, Westport's newest bar is a cool place with a big patio that juts into the parking lot on Westport Road. Tonight, just a handful of people are on the patio, and just a few lonely cars with fogging windows are in the lot.

Power & Light 1:54 a.m.

I let my hot-blooded buddy Benjamin Carlson make the call on where we go next. "It's Vinino or Tengo Sed Cantina," I tell him. "They have stripper poles at Tengo Sed."

His eyes light up. "Do you have to ask?"

A Mexican restaurant by day, Tengo Sed turns into a brightly lit dance club and sports bar after dark that costs $5 to enter. Huge TV screens broadcast sporting events. Tonight, it's women's softball.

The stripper poles stretch up from the dining tables, which female customers stand on as they find a way to grind and twirl to anything the DJ plays — even Afroman's "Because I Got High."

Not wanting to dance on a table while wearing a dress, I stay on the ground. I finish a beer I've brought with me from Big Sky Bar — a benefit of partying in the P&L is the portable-drink factor.

After one more round of beers, it's closing time. We file out of Tengo Sed, joining the slow-moving mob of happy drunks invading the streets of downtown.

Westport 2:44 a.m.

By the time we get to Buzzard Beach, the lights are on, and the bar staff is about to start herding people out.

"Go inside, troublemaker," the door guy says to a guy who has toted a drink onto the deck.

"Got a light?" asks the customer.

"Not for your kind," the door guy replies.

We manage to hang out for a bit — enough to mingle with the mohawked and tattooed crowd. Then, the cattle drive starts and the contents of the bar spill into the alleyway and parking lot.

"You girls, you're killing it tonight," yells an inebriated guy to me and a friend.

From Buzzard, it's just a short walk to my car in the Panera lot. As I slowly drive through the south end of Westport, a motorcycle cop keeps watch over the crowds. About a couple of hundred people are walking around. Westport isn't as packed as it used to be, but the drunken partiers show that it's surviving.

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