The night started off with extreme optimism! In the past, Bellevue has not been known for its Halloween Events and costume parties, but this year aimed to be different. The Bellevue Collection had several venues celebrating Halloween with special parties including STIR Martini + Raw Bar, The Parlor, and Pearl.
Newly added STIR at Bellevue Place hosted a nice intimate party on Saturday night with a DJ, magician, costume contest, and tarot card readings. Unfortunately not many people came out, and it was left feeling oddly empty as the night progressed.
Next up was The Parlor. We expected it to have a line out the door, which it has now become known for, but to our surprise not as many people were at the party as expected. The Parlor is fairly big, so once we made our way back to the dance floor we realized that is where most of the people had migrated. Unfortunately it was down hill from there. Sunglasses as part of Halloween costume were not allowed (even yellow-tinted ones). This as you can imagine did not sit well with some, our group in particular. Additionally some hats were not allowed either. The Parlor’s logic for this was that they needed to be able to identify people at all times. SERIOUSLY!? It was HALLOWEEN, come on!
After The Parlor was Lucky Strike. Lucky Strike allowed glasses and hats as part of your costume. It became clear though at this point that all of the Bellevue Collection drew more people on a non-Halloween night than on a night that has become synonymous for dressing up. In the lounge at Lucky Strike there was a circle of break-dancers who stole the show. The best part was that they were dressed up in Teletubbie costumes! This didn’t last for long though… After one person in the group performed a handstand, they were immediately escorted out by security with roaring boos. Supposedly they were told not to perform moves that would “endanger” others, and they disobeyed. Our entertainment had died and so did the night. Heaven forbid anyone do a Saturday Night Fever disco move and hit someone in the face with their finger. I mean, it’s a DANCE FLOOR!
Also, it was mentioned by other friends we were with that Pearl had their last call by 12:30am, earlier than they had anticipated due to lower than expected turnout.
It was great to see that so many places hosted Halloween parties this year, but they have left a lot of room for improvement for Halloween 2010.
It took some convincing but we were eventually allowed into the Parlor with my Capn Crunch costume w/ an enormously large hat and “mask”. My friend was the giant tetris piece who was not allowed to enter Lucky Strike, but the Parlor did let him in after giving a stern warning that if he misbehaved or fell over he would be escorted out promptly.
I was able to visit stir also and they were more than welcoming to everyone! although as stated above it was not very popular.
We did however have fun and do appreciate the places hosting events but seriously it is Halloween and IF you are going to place restrictions on HATS AND MASKS for Halloween do not even host an event . . . the Parlor’s controlling policies are too severe and will ultimately backlash on them I feel.
Brutal. Between Jake and Michaels’s comments, Halloween out in Bellevue didnt sound FUN at all.
Anyone up for a private Halloween party in downtown Bellevue next year?
Cap’n Crunch and a Tetris piece – love it! To be fair, the Parlor’s house rules aren’t just ridiculous on Halloween, they are ridiculous every night. I’ve been irritated to the point that I no longer go there. This place has such great potential, but someone behind the scenes is dropping the ball.
Oh man, the people WEARING costumes were being given a hard time gaining entrance into these places?? Halloween isn’t going to be on Saturday again for a while, so it’s disappointing to hear it wasn’t a big party. Agreed on the “no hats” rule; a lot of those rules just seem arbitrary.
Well just to put things in perspective, what was happening for Halloween in Bellevue *last* year?
I heard through the grapevine that Bellevue was deader than a doornail on Halloween..except…ta-da…the 520 Bar and Grill. It was packed to the rafters with costumed peeps with sunglasses, hats, and all sorts of other risque’ apparel.
They had a killer DJ playing dance music, and the dance floor was writhing with people dancing their butts off.
Great service, lots of hot men and women, good prices, and tons of fun. Check it out next year!