Hidden Cove

If you want to karaoke and have no self shame, then this place is for you. The drinks are cheap and good and the service is personable. The place is most definitely a dive and you have to bring your own crowd.

The Cove has everything you need to end a good night out: open late, cheap drinks, "interesting" people to watch, and the amazing human spectacle of karaoke.

The palm trees on the sign might lure you in...but once you step inside the disconnect between what you find and the sign will be just one of the many things that make you wonder, "Hmmm" at Hiden Cove Lounge.

I did not expect to encounter anything upscale, trendy, or pretentious here...and in that sense it lived up to my expectations. But it is also not your average neighborhood dive bar...though I wish it was.

Based on the handful of occasions I've been here, my take home message is, "You never know what you're going to get." The clientele seems to vary with the entertainment. The night I watched a Beatles cover band play, it was mostly a crowd from the Old Town School of Folk Music. The time we stopped on the way home from Lincoln Karaoke, it was a bizarre mix of hard core and hard-living karaoke singers, girls in cheerleader uniforms, and men in shiny track suits drinking glasses of wine.

If you're looking to write a screenplay about a place where quirky characters and worlds collide, this might be a good place to spend some time. If you're looking for a good place to sip a pint, you might be better off traveling a bit further South on Lincoln Ave.