Smarty Catz

If you want a bar with cheap, strong drinks, a little dance floor, funky music, and a pretty casual crowd, Smarty Catz is the bar for you.

It's a no-frills place that often spins music from the 90s or early 2000s, where you can get a vodka and sprite for a few bucks that has more vodka than sprite, and dance your little heart out to R. Kelly. There's no cover and it makes for a pretty fun night if you bring a group of people. It's not the best place to mingle, the crowd is kind of ecclectic and the bar area itself is small, but it's a good place to enjoy friends' company and listen to nostalgic mixes of terrible music from your middle school years. It's quirky, casual, and just a good, divey time.

The pros;
1. No cover
2. DJ

The cons;
1. Overpriced
2. Poorly made mixed drinks
3. No class (there's a stripper pole in the dining area)
4. Bar staff seems to be untrained / incompetent
5. Strange atmosphere / vibe

"...A perfect representation of what Ypsi is"?  I hope not.

Well, I'm mostly writing this because there seem to be more than the usual number of bad reviews regarding Smarty Catz.  Why?  It is a perfectly acceptable drinking spot, to my well-seasoned bar-sitting fanny.  The bar itself only seats 6-10 people...I forget exactly...but it's short and I think that's kind of cute.  There is an adjacent room with space for many to mill about.

I went in early in the evening on a Saturday night, and there were only four people in the whole place.  Everyone was friendly, and a little conversation started up between us, as if we were all in a living room or something.  In this capacity, I am far preferring Smarty Catz to Sidetrack, as the bar clientele can be quite clique-ish/snobbish there.  Beer selection was fine, nothing special.  A DJ was setting up in the next room, and I was advised that the place "can get a little wild" later on in the evening.  

I had avoided the place previously because I'd heard a rumor early on that the female waitstaff wore bikinis as their uniforms....that would just be embarrassing for everyone concerned.  But the bartender assured me that this had not been a bar policy for a long time, and the staff made their own stylistic decisions.  Works for me. I'll be back occasionally, I'm sure.