Bougie Boho Birthday

Cooper-Young is the setting for a 44th-birthday party.

May 21, 2014

10:48 PM

Ziggy Mack @fomoloop

!BAM! Birthday girl Lucia exuding her positive energy all over Cooper-Young while Donna Van Hoozer follows her lead.

Once Upon a Time women never revealed their ages ... that fairytale doesn’t exist with my crew. We celebrate each and every birthday and proudly anticipate what the next year may bring as well as salute what the past one has left us with. Last week, a group of close gals gathered to fete our Honey Bee Birthday Queen, Lucia Heros’ 44th. It wasn’t a “magic number” birthday, but we got all dressed up and hit the town hard that night just the same. Femme friendships are important, and when we all get together, we act silly, dance, eat, laugh, and blow off steam like we know we should. Among us are lawyers, designers, business women, chefs, entrepreneurs, writers, philanthropists ... and hard-working moms. We all were charged with the task of dressing in our bougie boho best which meant caftans, beads, tons of jewelry, and head adornments. I knew our gypsy gangsters were going to be a sight to see, so I had photographer Ziggy Mack (@fomoloop) on hand to be our photojournalist for the evening. Our beautiful bazaar was in its own Wonderland and Ziggy captured our flow with his expert eye.

We chose Cooper-Young as our playground mainly because my Chilean cousins’ bands, Tomates Rocky y Rising Sun Orchestra, were playing at Bar DKDC that fateful night. But first, we started way early with chic cocktails at Alchemy which included lots of rum and gin with these particular ladies. The gift-giving was generous and humorous and X-rated AND perfect. We strategically waltzed over to Tsunami where the sublime Chef Ben Smith had the back room ready for us with scrumptious appetizers and the most innocent looking porcelain tea cups filled with an inaugural tequila shot at every place setting. Logically, Prosecco was served next to wash down the deviled eggs and spicy nachos.

All of this divinity was a mere warm-up session for the main event of the evening — birthday boogie to some Monster Chilean Rock (a term coined by Hi-Tone owner and dear friend, Jonathan Kiersky). After dinner, we all sizzled down to Bar DKDC where we crammed our party into the tiny but a propos space that has welcomed the Chilenos before. Tomates Rocky y Rising Sun Orchestra blew the roof off that night and melted lots of brains along the way too. Our group of River Town Queens were way impressed and disco danced relentlessly ... but the greatest reward was seeing new faces experience the music and totally fall in love with the unique sounds. Those who stumbled in by chance included Don Perry who thankfully had his camera and Boo Mitchell who could not sit his soul still. The bands are all made up of pure kind spirits as they sang a pounding rendition of “Happy Birthday” to Lucia. My dance card was full and every single bone in my body was shakin’ way past midnight.

The birthday shenanigans lasted until the wee hours but it's wise to note that all of us were able to snap right into our day jobs whatever those are, with nary a scratch nor a dent from Lucia's new birthday year. Being in our 40’s has been great for my group of friends — we are confident, sure of ourselves and of our accomplishments but still have so much life to enjoy, goals to attain, and undiscovered memories to look forward to. Happy Birthday, Lucia! Here’s to many, many, many more gypsy-style birthday celebrations.

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