Of course, it was sad that Mabel's closed down. It was the next big thing
to the Regent Ballroom's salsa nights. I, a true salsero fanatic, am
still crying because of the shutdown. I can remember when Mabel's brought
in Adelante and Miavana (those C-U salsa bands that now broke up) and
the intimate atmosphere of their salsa nights, including the so-called
lessons with Carlos and Adri Varela. I can also remember that it was
crowded on the dance floor one hour into their salsa dances so I had to
use all of my club salsa dancing prowess to deal with it there.
The main reason why this former 'second hotspot' for salsa and merengue
dancing closed down over 1 year ago was that it was virtually totally
inaccessible to parking.
It was one of the latest victims of the over 15 Campustown businesses that
closed its doors for good simply because of the difficult accessibility
to parking.
The only nearest parking spot for Mabel's was a parking lot near the
Legends nightclub, forcing you to cross the very busy Green St. in the
process.
Mabel's would have continued running and having its great salsa nights
if it had its own parking lot just like the Regent Ballroom has.
Of course, the Orchid still runs its salsa nights on Wednesday but it
can't beat the excitement of Mabel's.
-------------------------
Charles Joseph Smith "I am called "The Little Lily of Salsa" because
URH, 101 Daniels Hall I feel like a happy, little lily flower when
1010 W. Green St. I dance to the salsa music. But I can dance
Urbana, IL 61801-3097 to almost everything I can think of."
(217) 332-2143 --Myself
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Apr 05 2001 - 11:06:00 CDT