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| - Have you ever said to yourself or a friend "You know... I like Italian, and I like downtown, but I what I'm really looking for... and I don't know where we would find this... but what I'm looking for is good Italian fare, downtown that is also a beautiful old building that was once a brothel." You have? WELL... YOU ARE IN LUCK!
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The ambience
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Papa J's Centro is just this place. This is another one of those places that is exactly the kind of place Don Draper and Roger Sterling would end up after a night of boozing and entertaining a client in which they punched someone out... and now they just want to drink and get a late dinner. The bar is full of gorgeous old wood, stained dark, with a hardwood floor, low nights, candles and dining rooms off in all directions. The place was actually two building originally, with a courtyard out back. The courtyard has been converted to part of the restaurant (kitchens and dining). The front is two bars (bartenders areas backing each other, connected by a doorway. Upstairs you find more dining areas, and a minibar with a trapdoor that allowed (and I'm promising you this is true) the prostitutes to escape police raids many many years ago.
The bar has a great feel, and the dining romos are cool too. The second bar on the left in the front also leads back to a dining room with a really cool stone spiral staircase that leads the lower level offices and rest rooms. This whole area feel like there should be illicit gambling going on... maybe a craps table in the corner and a couple of tables of poker.
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The Food/Drink
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Awesome. Good pasta, the bread is VERY fresh (and always free at the bar while you down a beer or two). The pizzas are good as well.
I spent most of my nights here doing standup comedy and drinking. The beers are good, and there is usually some kind of special. Yeungling is like 2.50 most of the time?
This place isn't half bad.
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