This review is meant to be highly useful to you as a potential customer of PaintLounge - the things I wish I knew upon my time at their "expressions" evening. The expression evening is an event that you pre-purchase tickets for, and keep in mind they have a pretty strict cancellation fee. The event is $28 including tax, and was touted as having live music, free style paint, and then you get two non-alcoholic drink tickets. That was all the info we got. They also tell you to get there at 7:15 pm because the event starts right at 7:30 pm.
Here is what I wish I knew:
- actually get there at 7:15 pm. They have limited stools. They really should ask you upon ticket purchase how many people are in your group, and then pre-select seats so you just stand at the easel they pick for you. Instead, I would pick an easel, and the lady would come around and move me. This was very frustrating, and a bit rude. I didn't get there early so you could just keep moving me. When she finally settled on where I "could" stay, another group asked us to move - all of this could have been avoided if they asked for more info upon ticket purchase. They have a registration list, so it's not like they don't know who is coming.
- they have plastic bags you can put around your purse or personal belongings. The coat rack fits very few coats, and no spaces for bags. Don't want to get paint on anything
- they have pencils and erases so you can sketch what you want to paint before putting paint to canvas.
- they don't have decaf coffee options - pretty stupid for an event on a week night that starts at 7:30 pm and goes until 11 pm. So if you don't like caffiene late at night, you are limited in your selections
- the music is really amateur. The whole event is amateur, but not in a bad way, just in a very "local" way. The singer kept apologizing for things, and then they had the barista sing for a bit, and basically everyone who worked there took a turn singing.
- everyone is weird. the people who are attracted to this type of event are very granola, and want to talk to you, and want to talk about art, and you may not want to. I didn't want to. Just don't, then.
- you actually will be there a long time, at least until 10 pm.
Here's the info they give you when you get there:
- here are the paints, here's where to put dirty brushes, there's a break at 9:15 pm to listen to original songs by the singer. Two drinks per person. That's it. That's all they told you. They do this at 7:17 pm, so if you aren't there then, it's a bit confusing.
So, why 4 stars? Because it was fun. It was actually really fun. I'm not an artist, I don't ever do "arts and crafts", but it was really enjoyable. It could be a fun date night, it could be fun by yourself. It was interesting and I felt like I got good value for my money. I wish they had alcohol, but it wasn't needed.