0 mw w IRW lel Thursday, October 20, 2011 J/ The B-Side LATE-NIGHT H S " i F -, i, . " ..._ ... _.. .:. .. . ... ea r - M. _. x 1 k . I0hrdaOtoe 0 21 / 'h -ide 3 SINGLE REVIEW The London band Fanfarlo's latest single, "Deconstruction," intrigues from the start, opening with bizarre noises that sound like rewind- Fanfarlo log tapes or liter- Deconstruction ally decon- Atlantic structing songs (to go along with the track's theme). But little time is allotted for speculation as the ambiguous sounds establish a punctual pat- tern and the song takes off into a cheery ditty. From that point on, "Deconstruction" is dance- worthy but disappointingly pre- dictable. The music video features the hard-at-work artists in a studio while a metronome ticks on, mimicking the song's energetic and relentless pulse. The melody is particularly pleasant as Simon Balthazar lectures on "focus and direction," joined by Cathy Lucas in a male-female harmo- nization. Everything inevitably TF ALDEN REISS/Da Workers taking the nighttime shift at Panchero's and Backroom Pizza must serve their customers and handle crowd control. A walk on A2's cheap-eat streets When the lights go down, restaurants have to multitask By ARIELLE SPECINER DailyArts Writer The average night of a 'U' student follows a typical pattern: Pregame, party and then get hungry. As some people's stomachs start growling, there is always that one person who yells, "Dudes! Let's get some food!" This individual is now dubbed roy- ally awesome, and his or her faith- ful lieges stumble behind to the nearest late-night establishment. That's when my night gets interesting. I arrive at Brown Jug on South University Avenue on a Friday at 10:40 p.m. It's not terribly crowd- ed, but Iknow it will be inthe later hours. I go to check out the pre- game drinks and the meals that go with them. Most students are starting their nights with pizza, burgers or fries. Cheers and whoops clamor as one member of a group to my right flips a quarter into a cup of beer. He drinks. They socialize with the waiters as they become increas- ingly drunk, then finally order some Brown Jug grub. I spoke to manager Joshua San- chez about Brown Jug's smaller but just as significant store, Back- room Pizza. Backroom, located at 605 Church Street, is an Ann Arbor late-night staple. Sanchez explained that on a Friday night, it sells about 500 slices of pizza between 1:40 a.m. and 2:40 a.m. That hour is essential to the business. At this point, the crowd mainly consists of bar-dwellers who've had enough partying and are ready to sober up with some delicious carbohydrates. And the location couldn't be better. "It's serendipitous," Sanchez said. "We've benefited greatly from being between three of the most popular bars. I think (Backroom) is one of the three places people think of when they say, 'Oh I'm drunk, I wanna eat.' Because the bars are so close to Backroom, the eating estab- lishment witnesses some rowdier times. Sanchez said customers cut the line often, step on people's feet and get in the way of others. But the bouncers brought over from the Brown Jug keep everyone in check and make sure that everyone gets their rightful portions of pizza - pepperoni is the most popular. There is also the issue of over- payment and underpayment - stu- dents who are under the influence may not be aware of the money they are taking out of their wal- lets and pay less or more than the necessary amount for food. At Backroom, students who throw cash at the pizza-makers may not be aware that they've only given a dollar instead of the $1.25 that a slice now costs. Sanchez explained the heightened security helps prevent this from happening at Backroom, but at Brown Jug, wait- ers typically ask for a credit card when parties order so they don't just drink and dash. "People are bummed out about (the price hike), it's so easy to pay with a dollar," Sanchez said. "As a customer, that would put me out a little bit." But a dollar and a quarter for a slice at 3:00 a.m. is still cheaper than other campus pizza places. Sanchez told me if I wanted to get the true Backroom experience, I should headback at 1:30 a.m.With that in mind, and with pre-gamers starting to clear out, it's my turn to leave, too. At about 12:30 a.m., I check out the goings on just up the block at Panchero's Mexican Grill. I'm not sure if it's the Mexican atmosphere, but there are alot of people in cow- boy gear. Panch is a sight to see. At 1:00 you can hear the unanimous "Let's go to Panch!" yells across campus. Toward the late-night establish- ment, those leaders start walking. I'm sitting at a table by the door to see who will come in. A few girls walk in - their eyes glazed over with hunger - along with the guys who know the quickest way to win a drunk girl's heart is buy- ing her a chicken burrito. People are sitting in booths, hunched over their burritos as if someone were to come snatch them away. It isn't the rowdy crowd I intended to see, but it's entertaining nonetheless. I sit down with one of the cooks, Fredo Cortez, to hear what typi- cally occurs on a Friday night. "It's hard sometimes because people come drunk and try to speak Spanish, but most of the time they're not right," Cortez said. He said that Panchero's makes about $9,000 a night, mostly from burrito sales from 1:00 to2:00 a.m., with another burst of sales at 2:30 a.m. "This season, football season, people drink at the games and so we have the lines out the door on Friday and Saturdays," Cortez said. Though I missed it, Cortez said the post-bar crowd that often visits Panchero's is a little crazier than the one at Backroom. He said peo- ple dance on the tables and even get in fights. That's when the employ- ees have to step in and break them up. "We have to make the food and also watch the crowd," Cortez said. There are no table dance-offs or brawls, so I check my watch - it reads 1:45 a.m. Time to head back to Backroom for the crowd. The stacks of ready-to-cook pizza I saw the workers prepar- ing earlier that night are being devoured. The line wraps around the build- ing. People are throwing their plates like Frisbees, a slice falls on the floor and girls with no shoes on walk up and down the sidewalk. As amusing as all of this is, it's 2:15 a.m. and I'm exhausted. I leave. By day, a restaurant's focus is the quality of the food. But when the sun goes down, it transforms into something more, with employees simultaneously breaking up fights and flipping pizzas at the speed of light. Though getting the food out is important, crowd control is equally imperative. These tough, multitalented purveyors of late- night food must keep that in mind while watching over a restaurant in the early morning hours. And though I leave to go to sleep and ponder these thoughts, the night has barely begun for these hungry, late-night partygoers. B le Bz Lauren Sybo LSA junior at South Quad What do you picture when you hear the phrase "Michigan nightlife?" People streaming out of the bars on South U in all hours of the night. What's your favorite late night food? I'd probably have to go with Panchero's. What's the best thing on their menu? Cheese quesadilla - it's simple, but it still has that grease factor. And it tastes really good and fresh. If you were a martini, what kind would you be? I'd probably be the dirty martini. Very strong, extra olives. Excerpts are taken from the B-Side Buzz video, which con be found on MichiganDoily.com. Interview by Lauren Caserta escalates into a symphonic blend whis of trumpets, forceful drumbeats ing t and tremolo-ing violins. But the ciga brass is sleepy and whatever Inte chaos the drumming attempts is m to incite is much too controlled. of w The violins resemble those of life," Arcade Fire's "Empty Room," "Det which is to say they are rous- trite ing but, alas, already done. The ing music video features a pseu- throi do-Nico - a black-clad blonde RAILER REVIEW pering in German, paus- to artily take a drag on her rette afterward. A quick rnet translation reveals she using about a "cacophony 'ords and corridors full of summing up the irony of construction" given the lystructured - albeit pleas- - harmony maintained ughout the song. -KATIE STEEN