The Foundation Lounge

Foundation is average at best. Pretty good music on the weekends, but I have to say, there are a few things that could use improvement.

The space is really small, so probably not ideal if you have a large group of friends--you'd either have to arrive by 10 or wait in a line that exits the door and leaves you standing in the winter cold for quite some time.

Foundation is split into two rooms--I guess you could call it the main room (where the bar is located) and the back room. The back room is a bit more spacious, but also reminds me of a bowling alley. It's a bit too bright back there--bars generally have the dim lighting and therefore that uninhibited bar-like ambiance. I mean, how else are skeevy men supposed to use their cheesy lines on women, right?

Dimmer lights could at least mask the gaudy orange of the battered furniture and the tacky paintings. I think what sets great bars apart from lame ones is the ambiance and crowd. Great music is a plus. And from what I've seen at Foundation, it's not really excelling in any of those categories.

As a special treat for my quarter-K review I'm not going to slam the place that gave me the worst hour of my Boston nightlife but instead give them 5 pointers on how they may improve themselves so that riff-raff like me really will never ever sully their establishment again.

1. Instead of making people needlessly stand in line outside for 30 mins on a Wednesday even though there is plenty of room inside, why not just pointedly refuse entry to every 4th person and make everyone else wait at least an hour and clean the sidewalk too. Except skanky girls. Keep letting them skip the line. It makes them feel special. That way you get more of them.

2. Instead of grumbling when letting me in wearing my converse and jeans, why not just adopt a policy of not letting any guy in who isn't wearing a blue buttondown shirt undone to the third button with khakis and shiny black leather shoes. Those who wear a gold chain get first pick of the brushes during sidewalk-cleaning hour.

3. Don't just charge 12 dollars for a whisky and coke. Come on - scum can afford that! At least charge 18 dollars and refuse to serve anyone not waving their cash at you from their monogrammed silver clip. Also, I didn't see nearly enough douchey drinks on offer. You shouldn't be letting anyone get anything from the bar without having to break a 50.

4. Think about playing all the terrible songs you play more than once. There are only so many really terrible mediterranean house songs and Fergie remixes that attract the skanky girls AND the 100s of sleazeball wannabe players onto the painfully badly laid-out dance area.

5. Just cut to the chase and advertise the Famous Wednesdays night as the perfect place for hopeless players to take their latest skank to bump into the two from last week. You can advertise on KISS FM.

WOW! Everyone took the words right out of my mouth.
This was place crazy in many bad ways.
I thought it was sooo cool to order a round of drinks and then ask for three waters as well and get to pay another $6.50 for the water. I flet like I was a rockstar!
Music was loud, but we were in the mood and just found a free space and danced for an hour to the live DJ that did not totally suck.
I need to research where the hell to go in this area when I am in town.

The decor in here is pretty fabulous but it is usually not a very fun place. Wed. nights are pretty crazy but very, very crowded.....I like to throw birthday parties here....fill the cool atmosphere with your very own fabulous posse....it is def. a recipe for success. Speaking of recipes, don't show up hungry...although the Asian-inspired fare is yummy, portions are very small and semi-pricey.

ADDITION:
Wed night is a pretty fun night thrown by three nightlife industry partners that have been in the business forever so they know they stuff when it comes to promoting night life.....get their early..

A couple good reasons to visit The Foundation Lounge:
- you need 12-dollar drinks to remind you of your elite status.
- you want to envelop yourself in darkness to protect your anonymity (the place has lighting issues).

Eh... tongue-in-cheek comments aside, similar to several of my fellow Yelpers, I found myself decently unimpressed with The Foundation Lounge. No specific complaints about food or drink, but absolutely nothing wowed me. Maybe I'll give the place one more try on a Wednesday--supposedly their one redeeming night of the week.

It will cost you $300 in booze to sit down at a table on the weekend. You can't put your coat on the furniture. The mojitos and caipirinhas are disappointing. The bouncer was rude to my friend when she showed him her passport. The women are unattractive. The guys are douchey. The waitstaff were oblivious and in my way when I was lost looking for the bathroom.

Im reminded of "Caprice". Another stupid place with an "international" (I.e. spending dad's money) crowd. Don't waste your time at foundation, unless you're a trust fund baby with a large bank account, a large ego and a small pee pee.

When the DJ played a three-song set of Madonna, Rihanna and Gorillaz, I knew I'd be writing a good review. I didn't spend much time sitting down here on a Saturday night because the place was packed and the mix of songs, from old to new, was a lot of fun.

This is one of those trendy bars where the music is too loud to talk, but there's no dance floor, so you're stuck dancing on someone's foot or on a table -- only a bad thing if you want to dance WITH your friends instead of over them. There's also an outdoor patio if you're looking for some fresh air and a break from the noise. The mojito got mixed reviews, so I'm not rating this place based on the drink quality, but it is a fun destination for a group.

Tip: Reserve a section of tables or a booth before you go, especially if you're going here for a birthday party. People with reservations seemed well taken care of.

My friend had her birthday party at the Foundation Lounge last sat. It wasn't very packed but the bar staff kept us waiting for half an hour in the pouring rain. Despite the fact that they handed out umbrellas which was a nice gesture, it was still a pain in the ass to stand in the cold. Then one of the bouncers picked out a group of girls and let them cut everyone else. This is a hotel bar for God's Sake... not a club!

When we finally made it in, the environment was pretty good. I have to bump this place up one star to compensate the fun we had within our own crowd. Besides that, the place was tiny. Right when we finished the reserved table alcohol, they kicked us off and seated some other guys... usually when we do reservations, we get to keep the table all night. Oh yeah, lets not forget when we asked for ONE Kamikaze drink, the shady bar tender gave us 4... it was just lame customer service. =/

Foundation Lounge staff tries too hard to convince everybody that this is somehow a very hip and trendy place. The signs are all there: asshole bouncers, snooty managers, bitchy bartenders, holding the line, mirrors on the inside to give illusion of space, the no sneakers rule, etc.

In reality, the place is cramped inside with overpriced drinks and lame people. I've found it very hard to have fun here everytime I came. No dance floor and I didn't even notice the interior design. Very dark inside and music extremely loud, which effectively defeats the idea of this place being a lounge.

I just don't see why would people come here ...

Everyone said that this was their favorite place in Boston. They said to "trust them" because they lived in Boston for undergrad. Everyone was very wrong.

The first time I went to Foundation, I didn't know what was up and got there at about 11pm, prime time for waiting in line in the freezing cold. We were meeting up with someone who was already in so we decided to wait-it-out. An hour later and we're at the front of the line, but only because everyone else LEFT. Eventually our people decide to take pity on us and go somewhere else.

The second time was a Wednesday night after an exam block, and in between the no cover and free coat-check, I'm starting to like the place. The DJ takes my request to move it from trance to some old-school hip-hop (like California 80s love), and I find that I can dig Foundation, that is, until it's so crowded people are using my little group as a hallway to get through the place.

The third time I was taken there when a date decided to meet up with some friends. Another long wait that ended in tipping the bouncer and an equally crowded inside - I'm still not impressed.

Foundation isn't that great a spot if you have to wait, and it's definitely just a lounge, not a place to dance. If you're starting a night on the early side and want to grab a couple of drinks and relax to some good music, this isn't a bad place to go.