Nikki "Rhubarb" c.'s Profile

I have been pleasantly surprised by LAVO.  We've hung out in the lounge area and upstairs in the club portion.  Awesome mixed drinks downstairs!   The door men are excellent.  They gave us a little grief getting in trying to charge us, and I pointed to my friend with great boobs wearing a short skirt and I said don't you want her in your club?  He smiled and moved the rope.  ;)

Awesome food.  Go with four people or less.  With a bigger party it will take too long to get seated.  A smaller group and you won't be able to try enough stuff.   Get some of the specialty cocktails, and the snickers pancake.  Thank me later....and walk back to your hotel to work off the calories.

I was another person who agrees that this studio was overwhelmed by response to the living social deal.  The website is in flux.  You can not schedule classes online, and you need to either email or call to set up classes.  As other have noted Angi always suggests people come to body work classes if they have any sort of soreness...ummm, no thanks.

She really likes to get people to commit to attending the same class at the same time every week.  My life is not like that.  This studio is geared towards those who are part of her inner circle.  She often focuses only on one student during class, usually the one who is struggling the most, and ignores others.   Classes rarely start on time and rarely end on time but they are scheduled back to back which creates a chaotic turnover.  You need to be buzzed into the studio, and there are limited options of places to change, so it's best if you're already in your pilates gear before you arrive.  Also, she tends to lose track of how many reps you've done, and doesn't provide instruction for breathing on many exercises.  This left me feeling like I wasn't making the most of my time.  I don't want to do 30 reps of the same exercise while you're talking to your web guy.  I won't be back after my pre-paid classes are done. Show owner comment »

The music here is AWESOME on some nights, but crappy on other nights.  We had a great server for our bottle service.  We got a table outside and it was perfect for the weather.   Ladies - some nights they have an open bar, which can be a good deal if you want to pre-party.

Awesome hotel with wonderful staff.  Everyone we met was friendly and they remembered our names and greeted us by name.  Beach service was WONDERFUL.  The concierge was the best I've ever dealt with.  Don't pay for the breakfast plan thingy, there's a cute cafe next door with cheap and yummy breakfast.

It was an $8 brow threading.  They cleaned up my unibrow in progress, but told me they couldn't do more of an arch....Up, that's funny b/c I have had other places give me more of an arch.  When I got home I had to pluck a few strays to get the shape I wanted.  If you are new to threading, try someplace else first.  If you just want a clean up and there's no line, it's efficient.

Three stars for the wide selection of bagels and fixin's with fast friendly service.  Add an extra star for the wide selection of beverages, including a peach aloe drink with pulp that I ADORE.  Minus a star because one day I saw a pigeon in the store and the staff made no effort to get rid of it.....Was the bird a regular?  Could they see it over the counter?  The whole episode was confusing, but I have only seen the bird once.

Overall a decent place for a quick bite in the FiDi

Although it's kind of tucked away, this store is HUGE with a great selection of supplements.  The staff is REALLY nice.  I came in looking for a specific recovery product after the Nike half marathon.  Even though they didn't have it, they steered me towards the best option they had in stock and congratulated me on completing the half.

I got the Brazilian Keratin Treatment with the Coppola products.  You have to wait 72 hours to wash your hair, but it worked REALLY well.  I got the living social deal and it was money well spent.  The staff was friendly enough, but didn't bug me while I was trying to read.  When they finished they gave me a detailed sheet of after care instructions, and the hairdresser gave me her email so I could contact her with any questions.

FYI - they also do men's hair and children's hair, so it doesn't have the same vibe as more traditional female only salons.

I went here for a Brazillian Keratin Treatment [BKT] that I bought on Amazon local deals via living social.  It was $99 - a great price.  I called and made an appointment and talked to them and everything seemed fine.  I show up and they start as soon as I arrive a few minutes before my appointment time.  We chat a little before they start, and I mention that my last BKT was about 5 months earlier with the same brand.  

BKT involves a wash, blow dry, application of solution, waiting..... then blow dry and flat iron.  The goal is to coat the hair from root to tip and straighten it.  With this formula you need to wait 72 hours to wash it.

Wellllllll.  Everything was ok until the blow dry.    To maximize straightness, it makes sense to blow the hair DOWN.  She was trying to dry it any kind of way.  I have a sneaking suspicion she didn't fully dry the depths of my hair.  While she was applying the solution, she ran out....and got more from the back....there was maybe an inch long by two centimeter patch that didn't have solution on it.  HOWEVER the back of my hair was drenched with more solution than is needed [keep in mind I've had this done before, so I know what to expect].

While I'm waiting they bring me a snack.  The conversation from the staff was OVERLY familiar and a bit intrusive and forced.  They asked me about my ethnic background....not the person doing my hair, but the facialist who had come over to be nosey and was not involved in my treatments.  They asked about my marital status and what I did for a living....while I was clearly trying to read my book, not engage them in conversation.

So, the buzzer goes off and they start the 2nd blow dry.  I read a trashy mag.  AGAIN, the chick uses poor blow dry technique, causing more tangles in my hair and not really blowing it straight down, but I'm hoping she's good with a flat iron.

THEN they take a pic of my hair in progress WITHOUT ASKING MY PERMISSION.

FINALLY it's time for the flat iron.  Homegirl did NOT use enough tension and seemed scared to actually get close to my head.  So my roots never got straight.  Partway through, someone else came over to help her - and started working on me without asking if I minded.  The second woman - the owner - did a MUCH better job flat ironing.  There was a visible difference between the left and right side of my head.  Before I left I insisted that she go over my hair to make sure it got STRAIGHT.

Eventually when I realized she just wasn't going to be able to do a good job I told her it was ok so I could get out of there before I started crying.  After combing it out she picks up scissors and starts to cut WITHOUT asking me, or even showing me the back in a mirror.

When I checked out, they told me that it was an extra $50 for the tiny squirt of extra solution.....that they wouldn't have needed if my technician hadn't put too much on the back.  When I left I was not happy with the way they flat ironed it, and not happy with the unauthorized trim, and I feel she should have mentioned the extra cost before we got to the register.  She should have said something when she got the extra.  

As soon as I got home, I fired up my trusty flat iron and went over EVERY hair, trying to get the results I paid good money for.  It's been over two weeks and it is CLEAR that they didn't do an effective job.  When I wear my hair straight, the roots are curlier and when I wear my hair curly the curls are not uniform.

Curly haired girls of the world, please go elsewhere for your BKT the service was terrible.  But the cheesecake they offered was AWESOME.