Don Hill’s wasn’t the first bar I went to (that must have been the Dublin House, on 79th Street), but it was the first dance club I ever went to, and the only one where I ever actually felt comfortable. I don’t dance anymore–not even at weddings–but I did when I was a teenager. It may have had something to do with all the alcohol I drank, or all the cigarettes I smoked, but I can say for certain that by the time I was twenty, I danced less. And I did most of that dancing at Don Hill’s, on Thursday nights, when they played 80s music, and movie stars danced with us. I remember following Joaquin Phoenix around the tiny place when he was still going out with Liv Tyler. He wore a backpack, like the rest of us, and looked so completely miserable being there. Liv always loved to dance–they would play Aerosmith songs for her, and it was like Alicia Silverstone was about to come out any second and recreate those wonderful music videos. But she didn’t. Ione Skye. Models up the wazoo. Billy Zane. God! Why was Billy Zane everywhere I went when I was seventeen? But he was. And Liev Shrieber. The only time I have ever broken the NYC-celebrity-cone-of-invisibility was with Liev Shrieber. I was probably eighteen or nineteen, leaving Don Hill’s at 3am. He was waiting on line for the bathroom, in the narrow hallway, and I had to squeeze through, coming back form getting my coat downstairs. “Liev Shrieber!” I said, slapping him on the bicep. “I am SUCH a fan!” I must have sounded like a lost tourist, but I wasn’t, I was in the safe zone, at Don Hill’s, my favorite place. Of course I ran into him on the street the next three days in a row, and had to keep ducking across the street, mortified.

I drove past Don Hill’s two days ago, and was amazed to find it still standing. It looked so small, just like what they say about childhood homes. Which isn’t so different, actually.

RIP Don Hill.

love
Emma

Note on the photo: I look about 18 here, I think, and am dancing with a friend from high school. At Don Hill’s, I think, though could have been taken elsewhere. Thanks to RMP for sending.