On a cool spring night, at the end of the work week, lines of people gathered outside the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum). This was the first night of their Friday Night Live series. For eight Fridays in May and June, a party is coming to the museum. DJs, bands, food trucks, and bars will invade the galleries of art, history, and dinosaur bones. And we were lucky enough to be at this first evening.
Each night has a theme and this one was #ROMink, celebrating their current Tattoos: Ritual, Identity, and Obsession exhibit. So it was open to the guests, along with most of their regular exhibits. But the show dedicated to the history of body art only let people in at 8:00, so we had time to eat first.
There were many food truck's providing tempting fare all over the museum. Of course, they can't bring their trucks into the galleries. It also didn't appear as though they could cook inside and nearly everything was pre-made with hot food coming out of chaffing dishes. Although understandable, this did lead to a few misses both on the creativity and the execution fronts. But that didn't mean there weren't some excellent morsels. By far the best bite we had was served up by Matt Basile and the Fidel Gastro team. They were doing tacos, and we had the spicy chicken and their brisket. We could have gone back for many more, they were so good.
Jen thought that touring a museum with cocktail in hand was the perfect way to go about it and that the ROM should make their bars permanent fixtures.
After a sampling a few food stalls and having a drink, we headed up to the Tattoo exhibit. It's not in a large gallery so we were happy to have gotten there early while it still wasn't too crowded. Although the staff did seem to be restricting entry, so maybe it never reached an uncomfortable level. The show concentrated on the cultural development of tattoos of various ethnic groups and brought it from the traditional to the more modern Western art form.
When we rejoined the party it was in full swing. The occupancy seemed to have quadrupled since we left the main galleries to see the special exhibit. This was probably the result of the ROM's ticketing policy. Buy you're ticket in advance and you can get in at 7:00, but wait until the night of and you have to wait until 8:00 to buy a ticket at the door and entry is not guaranteed (so it's best to plan ahead). We caught some dance tracks on the main floor and jazz band on the second, had some more food and drink, and called it a night. After a long week at work, we just can't dance the night away like we used to. But we knew we'd be coming back again.
If you do go, tickets are $16 and its best to buy in advance unless you like waiting in long lines and trusting to chance. Inside, all food and drink is $6 dollars each and tickets have to be purchased in blocks. The ticket kiosks by the front door get long lines but there are ones near every bar, and some of the kiosks further in barely had any line at all.
