lint Eastwood played a Man with No Name. Let’s not forget the classic crude humour of the Gong Show's Unknown Comic, back in the seventies. Even 80s rock-pop wunderkind, Terence Trent D’Arby had a lucid track on his hit album, Introducing the Hardline, called “As Yet Untitled”. Why release something to the world when it’s seemingly unfinished? Let me rephrase: Why open a lounge in Calgary with no name? For this simple fact: It is mysterious, intriguing, and, like Clint's seminal gun-slinging, cigar-smoking, spaghetti western anti-hero, it’s damn freaking cool. Plus, “No Name” sounds better than “Work In Progress”.

Besides providing a gimmicky enigmatic allure, the lack of name actually makes sense. For a place that continues to see constant renovations and restructuring, like the recent swapping of the dancefloor for a new bar, or the transformation of the entrance hallway into a row of dimly lit, intimate booths, unfinished is the tacit ethos. Why put a label on it? Labels put things in boxes. The No Name Lounge is outside of the box. There’s no signage outside so it gets called everything from “No Name” to the “Red Lounge” to “that place sandwiched in between Micky Dee’s and 14th street”. Maybe stop at Mickey Dee’s on your way there because the No Name doesn’t serve food. They used to, but nobody ordered it so, characteristically fluid, they got rid of it. Hip, pretense-lacking patrons seem to prefer sticking to No Name’s thirty-or-so-deep drink menu which features the whiz bang, knock you out “So Hyp” martini.

There’s no phone number listed in the phone book (there’s that pesky mystique again) for the moniker-less hot spot. If you walked up to it when it wasn’t open, you’d have no way of knowing that on Friday or Saturday nights you’d be able to sip “So Hyps” under atmospheric red lighting while gyrating to soulful house, courtesy of local legends DJ Jeff Humphries or DJ Rice. You'd see the hours of operation stenciled on their front window. That's all you really need to know. Get there early if you want a table, because after 10, you'll literally be rubbing shoulders.

This place could start a trend. Watch out for other revolutionary establishments with no name popping up all over the country. Coming soon to a city near you: the Grocery Store with No Name. Okay, maybe not, but this No Name's evolutionary lounge aesthetic makes it one of Calgary's most captivating spots in which to get your drink on. -H.J.