t’s funny to look back at the history of my Halloween costumes. When I was six, my mom bought me the complete Zorro outfit. It came in a plastic bag. At eight, I became infatuated with Captain America, and my Halloween costume that year also came in a bag. Rubber mask, red boots, plastic utility belt and all. When I was twelve, I wanted to be Richard Nixon. They had a bag for him, too. Yaletown’s Section 3 sports the same spirit as the costumes of my youth. It is the fad-following kid wearing the “hip lounge” costume that also comes prefab in a bag.

Yaletown has much going for it. It is home to Vancouver’s best partiers, and is the West Coast’s only legitimate contribution to Canada’s hip urban community. It is funny that one of its newest entries spends so much time being so phony.

It is a lesson in trying too hard. Section 3 vehemently attempts to be all things to all people of the neighborhood. It isn’t sure if it wants to be romantic with the super-secluded booths (you can’t see anywhere from within), retro-cool with its gaudy orange spaceship motif, or nerdy-chic with its Abercrombie artwork. When a place offers an extensive and expensive wine and beer list along side the cheapo drink list of the day, I get confused as to who they want in there.

Their “hip lounge” Halloween starter kit included the following: one 4’ x 4’ poster of a naked woman with no face, one complete fall set of EQ3’s dining room furniture, and four cardboard cutouts of “hip guests” to start your party (the cokehead businessman, the wealth suburbanite couple, and wiry model-type girl in a fur cap and burlap sack.)