Since when did Tuesday become Booze-day?

There were more people at Whisky River last night than there were on Saturday.

There was the soft opening on Friday, the grand opening on Saturday, and then last night was Dale Earnhardt Jr’s V.I.P grand opening. And according to my NASCAR buddy, Jr. has another V.I.P opening tonight, and then there’s another grand opening this weekend.

In case you didn’t get the memo – Whisky River in the EpiCentre is now open.

After you climb up enough flights of stairs to suffice as a workout, and around the EpiCentre construction, you get to Uptown’s only hick-hop bar, hick with some hop. This urban-country hip-hee-haw heaven has three bars, a mechanical bull, a massive dance floor and a somewhat exposed V.I.P area that Dale Jr. didn’t hide very well in. The cow printed upholstery on the booths didn’t do a good job of camouflaging him. You knew where Dale Jr. was based on the line of women waiting in line to talk to him as though they were waiting in line for a roller coaster.

But this isn’t your typical country bar where you’ll find peanut shells on the floor, and so much hairspray and smoke combined that you’re at risk for spontaneously combusting. Whisky River is no dive, it’s perhaps the only upscale country bar I’ve ever been to, ever… let alone in Charlotte. But considering the music was alternating between “Boots with the Fur” and “These Boots are Made for Walking,” I’m not really sure what genre to put Whisky River under. But I can tell you that the random play list made it impossible for my hips to sit still.

Finally … a bar you can both chill and dance in. I was having an intense rock, paper, scissors battle in one corner, having normal volume conversations at the bar and dancing more than a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader in my white cowboy boots. Was I at a country bar or a club? I don’t know, but I can tell you that whatever it was, I had a hip-hee-haw good time.