Boosting the Ego at Berlin Bistro – Long Beach

I've done aerial silks for over a year now, and I've been pretty reluctant to try anything else. I protest the trapeze, I boycott the hoop, and I've always refused to touch the pole. It frustrates my instructors, it kills my classmates, but I wouldn't be the first girl to dislike holding hard apparatuses between her thighs.

But pole dancing is an amazing artistic endeavor when you do it right, and to me, it was a little like Berlin Bistro's Lavender Lemonade. A drink with a pretty purple lining at the bottom of the glass, the lavender lemonade held a world of potential, a fresh sip of something cold, new, and refreshing. And despite being a fairly seasoned aerialist, the sweet lavender syrup, like the pole, created an old favorite with a brand-new spin. The balance of sugar with spice was better shaken, not stirred. And I had to try to shake it just this once.

After the gyrating warm-up, my first pole class was off to a strong start, but I could have done without the screeching, searing of the hard metal pole as it scraped across my skin. My thighs were red as the Seared Ahi Tuna Burger at a raw medium rare. The bruising that comes inevitably grates grill marks on your flesh, but let it be known that the tuna was perfectly seared. Plus the bruises are kind of worth the effort to make your buns tight and toned, with none of the dimpling around the tuna.

When you look in the mirror during class and you see the gorgeous lines your own body makes, you feel hotter than the wasabi mayo, and suddenly I see what my friends mean when they tell me they do pole for themselves. The Smoked Salmon Flatbread is a dish you can justify for others as well as yourself. You don't get healthier than the good-fat smoked salmon with sweet slices of heirloom tomato and a contrasting crunch of crisp red onion. Unfortunately, the dill-cream cheese is the social stigma that drags down the fun.

But as one empowered lady once said, "The players gonna play, play, play, play, play. And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate". I, for one, won't be letting the fun-Nazis win. And from now on, I'll be grabbing a tasty bite from Berlin Bistro every time I grab a pole and shake it off.