Happy 5th Birthday, Carpe Diem

Carpe Diem celebrated its fifth anniversary on Saturday. The uptown bar's name of course comes from the old Latin expression meaning, “It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes.”

About Town had been to twice before, once for an and once with a blonde who we later found doesn't return phone calls. Otherwise we always thought it's the bar you hit to relax after cutting someone under the 14th Street bridge and stashing the body at the abandoned Macy's float depot.

We arrived Saturday at 3:30, hoping to speak with the owner before he got busy with the 8pm party. The bartender, a woman named Monica who was happy from just getting hired to teach at Wallace, told us the owner, Joe Jones, could be in as early as 5. We ordered a Coors and waited.

“Just make sure I don't get too drunk to talk to Joe,” we joked with happy Monica.

Jones still hadn't shown by 6. We did however see Brian Keller from the . “I'm supposed to talk to this guy later, but I'm a little drunk,” we said (slurred).

While waiting we spoke to Joe Scardino, one of Carpe Diem's regular customers. He described the bar and its clientele as “very friendly, super friendly.” Scardino told us that he comes to Carpe Diem once or twice a week since his old regular bar Ted & Jo's closed.

“When that closed everyone came here,” he said.

We killed more time reading a trashy newspaper, scrutinizing the televised poker game and trying to recognize the famous faces in framed photos hanging on the bar's walls (Hendrix, Sophia Loren and lots of whigged dudes from the 18th century). We used the bathroom (a lot). Credit to Carpe Diem for stocking our favorite hand dryer, the Xlerator.

Jones arrived around 8, a big guy wearing a flannel shirt and close cropped hair. Everyone rushed to shake his hand and say congratulations. When the mob subsided we met him and he invited us upstairs to talk.

Jones is from Limerick. “Better sober up or this Irish guy is going to think we're a chump,” we thought.

He explained how five years ago he and his business partner Billy O'Hara were looking around the area for a location, but they settled on Hoboken because they liked the neighborhood.

“We liked Hoboken,” he said. “We wanted to create something here. We wanted to build a neighborhood bar.”

Jones said surviving this economy has been tough, but that the bar is "still going in the right direction." For that he credited his staff and his regular customers. He said he very much likes the hospitality business.

“I like for people to walk out feeling better than when they walked in,” he said.

Our talk done, Jones gave us a Carpe Diem tee-shirt and we returned to our seat downstairs. We felt that proverbial second wind and decided to stay. Seize the day.

The party had grown very lively. Carpe Diem was packed. Our new buff and tattooed bartender Ricky was quick refilling our drink (we drank a lot). Everyone knew everybody. We chatted with a cute girl or two. The music, mostly classic rock, was audible but not overwhelming. Guests went mad with mirth and motion when the DJ dropped “Dancing in the Dark.”

Limber and happy, we thought: this is a Hoboken bar. A bar can be in Hoboken but that doesn't make it a Hoboken bar. Carpe Diem is a Hoboken bar.

We left at closing time, yes feeling better than when we came in. We stayed for 11 hours, but we could have lasted the next five years.

Alan Skontra was a big dork who never went anywhere. Then he started writing the About Town column for Patch, and now he's everywhere. Have a hot tip on an event in Hoboken? Send an invitation, questions and comments too, to alanskontra@hotmail.com, and peep his tweets @alanskontra.