Boo-geddy-Boogaloo

Quick: what is a Boogaloo? Not a nonsense word, but a genre of Latin music and an accompanying dance. What is Boogaloo in Maplewood? An overcrowded yuppie bar serving what this amateur food critic will call Pan Caribbean. In the stack of purchased Groupons, this restaurant's discount was perched on top and yet every weekend it was received with a scrunched up face from That Other Person Who Would Be Eating With Me.

Before an anticipated "Evening With Harry Shearer" (we're weird), Boogaloo was really the best choice since it was #1 Not too expensive and #2 less than 10 minutes from the theatre. TOPWWBEWM gave a scrunched up face, acquiesced, and we departed for downtown Maplewood. Tim had been to this place before, but only for drinks, and thinking that bar service was its main attraction, it didn't occur to me that we would need reservations for a Friday night. We were told that it was a 45 minute wait-unless-we wanted to eat outside. Ok? It was 70 degrees. It was hard to believe that 45 minutes worth of people didn't want to eat on the deck. Our hostess was taking us to our table, did an about face, and took off. To seat someone else. We were standing next to the service area of the bar, right in everyone's way. We looked at each other and shrugged and were about to give up when she returned to seat us.

Out on the deck there were several empty tables, which led me to believe that something fishy was going on at the hostess station. Didn't matter since we had our seats. Three waiters passed us before one stopped and asked if another had helped us yet. We were not in a hurry, so I let this slide. Opening the menu, I saw that ubiquitous annoucement of "TAPAS." The TAPAS, which 10 years ago were known as "APPETIZERS" or even "STARTERS," included about 7-8 Pan-Caribbean offerings, including Jerk Wings and crawfish cakes, which we ordered. The crawfish cakes were pretty good with a basic accompaniment of remoulade, and they gave us a generous offering of 10 jerk wings, and although not spicy enough to be considered jerk, included an interesting cooling sauce of coconut somethingorother. We each ordered the Cubano sandwich, which was just mediocre-go to Luvy Duvy's (see review) or Tropicana (no review) for a much better one.

Boogaloo has an interesting martini and frozen drink list but I was already struggling to stay awake for Montgomery Burns, et al., that I decided that I needed to skip those. The scrunched up face will be happy to get a reprieve-we will not be returning-until the next non-bar Groupon purchased.

http://www.boogaloostl.com/