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What to do tonight: Dance with Pittsburgh's Finest at Exit
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Pittsburgh is loaded with fine people. But each year, the Western Pennsylvania chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation honors 50 of them for their success in business and their charitable work in the city.
And some of them can dance.
Tonight, six members of Pittsburgh's 50 Finest will be holding a fundraising event at Exit nightclub in the Strip District.
"Each one of us will be teamed with a professional dance partner," said Ashley Thompson, who is one of the city's finest -- and who are we to argue?
"It's like 'Dancing With the Stars,' in that everyone who comes will be members of the audience," Ms. Thompson said.
But there also will be plenty of opportunity for those attending to dance. Exit is, after all, a dance club.
"One of our taglines is 'Exit from your normal routine,' " said Chris Firman, director of operations for the nightclub and its sister club, Static, located right next door on Smallman Street.
"Static is the former Rosebud space, Exit is the old Metropol space," Mr. Firman said. "The format at Exit is club music. It's got that upbeat energy, it's just more on the top 40 side, while Static is the electronic dance music.
"Exit's totally remodeled and revamped. The character of the room is unmatched in the city, with the catwalks that we have. It's 20,000 square feet, three different levels, so it's huge. It has a modern industrial feel to it."
Exit opened in April after more than seven years as Club Zoo, an under-21 club that existed in the same space. Now, Mr. Firman said, that crowd has grown up, but it still finds its nightlife in the same space.
"We see lots of familiar faces," Mr. Firman said. "It's a regular clientele and they're fans of the music. The Strip District's night life is revitalizing. The area's cleaned up, and at both clubs we get a more mature crowd, 25 and above, very classy. It's a good feel."
Doors open at 7 p.m., with the dance competition starting at 9. The cover is $25, but there's all sorts of free food and drink specials, and all the proceeds benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
The designation of Pittsburgh's 50 Finest is in its 17th year of honoring the city's most community-oriented single professionals. (Evidently, there's a fine line between fine single people and fine married people.)
"It's a great honor to be chosen," said Ms. Thompson, owner of Elliven Spa in Bridgeville. "Everyone is successful in their own field and so like-minded and passionate about raising money and doing charitable work in the community. We compete against each other to see who raises the most money to benefit the local chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation."
The six members of Pittsburgh's 50 Finest presenting tonight's event are members of the Pittsburgh Professional Connection, which is a professional networking group getting ready to celebrate its first anniversary next month.
It's like a group of fine people within a group of fine people.
The benefit is scheduled to go until 10, but that doesn't mean you have to vacate the premises. Mr. Firman promised the dancing will continue at Exit as well as at Static, even after the last of the hors d'oeuvres is gone.
"It will be a mix of our familiar customers and their people," he said. "At the end of the day, it's for charity, so the more the merrier and the better it is."
First Published July 20, 2012 4:07 pm
