Since Shannon Heuer and another contestant tied for a prize, a dance-off was declared. The winner would be determined by who drew the louder cheers, so the two pulled out all the stops — dancing on tables and with their fellow bingo players.
Yes, bingo.
Welcome to Sunday night at the Standard Grill at the Standard High Line hotel, which, as the hashtag #notyourstandardbingo suggests, is nothing like the scene in church halls and Elks lodges.
The grill’s bartender, Michael Stauffer, and floor manager, Joe Harris, have made the game of chance an excuse for an all-out party, and an appealing option for young professionals like Heuer, a 31-year-old who works in advertising, to let loose before the work week starts.
The Standard isn’t alone. The West Village restaurant Tortilla Flats has held bingo nights for 30 years, giving winners shots of tequila and T-shirts. There are bingo nights at Pete’s Candy Store in Williamsburg and at the Royal Palm’s Shuffleboard Club in Gowanus, where drag queen Linda Simpson plays host, when she isn’t overseeing Le Bingo at Le Poisson Rouge.
Bingo nights at the Standard began four summers ago. The idea, Stauffer says, was to attract a more local crowd to the chic Meatpacking District spot. Set in the back dining room of the Standard Grill, bingo nights start late, at 10:30.
“It’s not as touristy,” Stauffer says. “It’s for the community; there’s no sort of favoritism.”
Granted, he says, some celebrities have turned up on bingo nights, Cameron Diaz and NASCAR superstar Jeff Gordon among them. But even the stars are responsible for their own fun.
“If you’re just sitting back and looking for a good time, you’ve come to the wrong place,” Stauffer says. He says Diaz even participated in a round of ball karaoke, where someone sings a song a cappella, replacing one of the words with “ball.” DJ Earl Grey decides who wins a round of shots for their entire team.
But ball karaoke isn’t the only new wrinkle in the game. Bingo nights at the Standard have themes. On July 13, it was horror night: The staff dressed up as though it were a Halloween party, and the opening scene from “Scream” played on a projector.
It’s a far cry from bingo night’s early days at the High Line hotel, Harris says, when the prevailing theme was debauchery. “People were spraying water everywhere and showing skin during the dance-offs,” Harris says. “Themes were my way of keeping the party going in a different kind of way.” So far, he’s created parties based on Mariah Carey, Britney Spears, Madonna and even Disney movies, using their songs to liven up the game.
But the themes are simply a backdrop to the game itself, in which — in true bingo fashion — the first people to punch holes in five numbers horizontally, vertically or diagonally win. “It’s fun for people who don’t like to compete, but like to win,” says Harris. “It’s like the lottery, and everyone likes to win the lottery.”
And then there are the twists, like ball karaoke and midgame dance breaks, often when certain number-letter combinations are called out — say, O-69. That’s when DJ Earl Grey cuts in with a song like Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing,” while Stauffer and Harris lead the room in a sing-along.
It’s these kinds of touches that have given the Standard’s bingo nights a strong following, with reservations made as far as three weeks in advance, even with a $30 minimum.
“That kind of party is hard to find on a Sunday night in New York City,” says Heuer, who lost the dance contest despite her best efforts.
Krystle Connor, a 28-year-old actress and event manager, agrees that winning is beside the point, though the prize — a bottle of Tullia Prosecco — is nice.
“Bingo can be kind of boring,” she says. “But the dance breaks and substituting lyrics with the word ‘ball’? That was probably the most fun I ever had playing it.”