While many Thursday nights mean hitting up typical Water street bars, El Patio, 328 Water St., offers people a different atmosphere – and you don’t need to be 21 to enter.
Starting at 9 p.m., El Patio customers will experience a night of salsa dancing, an event sponsored by Latin American Studies, Spanish Business Association, Student Organization of Latinos and Two to Tango.
Junior Daniel Calderón is a dance instructor and bouncer of Two to Tango, and said the event is a great way for people to branch out.
“If you don’t know how to dance salsa, there’s no better way to learn than to go to a salsa event,” he said. “And even if you don’t want to dance I still think . this is the coolest thing on Water Street to do. There’s going to be great music playing that you wouldn’t hear anywhere else, you get to have some really good food and enjoy a different environment.”
Sophomore Carlos Villagrán, an employee of El Patio and member of Two to Tango, SOL and SBA, said the Two to Tango dance instructors at the event are willing to teach anyone interested in learning.
And, as Calderón said, the event isn’t limited to dancing.
El Patio will also sell burritos and a beverage for $7, Villagrán said.
The good food and music makes the event appeal to a wider array of people, Calderón said.
“If you’re in to socializing, it’s a new form of socialization; if you’re in to music it’s a new kind of music; if you’re in to food, you’re going to have good food; if you’re into exercise, there’s no better form of cardio exercise than dancing,” Calderón said.
The event is something that started last fall semester, Vallagrán said. SOL, SBA, LAS and Two to Tango got together to organize the event, and Alex Castro, owner of El Patio, offered his restaurant as the place to hold it.
Calderón said the event works as a good way to allow the Hispanic community in Eau Claire to get together as well as get the rest of the community involved in a different cultural viewpoint.
The group hopes to hold two or three more events this semester, Calderón said, although no further dates have been coordinated yet.
Vallagrán said anyone who attends is bound to find it enjoyable.
“The burritos are just amazing and the salsa dancing is incredible,” he said. “Everybody that goes there, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know how to dance, but everybody has a blast.”