SalsaBoston.com Message Board

Posted by Olaf on August 28, 2008 at 08:04:27:

In Reply to: An Tua Nua posted by An Tua Nua Patron on August 27, 2008 at 07:53:14:

: My friends and I have been coming to ATN for about two years and we've decided that we're going to stop coming because it's just too darned hot inside that club.

: I don't understand why you can't turn on the AC or install some large fans to cool the crowd off. Last week, one of my friends was on the verge of fainting b/c it was so hot inside and two of us had to help him walk outside because he felt like he was going to faint after dancing 3 straight songs in that heat!

: Also, as a woman, I can tell you that most of my female friends find it absolutely disgusting to be dancing with guys who are literally dripping their sweat onto us!

: I can't believe how inconsiderate ATN is of its faithful patrons. YOu don't even have the decency to provide us with some air! You're going to continue to lose a lot of business and people are going to continue to ATN earlier in the night than they would have planned if you don't do something about the heat in there.

Dear 'Patron,

I'm sorry you feel that strongly.  I'm not big on anonymous complaints
since I can't get back to you directly, but it's important so let me
address it here.

The HVAC system at An Tua Nua has never been very good, and in the 4
years we've been there now, we've made a lot of effort to make sure
it's generally okay and at least marginally bearable on the really hot
days.  Fortunately it's starting to cool down now.  This summer we had
some days where not only was it really hot out, but we had unusually
many people in attendance.  It's a compounding problem since when
there are more people, a lot more heat is generated and also the heat
exchangers don't work as well (laws of physics).  Thus, the hot nights
unfortunately get really hot.  In fact, we tried to get fans when a
few weeks ago when it was insane, but they were sold out all over town
and we only managed to get one, which is in there.

Anyway, not an excuse, but the explanation.

At my advice to them, they had a guy in to inspect the HVAC units, and
supposedly there is indeed a problem that is making the main unit less
effective.  Supposedly that was to be fixed this week, but it hasn't
yet.

The other problem is that Wed. Salsa nights get a lot hotter than
their other nights, because people are dancing much harder.  They tell
me the other nights there are much better, but as usual, Salsa dancers
don't patronize the bar much and want to sneak in water, etc. Thus,
the owners understandably discount the complaints we make.  In some
ways, they consider us privileged to be there and we have to deal
with what's at hand.  In response to that, I personally have paid for
and done a lot of improvements in there myself.  However, replacing
the HVAC is simply not feasible.

I am hoping that both the cooling weather, repairs to the units, and
a few other little things we're working on will improve the situation
significantly in the next week or two.  I hope you'll join us again.

By the way, historically, we're hardly the only place that has had/has
this problem....!

Best regards,
-Olaf

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