Has anyone been to the Anchor Pub and Club lately and, sauntering in for a regular, ho-hum, dance-floor-hopping, crowd-navigating night, taken a second before going -- what the...?

You aren't the only one. Last weekend I went to see a friend DJ and found myself greeted by a revamped interior and a completely different scene. Owner Joe Graham told me he'd hired new management and they were taking things in a new direction to see if it worked. (Hint: the new management, or some of them, are formerly of the Avenue Bar.) The new direction is a fooseball-happy, hipster-friendly take on the clubby atmosphere the Anchor used to have.

The result? Well, I have to say it grew on me. With fooseball, pool tables and bar stools sectioning the former dance floor and DJ space, there's more room to navigate, converse and, quite honestly, stand up. The dance floor (or what my friends and I made into a dance floor by dancing there) is much smaller and now located directly to the right of the entry, beneath a raised (and also smaller) DJ booth. This move, straight out of the Avenue's play book, will take some more analysis before I give a thumbs up.

All in all, it was refreshing to see a new vitality brought to a familiar Anchorage hotspot. I'm hoping the Anchor continues to develop and diversify -- but at the same time, I love it because you can dance with a decent glass of wine, and I hope that never changes.

STAY TUNED for an upcoming blog on a brand spankin' new bar I'm hoping to get the digs on this weekend. It's going to be "S"nazzy...