You can trace snobby tea dances back to Victorian England, with their hoity-toity airs, their civility and royalty, and all that live orchestral music. At Carl's Badass Tea Dance at gay bar Adams Street every Sunday, gentility rules — if you consider its leather-clad host a product of proper breeding and decorum. For starters, Carl doesn't drag out fine china for tea and crumpets. Instead, he pours vodka-heavy Long Island Ice Teas and lip-smacking Bloody Marys to enhance revelers' moves to electronica dance cuts blaring from the speakers. And if you think you need to wear your Sunday finest, don't sweat it. Carl's dress code is strictly jeans, T-shirts, and leather. "It's a mixer, a get-together," says Dan Brown, the bar's owner. "And there's a stripper occasionally." Indeed. Tea is served from 5 to 8 tonight at Adams Street, 77 North Adams Street in Akron. Admission is free. Call 330-434-9794 or visit www.adamsstreetbar.com.
Sundays, 5-8 p.m., 2008
