I was recently informed by my new friend "Richie", of a phenomenon known as a ‘Cougar Bar’. Before Friday night, I had never heard of the term.

Richie, Amelia, Billy, Jessy and myself (Jane, if you hadn’t figured that out already) had been enjoying a late happy hour at Bellanotte in the heart of downtown Minneapolis. They have a great patio and it’s possibly one of the best places to 'people watch' in the Twin Cities. As we jabbered away and soaked in the fabulous later summer weather, Richie paused, looked around the expansive patio bar and got a funny grin on his face.

He leaned into our circle and said, "Have you guys ever heard of a Cougar Bar?"

Amelia and I shrugged our shoulders, and I said, "A what bar?"

He repeated, "A Cougar Bar!"

We shook our heads no, and Richie began to explain. "When I used to live on the West Coast there was a bar down the street from my house. It was a great place to hang out and have a beer until later at night. Then, it turned into... a Cougar Bar."

Amelia piped in, "So what’s a Cougar Bar?"

Richie said, "It’s a bar where single (typically) divorced women in their forties come to prowl for younger men."

We began to laugh, not because of his explanation of what a Cougar Bar was, but because we realized what Richie had already realized. We were sitting in a Cougar Bar.

Over the past few hours on Bellanote’s patio, the crowd of people had gradually changed. There were no longer groups of coworkers having a Friday afternoon happy hour nor were any couples scattered about having romantic dinners. The atmosphere and the crowd was notably different. We were in the midst of a Cougar crowd! These women were perched on their high stilettos peering out beneath their thick dark eye makeup, over the herds of people, waiting patiently to pounce.

Sure... there were plenty of creepy old men hitting on younger girls. But there was a definate remnant of Cougars on the loose in Bellanote... waiting for their prey. (Meow...)

Amelia wasn’t sure that they were all women. She was convinced that a few of them were actually men. I had to agree with her in a few instances.

The next day I attempted to do some further research of the phenomenon of "Cougar Bars" I found some other varied definitions of what a "Cougar" was. The following description I liked in particular:

"Cougars are single, slightly-older women, who go out, dressed like they’re in their early twenties and get really really drunk while trying to meet (i) Young men or (ii) Rich older men. Cougars who, unlike women in their early twenties that are not extremely aggressive in their courting practices; are predators, which is a learned behavior they acquire in order to get the attention of men, who traditionally prefer to date younger women."

Now that I know that there’s a name for this behavior, it makes me wonder… Am I on my way to becoming a "Cougar?" (Dun, dun dun... forboding music....) If so, the bars of First and Hennepin Avenues... Beware!