Well, technically “The Basement.” By all accounts Taylor and Alyssa should not have met. They did not grow up together, they did not have any friends in common, they did not even live on the same coast. And yet, on a cool May evening in 2015, fate intervened. Alyssa had just finished a months-long trip living on the Big Island of Hawaii, culminating with 6 weeks backpacking through Southeast Asia. She had just hopped off her 13 hour flight at LAX, with one night to kill in Los Angeles on her layover back to New Jersey. Taylor, on the other hand, was on his way with his friend Fed to an "OK Cupid" date in Santa Monica, at a bar on the other side of Los Angeles— arguably an equivalent distance if you know anything about LA traffic. It soon became clear to Taylor that his date was not going to work out, evidenced that the two girls he and Fed had come to see were now eagerly chatting away with two other dudes at the bar. “Let’s just make tonight about US,” Fed said. He and Taylor left and crossed the street to “The Basement,” a bar Taylor hated because the live music drowned out any chances of talking to a pretty girl. As for Alyssa, the friend she was staying with for the night convinced her to go out to that same bar, since Alyssa had no plans to ever return to LA. LOL. It wasn’t long before Taylor was extorted for a drink by the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. The conversation soon turned (as it usually does with people from New Jersey) to New Jersey. Shocking. The pair agreed to meet up the next time Taylor headed home to the East Coast. It wasn’t long before their long-distance friendship turned into a loving relationship. In 2017, Alyssa moved out to California and the rest is history. Taylor, who never put much stock in fate until he met Alyssa, fully believes in destiny now.