Redwoods in Chester and other stories

Went to Redwoods in Chester because I had heard there might be an open mic there on Weds. One guy with an acoustic guitar came in and set up a small PA with two tiny Bose speakers on stands and two mikes on booms. The area for musicians would be about 4' deep and 8' wide. I spoke with him about the open mic. He had been doing it at the Long Valley brewpub, also on Wed., but the management changed and he was fortunately able to save the open mic by moving it to Redwoods. He says that usually it's acoustic guitarists, sometimes as many as 6 or 7. My acoustic trio would fit right in, as would I on solo keyboard. Another local venue, Bernie's, has an open mic at the same time. I asked him about the juxtaposition with Bernie's. He pointed out that Bernie's is still the only place to go if you have a full band or need drums. But most of the acoustic guitarists tell him that the house band plays too long at Bernie's, and after that, with all the fiddling around that bands do to get set up and play, wait time is too long. I can see his point. When I go to Bernie's to play, I usually don't even start until after 11 PM, even if I am first up after the house band. That's why I rarely do it even though it's a good place to play. Pretty rough if you have to get up early in the morning. This same individual also hosts and open mic on Thursdays somewhere in Sparta which I had not heard of, and another one on Sundays at Muldoon's on Rt. 46 in Ledgewood. I assume the formats of those are similar. I did not stay to hear anyone play. When I left Redwoods at 8:45 or so I don't think anyone had shown up to play yet. The bar was full, though, of middle-aged couples, and the dining room was probably still full too, judging from the lack of parking spaces outside.