I love to dance. Really, really love to dance. But since moving to New York nearly six years ago, it seems like I’ve rarely had the opportunity, except at weddings. It just seems to be more of a hassle than it’s worth.
In the spring I went to my first nightclub in ages, Cain. I was with a pretty girl — a friend — and we got in without much hassle. There was not actually a lot of dancing but some, and many pretty girls to look at. It was like my own little Shangri-La, in fact. “You must be like a kid in a candy shop,” my friend told me.
So then I thought I’d go there again, a few months ago, with a girl I was actually trying to impress. But we were turned away from both Cain and the Pink Elephant. It wasn’t us — neither club was letting anyone in who wasn’t on the guest list. In fact one of the bouncers gave said hottie girl his card so he could put us on guest list in future. But of course all the same it was just a humiliating experience. It left me wondering: why should I, as a guy trying to woo a girl, want to risk an evening going wrong like that?
Still, I remained intrigued by the nightclub scene. On Friday a buddy from Boston was in town and so Tallman and I decided to take him out to a club. It is drizzling and we get tired of waiting in line at Eugene so again we head to the Chelsea club district.
It is early (10:30ish), it is raining, and it is the start of Labor Day weekend so I am optimistic we might be able to get in somewhere where three gentlemen — even well-dressed gentlemen — might not normally be able to get in. So we spend a half-hour waiting at Marquee. (Okay, maybe this was naive, but I’m a novice). We are like the third group in line after the private parties let out and try to guess what the cover charge might be. Finally the doorman gets to us.
“What’s the story, guys,” he says, looking at us just a bit askew. To get in, he says, we’ll have to purchase two bottles at $200 a pop. Egads.
Over a beer at Brite Bar, our friend is outraged. “I’ve never been so humiliated,” he says. Don’t worry about it, Tallman and I tell him: this is just New York.
So we end up at Crobar, which has a pretty liberal door policy. “Crobar’s ghetto,” one of the girls in the line at Marquee had said. And … well, it was. That is the problem with a club where anyone can get in, everyone gets in. Clearly all the v. attractive women were at the clubs that we couldn’t get in. It was still crowded though and I was jostled a few times. And what the fuck was up with that music? Just a dull throbbing beat. I have heard of this music that you have to be on drugs to appreciate, and I do believe that this was it. So I leave after less than an hour, having spent $30 to get in. Whatever.
So anyway, I am curious what people with more club saavy do… or where people who like to dance do so. (I know there is this place Black Betty in Brooklyn Allison but I’m not keen to leave the Island). I sorta feel like if you’re a guy out with guys, you’re unlikely to get in to the more exclusive clubs. If you’re a guy on a date, you don’t want to risk getting rejected at the door (I guess more of a risk for someone like me who doesn’t go out clubbing regularly). So unless you have a cute female friend who’ll come to be your “wingwoman”… what is there to do? And where are the good, no-hassle dance spots?
Try deep, taj, duvet (the strip of bars around 21-22 between 5 and 6)…happy valley is easy to get in (although a little small)
If you go on a Guys night out, (ie. 4-5 guys), you can try recruit a group of girls waiting on line – just offer them a drink afterwards
Theres a strip on west 28 (Home, Guesthouse, BED) near marquee and brite
Pacha is pretty liberal
Although there are lines at Gypsy Tea and Eugenes, it should take less than 10 minutes –
If you want to venture to LES / Tribeca- Libation is pretty good if you want to cough up 15 dollars. Sugar (tribeca) has no cover and is usually packed downstairs. If you want to the hipster/rock scene, the skinny and L&L is pretty good
i have more to list – but i hope this helps for now
Cheers!
From my point of view as a club manager I can totally appreciate why clubs don’t want to let in groups of guys. If the ratio of men to women in a club is to high things are generally rougher, fights are more likely, it certainly negatively effects the atmosphere. As a customer do you really want to be in a club where the customers are 3/4 men?
I’d say though, if there is a place you think you’d want to go often, try going there early in the week, like on Tuesdays or something, or really early in the night and get to know the door staff or bartenders. Or you could always pretend to be gay!
It had been a while since I’d gotten the three guy rejection from a club or bar. So I wasn’t prepared for it. That is because when I do go to clubs (which isn’t too often but is maybe once every two or three months, so not unheard of), I generally get there early. I don’t mind having a drink or two as the club fills up. In this case, we were the first guys in line, the first two groups were women (one of which we had invited forward to get out of the rain). Basically we were so out of touch with this policy because it really hadn’t been an issue in a while, that we didn’t try to officially join in with either group of girls (just chatted with the two girls that we let up). I just figured since they had just let in 7 girls, they would mind letting in 3 guys that early in the night.
But this wasn’t a straight up rejection, because we could buy our way in (both more and less egalitarian than the infamous Studio 54 door policy). I suspect the bottles would have been $250 and up. And on top of that one member of our party didn’t really drink and Derek had to work tomorrow. So even if we wanted to spend the money, we would have had to give away more than a bottle over the course of the night. That’s too expensive a night out, I feel.
While it is infuriating, I try to keep in mind that I’m not the bar’s real clientel. I don’t club much. When I do, I might have a number of drinks, but I don’t drop hundreds of dollars. So it is kind of asking a lot for a club to build me a Shangri-la, keep it running year round, and then just be able to show up once in a blue moon and have it all be perfect. If I were a clubber (and hence the type of customer they really want to keep), I would have known or figured out a way to get in. We won’t be back to Marquee, but they won’t miss us either.