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Nightlife |
CLUBS BACKSTREET It’s good to see this massive gay bar reopened. Even better that they don’t enforce the “no shoes, no shirts, no service” rule—well, at least the “no shirts” part. BARTINI’S “A classy lounge for everyday people” is how they define it; the only place around Clinton Twp. to get a good martini is how their fans regard it. Known for a mean Appletini and a variety of other fancy martini drinks, this is the place to be seen tipping in the area. BEACH GRILL/AQUA One of the biggest attractions on the Nautical Mile, this strip of fun on Jefferson is the closest you can get to a vacation in the metro area. The Beach Grill is a restaurant, club and resort; there are a bunch of bars inside and outside, including one where you can eat on the river. Inside there is a three-level dance floor, thirty-foot video wall, laser light show and of course that booming sound. BLEU ROOM EXPERIENCE One of the bigger clubs in the area, built in an old theater and filled with the young and pretty. Some of the best music in the city—there have not been this many big-name DJs playing Detroit since Motor closed its doors. It’s what you would call a Miami-style dance club, which just means they keep a close eye on the door and play more techno than top-40 remixes. It has the largest disco ball in the city. BOOGIE FEVER If you’re a fan of the “Hustle” and the “Bump” then get your platforms on and come down to this disco that features ’80s music as well because 1984 is no longer the bleak future it used to be. CENTAUR Chosen as one of the best 25 new nightspots in the world by Condé Nast. What you probably didn’t know is this elegant space was designed and created by the owner—a multi-year DIY?job. CINQ Gorgeous space named best new nightspot by both the readers of the Metro Times and the Detroit News. One visit and you'll know why. You’ll have mega-choice when it comes to dining and drinking since it is under the same roof as Vinotecca (an adventurous wine bar), Bastone (a Belgian brewpub) and Café Habana (Cuban). Cinq is the element that ties it all together; it's a dance club and ultralounge that is a step up in scale from most of the plastic-cup bar scenes that pervade the area. CITY CLUB Technically, it’s the Leland City Club and it is Detroit’s longest running club night, proving goth will never die—it just looks that way. Black lipstick, fishnets and leather corsets are always a good look and the girls dress even sexier. It’s dark, both figuratively and literally, and the loud, loud industrial, alt and goth classics beat the hell out of any retro ’80s night. CLUB 22 Possibly the first sports figure-owned club that isn’t a sports bar. This massive strip mall dance hall is owned by former Wingman Dino Ciccarelli and his lesser known operating partners; it features dance music mainly from the days of big hair so you can spin round, round, like a record baby round, round, round.. CLUB GOLD COAST Tuesday…Friday…Saturday…any day is a good day to check out the Coast. Make sure and check out both sides of this bar—the Rear Door bar isn’t half as naughty as it sounds. Seedy seduction, campy queens, go-go boys and showers. Yes, real working showers, conveniently on the dance floor. CLUTCH CARGO’S Huge multi-level club built in a former church, which caused quite a controversy when it opened. Still, the Creator has yet to hurl a lightning bolt at owner Amir Daiza, who’s back after hiatus and up to his old ways. CRAVE Crave always offers a sophisticated dine combined with high energy dance. But when the season heats up, the young and fashionable turn out for Crave The Sunset, a semi-regular party on certain Sundays. Crowds numbering 2,000 strong fill the lounge, packing the patio with skin and sin and eventually spilling into the parking lot, creating the area’s largest dance machine. Each Sunset has a unique vibe, the crowd following a dress code (wear all white) or playing to a specific theme such as Circus, or every kid’s favorite, Candyland—where the space is turned into a virtual version of the board game…don’t get stuck in the fudge, and you might even hook up with Queen Frostine. DELUX LOUNGE It turns out co-owner Mitch is pretty lively on the turntables, hence a packed young crowd with a better than usual M/F ratio. DOUBLE OLIVE After spending much of its youth filled with a more sophisticated crowd soaking up the liquid ambience at the bar, the owner (and patron staint of spirits) Joe Agius added a twist. An expansion pretty much doubled this Olive, creating a dance room where patrons can shake (not stir) those martinis. ENVY Either a big bar or a more intimate club. You’ll want to pull up to the swanky steel bar, a Thibedeaux design (Joe Louis & Ali statues at Cobo) which runs the length of the schmoozing and boozing area, accentuated with a wall of running water. The rest of the space sustains the same arty-industrial flavor—not too dark, not too bright, very red velvet. One amazing thing is it’s carpeted—more amazing is your feet don’t stick to it. The carpet ends at the dance floor, which you’ll see if you arrive early. EDEN Very swanky South Beach style ultralounge designed to look like the Garden of Eden. The VIP rooms have actual beds in them; do not try original sins in them or, like Adam and Eve, you will be banished from Eden. ELYSIUM The swankiest pleasure dome downtown, the “Sium” used to be a bank; a lot of the original stone remains, but it has been remade and remodeled, so it now looks like a club. It’s pretty immense and the ceiling is way up there, you could fly an ultra-light around, but then you wouldn’t get to mingle. The sound is great and lighting is exceptional—there are four bars and places to chill when you’re done dancing. ESKO The beautiful people flock to this new dance club. FILMORE THEATRE They just don’t build them like they did in 1925—fancy doorways, marble columns, grand staircases and ornate ceilings, all with that gold gilding. No matter what they call the dance night, it usually draws a crowd, nature abhors a void so to the biggest space goes the most bodies and the gyrating ocean of humanity that historically accumulates on the dance floor can be as thick as it gets in these parts. G-SPOT Head upstairs from downtown Mt. Clemens hotspot Johnny G’s for some late night action. DJs and great drink specials get the party started and the fun, young crowd makes sure it lasts all night, or at least until 2 a.m. GIGI'S Hot go-go boys: what more could a man want? How about drag shows? A staple that has kept this place going since the days when Babs Streisand was alive, and we mean really alive. There’s dancing too. HALF PAST THREE With no advertising and only a neon martini glass for a sign, Half Past Three is one of Detroit’s hidden jewels. The atmosphere is lush and comfortable with a European flair. The low lighting and plush couches makes this a perfect date spot and the place for a nightcap after your romp through the Motor City Casino. They cater to an upscale urban crowd on Thursdays and Fridays. Saturdays you can marvel at the Latin dancing. INSOMNIA Of course you can’t get to sleep, the damn top 40 music’s too loud! This used to be a gym, now it is the most lively club in Macomb Twp., which in addition to being a county, is apparently also a township. INUENDO Big fun boyspot with a solid rep for great dragshows and dancing. It’s a late-night thing; they don’t open until ten and are allowed to keep the doors open later than most bars (5am on Thurs through Sat.) but there is a lot going on here before last call. This is female impersonation at its best, with gorgeous queens coming from all over the state as well as outstate to grace Inuendo’s legendary stage. So when you want to get off, just get off I-75 at Seven Mile and stay on the southbound service drive. LUNA The big buzz here is the Thursday ’80s night. Thursday coincidentally was also the big night when it was the Groove Room and amazingly enough Thursdays were the big night when it was 3-D. When it was Bugsy Malone’s during the disco days we are sure the fourth day of the week was happening as well. Luna is always winning all types of awards for being the best dance club in Royal Oak. I think that’s what happens when you’re not a meat market for fratholes. MENJO’S We are beginning to suspect Menjo’s is immortal. Menjo’s has been around a long, long time and is still as hot as when it was called Fort Menjo’s in the days before Michigan was granted statehood. Madonna partied here decades ago and the boys still keep this quintessential Detroit gay nightspot rocking eight days a week. The patio is always a fave on hot nights which happen often at this iconic spot. MEPHISTO’S Apparently owned, or at least named after, the devil to whom Faust sold his soul, this is the upscale club for the pierced, tattooed and wanton set. Chaos productions and Noir Leather are regulars, if you could call them that. The space has a devilish pin-up girl theme in the dance-clubby first floor, mix and match armchairs on the lounge-ish second level, a living room on the third and a tiki bar out back. MONKEY BAR This was formerly Q, and to rename it after an obscure song by the Hysteric Narcotics, themselves a relatively obscure Detroit garage band, is profound. NECTO Ann Arbor’s best dance club for the turntable elite. Some nights it’s gay, some nights it’s not, but the music is always good. NOMI Al Irish takes you dancing, in a mall of all places, in this restaurant club named after its location in downtown NOrthville, MIchigan. OSLO Fortunately, Oslo’s new owners love both food and music. Proprietor Roberto might be better known in some circles as DJ Bet, together with his wife Kat, they have revived not only the downtown’s first sushi bar but also one of the most vital outlets for underground sounds in recent history. If you are looking for the real thing, here is where you’ll hear the true sounds of Detroit. The space is small by club standards, but the DJs aren’t—this makes Oslo’s dance nights more like special events, like parties you’ll reminisce about, rather than the sanitized cheese spun in typical dance clubs. PLAN B Apparently Plan A did not work out in this space on the corner that used to be the home of both Panacea and Volume in previous incarnations. It is more or less attached to Confidential, which you probably know better as Congress.. PRIVE SMALLZ ULTRALOUNGE This used to be the London Chop House, and it doesn’t get any more legendary than that when it comes to Motor City haunts. The room is the same, except for a few touches and cloth treatments it is virtually untouched since it closed, which is a blessing for the new owners because it once again is the height of fashion. This room is comfortable, it feels like your favorite pair of slippers, even if you never had the opp to hit the original LCH. Don’t expect the old menu or the old crowd. This is a younger hang, despite the souldies we heard on Bobby Whoa’s night, and the new food will be appetizer driven, because not everything comes back in style. RAINBOW ROOM Well, boys will be boys but at the Rainbow Room they are just as likely to be girls. Drag shows and dancing and down with the entire GLBTG community. SAKANA Sushi that you can dance to, kind of like a Ferndale version of Crave. The skillfull Shortround dee jays here, which is one of the reasons for its popularity. SEVIN Pontiac’s premium nightclub—with waterfalls, super hot dancing girls, and a salon right on the premises. Lots of flirting for the fling-lovers and neverending bass beats for your feets. SKY CLUB Mild or extra-hot? At Sky Club, you can learn to salsa dance if you get there early. Then you can stay late for a temperature-raising night of dancing to a live Latin band or equally foot-tapping DJs. Not good on your feet? Relax with a cocktail and tell everyone you’ve got two left feet. STILETTOS This westside lesbian bar is a personal favorite. Check it out—one side is a huge cabaret drag queen and drag king show and the other side is packed with dancers grinding to hip hop, R&B and booty. ST. ANDREW’S The hardest working club in show biz; when there isn’t a national band, there is usually some type of dance night. Club nights at this historic venue are as gritty as the city itself—which makes things a whole lot more fun. TONIC One of Pontiac’s longest running clubs, known for luring celebs into its doors. Beyoncé and Nelly have graced this venue and P. Diddy has shown up as well (back when he was Puffier). What keeps them strong? Programming—there is always a “pack them in” event like the competition for America’s Next Top Model (Tyra was at that one). There are three levels that go from industrial up to posh, with a different DJ on VENUE Billed as W. Dearborn’s premier nightclub, Venue is a good looking club with deco styling that gives it a retro vibe; which is overshadowed by technology. There are 19 plasma tvs, so many that they have taken to calling themselves, “Plasma Heaven” and we’ll guess the appliance sales person is calling them “Plasma Gods”. The music is top-40 and it seems to be pretty much the same type of crowd that hangs out at Crave across the street. WILD WOODY’S CHILL & GRILL This partay bar is the king of partay bars. THE WORKS For over five years and counting, The Works’ “Boys’ Night Out” Saturdays have been the place to be after the place to be has been had. Resident DJ Felton Howard lays down the best in house, circuit and club tracks on one of Detroit’s nicest sound systems. Monthly special guest DJs keep it different (and loud!). See why the boys come from cities as far away as Toledo every week. Feeling a little bi? Fridays are a mixed crowd, but definitely friendly and definitely fabulous. XODOS Impress your friends with your own secret hidden club. Go to the back of Golden Fleece, head up the stairs and discover the entertainment equivalent of a David Copperfield trick. It seemingly defies physics that a club this nice and deck this huge could be here; it feels about 10 times larger than the restaurant. The owner is Yanni, perhaps the handsomest club owner in Detroit, and the crowd on the packed dance floor is young and looking good as well. The bartenders can mix it as well as the DJ, and if you get hungry from all that gyrating, you are but a narrow flight of stairs from a tasty gyro. THE ZOO The late night Congress traffic jam is not caused by a Wings game or a Downtown Hoedown, which one look at the sharply-attired crowd in the queue will confirm. The Zoo is a three-level dance club which plays hip hop almost as loud as some of the cars waiting to valet. © 2008 Guide to Detroit, LLC |