Dante’s

Been coming to Dantes for years… Only place to get good Latin music with decent space to dance… now that’s smoke free it’s even better! Im not a regular clubber but every now and then the girls and i meet up to shake things up… It is pretty dead til about 11… And the door charge is annoying but keeps out a good amount of rifraff those would b my only reasons not to give it a five star.

Don’t get any mixed drinks. The liquor was very light in all my drinks and overpriced. The dancing was good though.

We went here for my bffs 21^st and she’s been her 1000 times, but it was a first for me. We got there around 11, 11:30, and it was desently filled. We were a big group of girls, and there was a lot of guys staring, which always annoys me. You can look, but must you stare! But you’ll find that anywhere. So anyways. The bathrooms were ok, not the best, not the worst. Served quickly at the bar even tho they were busy. The music when we got there was salsa and that was def not our thing, but around 12 it got better. Every once in a while they’d play a slow song, and I thought «who slow dances at a clud on a Friday night?» so they could cut that out. But mostly it was pretty awesome. Standard clientel, most ppl dressin normal, with the hoochies and drabby thrown in there. The smoke-​free really threw me off. I guess its nice, I don’t normally smoke, unless I’m drinkin, so I was a little let down by that. Fun night. Hope to do it again.

Dante’s has become an all latin night club. I have been going there pretty regularly for the past 3 years, less the past year, but it’s about the same.
I wanted to write this review so that everyone knows that Dante’s has gone smoke free! I know this will effect a lot of people, even though I almost prefer the smoke. We got there before 10 (ladies are still free before 10 and parking is easier to find) The place actually smelled awful w/​o the smoke! But not after too long I smelled air freshener so I think someone came by spraying it…
Drink prices have gone up, a mixed drink is $ 6 and they still do free salsa dance lessons at 9 pm on Fridays, they play salsa and bachata until about 1230 – 1 and then play faster stuff, like reggaeton.

This place used to be a 5 star establishment. My friend and I stumbled across it this past spring break. When every other place in the city was dead, Dante’s was hopping. Not just hopping with people and music, but replete with cheap drinks, great service, and a fun crowd. We went back again later that week, and introduced as many people as we could to the club.
That was back when they played dance/​techno/​pop/​etc. Nowadays Dante’s limits itself to only Latin music. I’m sure it was a sound business decision to switch music styles, but the decisionmakers had to anticipate that some people would be alienated, and I’m one of them.

Perhaps it has changed since then, but back when I was in college at SLU (2003 – 2007), it wasn’t anywhere I wanted to spend my Friday or Saturday night.
I’ll never forget the one and only time my friends and I went there. WashU had bussed a bunch of their students there, so they were all over the place. There was lots of grinding on the dance floor. Disgusting, trashy grinding. Did I mention that there was a cover of $ 5? Not a lot, but when you’re a poor college student, that’s dinner money!
Drinks were crazy expensive. I paid upwards of $ 7 for a small, disgusting cranberry and vodka. The only semi-​bright spot was the music.
Oh, and they closed early… around 1AM if I remember correctly.

Oh my god. Seriously, oh my god. That’s pretty much the only thing I could say for the next hour or so after I left Dantes.
I went to Dantes to catch a Crystal Method DJ set about a month ago. I had never been to Dantes before, but did notice that they seemed to have some pretty sweet DJs come through from time to time. Being an enthusiast for all things dance and electro, I decided it was time to get familiar with this place, because I would probably be there a lot.
When I came in I was kind of disappointed at the size, and the fact that such a small place was split into three rooms. Not letting that affect my night, I proceeded to find out what this «VIP» wristband was all about.
The VIP «area» turned out to be some shitty bar in the back of the place, probably the size of my living room. VIP didn’t get you anything except for permission to wait in line at the VIP bar. Neat.
As I stroll around I notice the crowd is not exactly the CM fans I was expecting, or even people who looked thrilled to be there. It was mostly people so drunk they couldn’t speak, or stand, who were generally gross.
Looking out on the dance floor there were maybe a total of 10 people really enjoying the music and dancing, and the rest was a mix of people standing there not doing anything, drunkies doing the sloppy makeout, or hos bending over to touch their toes.
I thought to myself, «Is this for real? All of these people like The Crystal Method?» I don’t know if they did or didn’t because as CM started spinning the atmosphere didn’t change at all. People didn’t cheer or anything. Trying desperately to get to the bar without attracting one of the skeezy 40 year olds standing on the wall scoping for incapacitated underage ass, I was able to order a shitty drink from a rude bartender.
My night ended when the guy behind me introduced himself to me, blabbed for 10 minutes about how he was so awesome because he used to live in Spain (study abroad = doesn’t count) and then grabbed my face mid-​sentence, closed his eyes, and stuck his tounge out. I guess I was supposed to start making out with him and offer him a wild night at my house because he was OBVIOUSLY so cool. But I opted for calling a cab and going home.
Yep. This placed was so heinous I WALKED OUT on a Crystal Method DJ set. Chemical Brothers feat. Peaches and Miss Kittin could play at Dante’s for $ 2 and I would not even CONSIDER going. I hate this place. It’s disgusting.

What can I say? I’m no clubber. I don’t like the crowds, the overabundance of makeup, and I hate dressing up to shake my butt and drink.
But this place is pretty cool, if someone’s paying for some of your drinks. I think it’s relatively clean for a dance club; I just don’t think about the floor. Although my wait in line for the door was kind of annoying, people watching is pretty fun… Just don’t get on the creepy side of people watching. I noticed a few guys ogling the sharply-​dressed girls cutting ahead of my group.
The drinks are regular club prices. That means I’m not buying rounds of drinks for my friends.
They have some really good DJ’s spinning there as well. Anything from electronica, to hip hop, to whatever. My club aficionado friend said that there are some really big names in the DJ world that come to spin here.
Table service is available, as well as bottle service. But for me, that kind of thing is a little pricey.

Dante’s is what I consider to be one of St. Louis’s best nightclubs. One of the reasons that I enjoy going there is namely because of the music. At Dante’s I can go and hear some good house music where it brings back memories of the discos back in Europe. Nowhere in St. Louis can you go and hear a place play decent techno.
One other great thing about Dante’s is that they have a great dance floor. The floor is terrific. I do not know how much time I spend out there or if I ever actually sit down. I am going to easily venture into saying that no I never sit down when I go there.
Dante’s is a great nightclub that everyone should go to at least once.

A place for salsa sometimes and techno sometimes. Here’s a general idea of where to go when