Paradise Lounge

Living in the East Bay for a stint, we rolled over to Wednesday Reggae nights at the Paradise last week. I know and love the lady DJs; they always rock it up at the Hopmonk in Sebastopol, CA but this particular night they were tripping over their own mixing. Too much booty dancehall, not enough roots to bring the mood together. Never a good idea to start the evening with tracks that require gettin up on top of someone to get down. Hense, the roots ragga gets the individual groove going so that you at least have time to find a dance partner.
Loved the bartender though, super cute girl who makes excellent tall drinks. The Folsom and 11^th street corner boys who obviously frequent the spot are fun when you get to know them… and the dance floor is very well distributed so you can bring the crew front and center or off to the little side nook for some sexy shakedown.

There are indeed some fun parties here, but whatever you do, do not open a tab and trust this organization with your personal info. If you by chance forget to close your tab, you might as well flush the credit card and ID (they force you to hand over) down the toilet. Because there is no way to reach them in the office, no email, no phone, and they are so disorganized that they will not be able to find your stuff. Super sktech bad news I tell ya. But then after wasting a lot of time pounding on their doors, calling, and waiting in loud obnoxious lines just to get your damn identification back, a light appears in the form of a cool employee who is genuinely nice and helps you get your stuff back by you happening to run down to the doors yet again in the middle of the day to recover it all. I will go back for fun partays but will never trust this place with anything.
woot woot.

Part 6 of our date day… I found a free DISCO party at Paradise Lounge on
. I LOVE DISCO! It’s like house, but not. :) So I was so excited when I checked out the website and they were playing cool disco beats.
When we got there though, it was a different story. The place is DARK inside… making me think… eww, the darker the spot, the uglier the people. When we went to the back room, the dj was playing this trancy electronic music. Whatever it was, it was NOT disco. We stayed for about 5 minutes, and decided to go back to the hotel room for some magic. Booo to no disco. I’m glad I didn’t go dressed in theme, because I would have been the only disco bunny in the joint.

Was there on Saturday night (March 27^th) for the Qool and gang event
The music was friggin’ awesome, DJ Jive from
tore it up and there was absolutely no ego on the dance floor.
The Qool gang really know how to throw a party and I have been bummed to see them leave 111 Minna Gallery for their weekly mid-​week after-​work social.
The bouncer at the door, Greg, was possibly the nicest bouncer I have met so far in this city and was super keen on me coming back next week to check out the music. Awesome place.
Parking on the street was okay seeing as I got there after 2am when most of the bars/​clubs in the area have closed. This place rocked it till 4am.

I had a good olé time here. I went to a party in the upstairs loft, so i cannot say anything for the main club.
The bouncers are imposing and know their stuff, yet for all their brawn, they are professional and just as full of brains.
Parking is not bad! Please, Please, Please, keep the interior of your car empty, otherwise, your dang window will be broken and your Journey cd will be stolen.
The bathrooms are clean, considering all clubs i have been to. It is cozy, yet there is a nice size dance floor to freak out to. There were plenty of couches, chairs and table space so you could rest your drinks or cheap jacket anywhere without worrying about your shite.
My friends rented this place out, and I would recommend it to anyone who loves the nightlife, and feels the need to have a private partay for a few hundred of your closest friends.
thanks for reading!

Paradise it might not be, a dreamy experience nonetheless. I regret not wearing my quirky punk outfit to the Burlesque show at Paradise Lounge. I wish one day my lip service dress and stripper shoes collection would see the moonlight.
Offbeat is a word that is fitting for the Paradise lounge crowd. It is not your usual bar scene. Think steampunk, gothic and underground. That is what I feel about Paradise Lounge.
Cover charge is a bit steep. Hey, but they close at 4am? What more could you ask for?

PROS
–It’s near Slim’s, DNA Lounge and Crepes a Go Go, so you can at least get something decent to eat and have a better time elsewhere if this place isn’t for you.
–I guess the mod night they have for dancing is fun, according to my friends
CONS
–They lost my friend’s ID and Credit Card when they left them at the bar to open a tab.
–There is no security inside of the club. Be prepared to deal with shitbags on your own.
–Live music sounds terrible here.

This is the place to get your groove on — and their closing time is 4 a.m. Forget going to the gym — come here to shake your tail feather!
I came here to see Myon and Shane 54 last Friday (they are #91 on the top DJ list) and had a blast.
Paradise Lounge is pretty sweet. Clean bathrooms, great friendly staff who go around and make sure everything is nice and clean, and the bouncers are incredibly nice.
When they open up their space and all the rooms, there can be about 3 different DJs playing at once — which I can totally appreciate. Definitely come here and if you are into trance/​techno/​house/​electronic, I would recommend going to «Above Paradise» — the upstairs lounge, Club S (with Skills/​Dyloot) on Thursday nights, especially if Dyloot himself is playing.

Haha this place was a sausage fest of EPIC proportions!
I can’t bash em too much though because it seemed like the venue was pretty cool, and I liked the trance music. It seemed like the crowd was really into it and they all knew the lyrics. Who the hell knows the lyrics of trance songs?!
The 9 $ long island iced tea was actually a pretty good deal for a night club. It came in a nice 20 oz solo cup and tasted as strong as I mix em at home!
I can’t say I’d necessarily go again but if there was some DJ that I was really excited about, I’d give it another try.

I can’t count the number of times I have been to the Paradise.
Over the years I have attended shows featuring on the verge of getting big (and not so big) talent, New Years Eve events (are the White Trash Debutantes still around?) and just hopped on a random nights for a cold beer.
All these memories have sort of melted together. Did I see Better than Ezra with Lilyvolt? or was it Frosted that opened for them? Speaking of Frosted, that band was fronted by one of my 80’s crushes Jane Weidlin. After her set I had the opportunity to sit and chat with her and got all googly giggly as she signed a copy of her bands CD.
It’s been a few years since I have stopped in, but the memories and super fun times this place has gifted me is worthy of five stars.

Friday Night of LE Weekend to check out Myon & Shane spin.
We got there around 1:00AM (it went till about 4AM that night) and there was no cover that night. Door guys were pretty nice.
I notice a lot of bars in SF like to call themselves lounges, which leads people like me who are from SoCal to think its a real lounge. If you search for my reviews of SF lounges and see the first time around, I was pretty pissed off that I went to these supposedly lounges that felt more like divebars with some club lighting. Now I learn to see the word «lounge» as old bar with some couches and club lighting.
Bar tables to sit at in the front of the venue and the back area of the venue has booths/​benches to on. Venue wasn’t too dark (added club lighting here made it pretty bright) but the vibe was good. Then again, most of the people were there for the deejay, so I’m not sure if its really the venue thats bringing the crowd.
I didn’t see anyone upstairs but I did manage to take a shot of it. Assuming on a real crowded night, you can go upstairs and look down upon the dance floor — that’s always a good thing.
No patio to smoke, just walk outside and smoke and come back in. It’s good for an electronic event because you’re up close and personal to the dj area.
If I went here on a hip hop night. I think i’d downgrade to a 3 star.

Can I get a hand clap? for the way I work my back… side!
I’m all about going out shaking toosh, and matter of factly, I don’t care where I am, if there’s music I like, I’ll shake my groove thang. So clubs to me are a cesspool of people who want to try to find a guy or girl to «holla at»… I’m not about any sort of «hollerin’». but I am all about the dance floor, so PL has an awesome dancin’ vibe. music depends on who’s DJing, but I’ve never complained. It’s a larger club compared to some of these small hole in the walls people have stuck in a DJ booth and a mini bar and call it a «club».

Sorry, but how does this place seize to get anything more than 1 STAR??? This club is by far the WORST club I’ve ever been to for the following reasons:
*NO ventilation + NO AC = HOT Sauna. Now, I would understand if the place was packed, but the second floor was NOT and yet we had sweat dribbles on our forehead – GROSS!
*Lights flickering on and off that owner had to come and take the bulb off. Even worse some lights are held in place with duck tape. WTF!!!
*Bathroom with NO toilet paper; actually with no toilet paper holder at that, NO light, NO soap, and NO paper towels. Maybe there’s a reason why their toilets are black; no cleaning necessary I guess.
*Smoking area = Back closed room with a fan and a empty plant pot to throw your buds. This is a fire waiting to happen.
I’m lost and confused… how is it exactly is this place called PARADISE?

Um…
All you have to do is take a look at Paradise Lounge’s closing time and throw up 3 stars right there.
A 4 am closing time in San Francisco is rare. And for a popping place of this size, showcasing some with it and cover-​worthy talent, with a decent sound system, — to stay open til 4 — is some 4 star action right there. It may jump to five soon — on my next trip out here.
I’ve been to Paradise Lounge twice now — once during the early dusk hours, and once late at night. I have been impressed on both occasions.
If you ever get a chance to view Paradise Lounge during the day — be sure to check out their upstairs room, which catches the sun beautifully with large spanning glass windows.
At night the place conforms to the crowd — but it generally seems to attract a cocked hat sporting crowd — who are far less concerned about how their drinks are made — and more interested in the music and scene being spun by the usually on point DJ.
And despite a limited amount of stalls — I was more than siked to have literally no bathroom wait throughout the night. That statement alone — deserves some Paradise props. Not to mention that being in walking distance of a Crêpe stand — for late night nutella cravings — has it’s Paradise perks as well.
If you’re looking for a new late night scene — scan Paradise Lounge’s calendar for a good upcoming show and check them out. DOOOO it.
Help support our 4am closing places. Help keep J-Thom’s late night dance excursions in fine form.
(I know typing in third person can get creepy and wierd — so I will try to keep it to a minimum)
Trust.

Next to City Nights and Club NV, this is one of the easiest places to get to… as long as you don’t take the wrong exit and end up behind a herd of cyclist who are strolling at 1mph, LMAO
I walked into this place and to my surprise it looked just like the pictures that I checked out on here.
This place had plenty of space, easy to find the restroom, coat check, 2 bars & of course plenty of VIP sections.
Happen to be Pinkie’s Birthday (The adult film star from West Oakland) when I went this past Saturday, June 20^th so the crowd was on the mixed side.
I would have to say my only complaint was that people were smoking weed inside the club, I have severe asthma and I think thats just a lil unfair to all asthmatics that the smokers can’t wait 2 hours till they get outside or back home to do that. Well i’m glad I didn’t have any problems breathing in there, the alcohol might have been the balance.

On the first Saturday of the month, for a $ 7 cover (a little steep, but could be worse), you could stop by for Leisure Brit Pop and «We could dance. Dance dance dance dance dance to the radio.”-Joy Division
Fo’ real, they even played my Joy Division! It’s super fun.
Just come after 11 pm because it’s dead until about then. They eve prematurely make you wait in line ot make it look more popular until then.
So meet me next month and get dancing, fools!

I’m not sure how this club is usually, but I was here for the Gathering party a few days ago and it was really great — if you are a fan of old school hard house, this is a great monthly party. With multiple rooms of sound, a clean upscale environment (minus the Euro-​sleaze), decently priced drinks, friendly staff and relatively low cover charge — it was a great clubbing experience.
From the outside, it looks deceptively grimy — but it’s actually quite nice inside! The venue is clean and modern. Upstairs is a well lit dance floor and bar, while the downstairs is darkier and sexier. There’s also a small balcony area that overlooks the main dance floor. I love the fact that they have coat check here & it’s only $ 3. They have great visuals projected onto a giant dome hanging above the main dance floor.
I think the sound system could use some improvement and the go-​go dancers were terrible (except for one girl, who performed later on in the night in a bikini). The bathrooms are clean, but they are a bit small.
I really enjoyed the Gathering party — I highly recommend it for house heads out there that are looking for a chill night where they can dance their ass off.

I came here to watch some friends DJ and sing. The sound was just okay. I guess I’m used to places like Mighty that have out of this world sound. My experience at the bar was all bad. No Crown Royal? The bartender got attitude after that because of my reaction. In my opinion, not stocking Crown is one of the biggest sins that an establishment can make. The smoking room upstairs totally made up for the no Crown incident. It was great for us considering that it was raining outside. This is not one of my most favorite spots– but I have been here before and as long as they book killer talent– I will be back again!

Paradise throws my kind of party. Example, «battle of the 60’s»: outrageous French pop meets birth of the «real» hipster, a splendid mashup of vintage vinyl.
The space is mostly well-​circulated (exception: upstairs dance floor, given fog machines), the sound is outstanding, and the club doesn’t seem to get too crowded. There are bars all over the place to lubricate your dancin’ sentiments. A lot of the clientele seem fresh out of college, of the hipster persuasion, but you could find your odd ancient 30-​something here and there*. The bathrooms are requisite gross, lacking TP by midnight.
Parking around here is a bit difficult, unless you’re showing for the afterparty (2−4am).
*hello there, my seasoned friend

I went here last Thursday for TwestivalSF. I thought it was was a great venue for the event. Actually, I thought the place was pretty damn cool, but that could be because I am a bit enamored with San Francisco itself. The different rooms had different music going and it was cool because you could transfer seamlessly from one room to another without hearing music from the other nearby rooms. They had a live band playing for a bit downstairs. My favorite portion was the lounge area upstairs with the fireplace — so cozy!
A bit pricey for a small-​town girl like me: 5 drinks came to $ 36. But damn, those bartenders could mix drinks!

For some reason, it seems I am going to a lot of events nowadays that require me to wear a nametag. As I couldn’t have cared less if the people at Twestival knew who I was, I was bold and didn’t wear one. Didn’t need all those people on their laptops and iPhones judging me based on my Tweets before they got a chance to get to know me. I figure they’ll realize how supremely (un)cool I am eventually, so why speed up the process?
Also as I couldn’t be bothered to really talk to anyone and was kind of cranky (thank you SF Unilocal and TruSpa for that fabulous hangover), I just hung with my BFF (blond friend forever) while some dude hit on her. Note to self: go blond soon. The black hair isn’t working anymore.
Anyway, we did manage to wander around to see the space, which wasn’t bad. I saw two good sized dance floors (one with a really cool collection of disco balls from tiny to large), and there was a popular bar area upstairs with a fireplace and some couches. It also had some delicious cupcakes (
), but sadly I don’t think those are permanent.
As I was back on the wagon for at least that day, I couldn’t tell you how much drink prices were, although apparently they didn’t have club soda at one bar. WTF? BFF had to settle for tonic with a lemon. Also WTF? I don’t know if that’s a usual occurrence, but not having a drink staple is not a good sign. It’s not bad, although as I’m thinking, I can’t help but remember that it’s almost the anniversary of the fire at the Station Nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island. The reason why I’m mentioning this is due to the entrance area– it kind of bottlenecks. I’m sure they have other exits, although I didn’t really look.
Will I be back? It’s possible. But I’m not wearing a nametag.