Vegas Lounge

I’ll end up here somewhere around 11pm-​12 midnight with friends to close out the night. I can always count on a few things when I go to (New?) Vegas Lounge:
1) $ 10 cover — there’s an ATM inside if you need it
2) Expensive coat check if you need it, but seems to be worth it with reviews of folks saying they’ve lost a jacket/​coat here.
3) $ 5 Miller Lites
4) An AWESOME house band.
I’ve never had a bad time, and though you’ve got to watch out for your stuff and the crowd (as you do in any city), I’ll come back for more fun!

Vegas lounge is a small spot with great music. Seems like everybody hates their job, but friendly enough. If ur for old school rhythm and blues/​Jazz this spot is for U. I’ve been a few times and the band is always excellent.

Oh Vegas Lounge… How I love thee. A $ 10 cover charge will get you a night filled with great music and dancing. This is definitely a hole in the wall, but a beautiful diamond in the rough. The band is so good it makes up for the nonchalant attitudes of the staff, who all seem to have better things to do than deal with people. My boyfriend and I always have a blast when we come here. This is no place for the pretentious, so if you want to sip martinis in climate controlled room while bobbing your head to Top 40 hits, this is not your cup of tea. If you don’t mind cheap rail drinks and beer, perturbed service staff but an amazing band who covers music from Tina Turner to Bruno Mars and getting a little sweaty then Vegas Lounge is it. Rock on!!!

Came here a couple of years ago and loved it! The real test was coming back to see that not much has changed.
The music is great… a lot of motown sprinkled with a little more current pop! The band is fun, interactive, and energetic.
Now, the one thing that has changed — the crowd. It is a bunch of young… and i mean young 20-​somethings. Most of them are wasted upon walking in.
The crowd almost makes you not want to come back. But, if you can find your own corner, grab yourself a $ 6 beer and let the band drown out what is going on around you… you’ll LOVE this gem.

Coming to Vegas Lounge transports you to another era entirely. This is THE spot for great live music and dancing! The band plays old and new songs, and with such a lively, and entertaining atmosphere, you’d be hard pressed to not have a good time. There is a $ 10 cover, but it’s well worth it for a fun night out!

I’m a bit conflicted. The venue is great, the music is a ton of fun, and the drinks are decent, albeit not cheap. However, the bouncer described a gay couple that passed as «having a mental disorder» and stated that he would never trust homosexuals around his children. I fundamentally don’t agree with his statements, but if he was simply acting as an individual, I would ignore his comments and move on. But he was representing the establishment, and spreading that kind of hate in 2015 is not only sad, but insulting to many of the customers of this establishment. This bouncer has been at the venue for a while, and reflects poorly on the mentality of the location.

I’ll echo Sonja M. watch your belongings. this past weekend on Saturday night, numerous jackets were stolen. not mistakenly picked up, but stolen. When your two nice jackets, wrapped in your not so nice third jacket, are the only things missing, it’s clearly not an innocent mistake.
To make matters worse, the staff weren’t exactly sympathetic. They made a nice point to shove me, steal my phone from me when I was recording them shove another person out of the bar on a public sidewalk (gave it back a minute later), fake ‘punch’ me to try to get me to flinch, then called the cops on us. To which we filed a complaint for our missing jackets and went on our way.
I’ve been here numerous times– sometimes the band is fun, most of the time it’s way too crowded to enjoy it and all of the time, the service reflects the disdain the staff have for their clientele. It’s like they wished they didn’t have any customers at all.
Well after my wonderful experience this weekend, I hope that their wish is granted.

Watch your purses… High theft and establishment doesn ‘t seem to care or try to prevent.

Tucked away in Logan Circle, Vegas Lounge is the spot if you are looking for live music! The band is phenomenal playing jazz and blues inspired versions of popular songs as well as doing solos on the drums, keyboard, saxophone, and trumpet. The drinks are strong and service is pretty good. There is not a whole lot of space, but enough to dance around or hang with a group of friends and talk. There is a $ 10 cover, and although I am against covers, it is worth it for the band’s music and entertainment.

It pains me to do this because I have frequented this place for 15 years, but not in 5. It has jumped the shark. The clientele has changed with neighborhood, sure. But god, it is lame now. It feels like a republican fundraiser or a bad wedding. The music has changed to suit the customers. The band — still musically tight — is dying a slow death playing crappy crossover Motown hits (think «Celebrate». This place should just go away and pop up somewhere else.

This place is a blast! Live music, fun and classy crowd, and not jammed packed. Perfect Saturday night destination to get your dance on. Drinks and service are pretty standard. Ten dollar cover is worth it and the location is great!

Band is awesome! Service is absolutely horrendous! High cover charge for rude and disgruntled help. It’s called service with a smile people. If you don’t like your job, then find another one. This venue is a vintage diamond in the rough. A true authentic old skool music speak easy feel. Too bad the staff is trained so poorly. :(

This place is awesome if you like a jazzy-​blues band who plays classic bar songs with a twist. Although the dance floor was small, everyone was up dancing, which was fun and a little hot and hard to move. I loved that the crowd is very diverse here. However, the night i went there were some snobby college kids who looked lost and were very rude to everyone. The drinks are also terrible. Do not order anything with «punch» in it!!! I tried it by recommendation of the bartender, and it was so bad that im quite convinced one of the ingredients was long past expired.

To be a more accurate, I would rate this place a 3.5−3.75 overall. I like this place even though I felt a bit torn about the atmosphere.
The atmosphere wasn’t as «diverse» as I would hope for it to be. I almost felt that the minorities were performing to a more non-​minority crowd. if you get my drift. Hardly seeing any minorities getting down to soul, funk and R&B was a bit strange to me, but maybe this is how it is in DC? At the same token, I guess it would be somewhat strange if it were the opposite also?
Regardless, as mentioned in other reviews, the live, in house band was awesome; their energy is great. It gets really loud, (I ended up getting laryngitis the next day after screaming above the noise) so don’t expect to have some soulful conversations. I wouldn’t take someone here on a first date unless you want to discourage talking. However, if you and your date prefer your first dates with minimal talking or shouting your conversations over the band, by all means, come one by. And yes, the venue is a bit too small for dancing AND sitting around; though having tables and chairs to sit is good when you get tired from all the dancing.
There was a $ 10 cover charge and security pats down the men before entering in. I’m sure there are other venues that are better than Vegas Lounge but the band is what would keep me coming here.

Preppy, loud, fairly decent music.
I was excited to go here because I love a great blues band, and I will admit that the house band playing the first half of the night was pretty good. But around 11:00, everything went downhill. They had a guest singer come up –he sang a bunch of awful top 40 hits (like Call Me Maybe and Wannabe – yes, by the Spice Girls) His voice was outright awful, loud, and completely out of tune. The bar also became so crowded that it was actually impossible to find a spot to dance. Not to mention, not a single person there even seemed to know how to dance. The crowd there is quite preppy and LOUD.
On another note – I don’t know why people think this bar is dingy and grimy. It’s a perfectly fine looking bar.
I’m giving the place 3 stars because I’m hoping that the man we heard sing was just a guest singer. The house band is good and tight, but they aren’t the best out there. Lastly, I’m hoping that going on a night that isn’t a Friday or Saturday would provide a much better atmosphere. Overall, you’re much better off going to a place like Madam’s Organ, where the music never fails.

Went here a weekend ago for a girl’s birthday party. Was a bit upset at the $ 10 cover, but was told by the bouncer that there’s a cover for men because «all we get is pretty girls in here, man.»
Well, he was wrong. There were definitely girls but not a ton of lookers. I was also somewhat shocked with the clientele here, considering just about everyone working in the joint including the band were all Black. But it was cool.
Why 5 Stars? The band played some go-​go. That in and of itself was well worth the $ 10 cover. I’ll keep an eye on it to check it out in the future, see if anyone else is playing here than what appeared to be the house band.

Vegas Lounge exemplifies everything I look for in a good bar: it’s nosiy, sweaty, has great music, Blue Moon in a bottle and a crowd looking for a good time. Really, what more can you ask for? My friend Lightning calls this her ‘Unicorn Bar’ in that it resembles the fabled creature of near perfection –and I must say, she isn’t far off the mark.
Aside from a few people shoving me a little harshly, this is one of the best bars /​dance clubs I have been to in D.C. Not going to lie, I have been known to cut a rug at places like Rugby, George and Smithpoint — but Vegas Lounge has all the and more without the underlying pretentiousness.
Let’s be clear, I have nothing against the pretentious folks who frequent Georgetown locales, hell, one could even argue I’m one of them, but Vegas Lounge is just a welcoming good time where you can go anytime to lose your cares on the dance floor to a very talented live band.
It’s a winning situation, and considering it’s literally across the street from my best friend’s apartment, I’ll wager I’ll become some sort of local at this Vegas Lounge place. I’ll be sure to update if for some reason my initial experience at this place fails to meet my now high expectations on subsequent visits.

Small dark night club peddling throwback motown jams to aspiring condo owners.
Rad:
Gnarly 7 Piece house band cranks out the tunes from Same Cooke to James Brown. This place is very fun.
Good option for ‘group daters‘ or birthday party. DanceParty++
Bad:
$ 10 cover and $ 5 miller lites. Crowded and hot as hell.
Members of various bachelorette parties not likely to actually put out.

Three and a Half Stars.
The Vegas Lounge, or the «New Vegas Lounge» as the sign outside used to advertise, has been around for years; since the early 70s at least. As times have changed, so has the neighborhood demographic and the club’s clientele. Nowadays, unless they’re members of the band or staff, you’re unlikely to see to too many people of color here.
But if you like live R&B/Motown/blues, you’ll learn to live with it; they’re a business after all, and unlike HR-​57 they’re in it to make money. Dan’s Café in Adams Morgan has similarly rolled with the punches and changing neighborhood and managed to stay in business. The same cannot be said of Foggy Bottom’s legendary One Step Down, the nation’s second oldest jazz club when it folded in the early 2000s. They had a philosophy and tried to stick with it, but even with a two drink minimum, they couldn’t make it work.
But I digress. When I first started coming here the place was a real dive, but it’s undergone a renovation in the last few years and is much more presentable. There is a $ 10 cover, their drinks are kinda pricey and the bottled beer selection is what you’d expect (better off sticking to booze here), so have a couple at Stoney’s before stopping by for the music.

The Vegas Lounge is a fine option for a night of good Motown and Soul covers. We went for a birthday party which the space is very accomodating of. Getting there early, we were able to pretty much have the run of the place. The bar is small and is staffed by two bartenders. This is fine when it isn’t crowded, but it could use more staff during busy times. The band was excellent, well worth the $ 10 cover. Early on, it seemed to attract an older, after-​dinner crowd. By the time the band had it’s first break, the place filled up quick with a crowd you could find at any Georgetown bar.
The space is narrow, so when it filled it up, it became nearly impossible to push your way through to the bar. This made it a huge pain to get anywhere. Also, as Matt O pointed out, there were several billing discrepancies that were met with a gruff response by the bartender when they were brought to his attention. They also did not fix the problem.
Overall, Vegas Lounge seemed like a good spot for a date or for a big group. I can’t forgive discrepancies on the bill, and the space was definitely overcrowded, but those could be issues that don’t arise on an average night there.