A friend has a welcome back party at Verandah. Yeah ok, lets give this place a second chance after the horrible last time I was here. I organised a VIP area and guestlist and we were set – here we go!

Podium area - Vanity @ Verandah

Vanity @ Verandah Bar, Martin Place, Sydney
Assessment Time: 10:30PM – 03:45AM
Opening Hours: 10:00PM – 04:00AM
Lockout: Again, I don’t remember, but it was later than last time. I think at least 2:30AM this time. It appears the more drunk people that are evicted, the earlier the lockout is.
Address: 60 Castlereagh St, Sydney
Venue Website: http://www.verandah.com.au
Promoter Website: http://www.eso.net.au , http://www.viplist.net.au,
Occurence: Every Saturday
Dress Code / Door Policy: Smart Casual. It was a mix of both tonight. an additional security measure was the photography of all forms of ID. Presumably put into place due to the massive fights 2 weeks prior, so offenders can be put into place. In general, places with security checks like this can be dangerous, or have had trouble in the past. Better than fingerprint machines, I hated that.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 Full Entry. $20 guestlist before midnight. Free before 10:30PM if you are on the guestlist.
Guestlist: See websites. I sent mine to wendy@1nitestand.com.au . So as opposed to my rant last time, its actually a better system employed, where guestlisters are ticked off while standing in line, and non-guestlisters sent to the non-guestlist line. It took about 30 minutes to get in. There are birthday packages which include 3 free entries and a $50 bar tab.
Inside: They’ve opened the gambling room, but this time its not used as a second dance room. Instead its the cloak room. anyway, after paying entry the cloak room is on the left. Continue walking on the red carpet to the main room Dancing room and DJ with podiums on the right. Continue walking down the path to the bar area, where lounges are around and standing area for patrons to line up. At the very back is a small outdoor smoking area. 
Cloak Room: $5 per item
Bar Prices: 5 Malibu + Lemonades and a Smirnoff double black can for $52. Lines sometimes got upto 4 people deep.
Music Style: Rnb Mashed with some hip hop, pop and house.
Crowd: Almost all Australian Asians here tonight.
Entertainment: Podiums are reconfigured yet again. This time they’re all in the middle configured in a podium winner 1/2/3 style.
Atmosphere: Pretty busy throughout the night in the dance area, from what I could tell anyway. The back wasn’t packed but it was busy enough.
Video: 360 from the podium

Video: Fast Walkthrough

Timeline
Cloak room blues
So basically I got my bar tab and left it in my coat as I put it in the cloak room. I came back to get it back and the dude told me to wait until the rest of the people put in their coats as well. So i waited, and waited. Everytime the line threatened to be reduced down to 2 or 3 people, new people would walk in from the club or the cashier. The madness didn’t end! The cloak room dude wa enjoying his predicament in the probably the most mentally tiring jobs tonight. After 15 minutes or so of waiting around, I left. Came back 30 minutes later and the line was longer than ever! Eventually around 2 hours later I came back – there was a shorter line this time, and I got my beloved bar tab voucher. Never using a cloak room again if I already had a reserved area to dump my stuff at.

No respect for the reserved areas
My ‘VIP’ reserved area was placed next to the entrance of the bathrooms. Quite a bit of thoroughfare and people sitting on my couch, waiting for their friends. It’s a great way to meet people lol.

It's my special belated birthday

First time clubbers
I think at one point it was just me in the middle of my area surrounded by 10 or so girls. I looked pimpin’, but I was being very extra nice. Some of these girls were 18 and their very first time clubbing, so I played nice. Oh yes, I can be non-sleazy.

With the entourage - Vanity @ Verandah

They just wanted to grind.
So speaking of sleaze, I was up on the podium and two girls join us on the podium, and promptly stand in front of me. Attention whores! Guys are buying them drinks, but I quickly ascertain they are random dudes. So the girls didn’t want to chat with me, I guess it was time to grind and see what happens. Positioned myself behind a girl, check. Hands on her waist. Check. Get a bit closer. Check. Aaaaaannd proceed grinding. Things are fine grindwise, but it appears they are still not talking to me. Why is it that some girls dont like talking? They accept that guys will grind them but won’t go any further. It really is the only place out there where you can risk grinding someone without asking permission. I give up after 3 minutes of silent grinding, which is an extraordinarily long time. The search continues for a partner…

Less Fights = Later lockout.
Well half the time I was at the back, away from the entrance, so if there were any evictions from the dancefloor, I missed it. However in terms of big fights at the back, there was none of that witnessed tonight. It could be that the private areas out here was mine, a girls birthday and another non-scary looking crowds birthday.

Arrivederci
More dancing, and we leave as the place starts to die down at around 3:30AM

Recommendation
Tonight I had a good night. Well it helped having free entry and a bar tab. If I came without those things, I still probably would have had a good time as well, especially since there were no fight break outs tonight where I was. Friendly crowd also helped here with the atmosphere. Overall a good night.

Vanity @ Verandah Bar – 7.5/10