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 
Continue reading »
A night out with friends who varied across the spectrum. I had M, Jungle Fever and bisexual girls who were into RnB and Hip Hop, other girls who were not into RnB and Hip Hop and preferred the bar scene, my cousin who only liked RnB, her Asian American relatives who were very conservative – and I had to find them all good place to go. You have to be kidding me…
Fridays @ Haymarket Hotel
I thought an event would have taken over Friday nights here, but it hasn’t. Downstairs was closed off, and it seems only regular patrons were here for a drink. On the TV screens SBS was on and, being SBS, a documentary was being played about the porno industry. Hilarious hearing the collective screams of girls as the more saucy were being played.
Off we went to Oxford Art Factory. Half of us went in first. The other half including myself tried a few minutes later but we were told that the venue was at capacity and we should try again in half an hour. I doubt a packed place would have suited some of the people here, so it was off to Doctor Pong, just a few shops down!
Fridays @ Doctor Pong (Bar)
Doctor Pong DJ area and dance floor
Assessment Time: 11:10PM – 11:30PM
Address: 1 Burton St, Darlinghurst
Venue Website: None
Dress Code / Door Policy: anything goes, no security checks. Cousin’s sister-in-law, who was wearing pajamas, was let in.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free
Inside: Small place. Bar in the middle. Lounges on one side, table tennis ping-pong table on the other side (hence Doctor Pong), with a restaurant on the far left. DJ up next to the stairs upon entry.
Music Style: Whatever goes, but it was keeping the crowd going. Volume was at a loud house party level but not a club level. You could talk in here without shouting too much.
Crowd: Mostly Aussies.
Entertainment: The table tennis table was the star attraction. Four paddles so everyone can have a go.
Atmosphere: Pretty busy at this time when we entered. You could say it was relaxed and busy. Red plastic cups add to the american beer pong feel.
Video: Walkthrough
Continue reading »
A third party invite to a birthday.. here we go!
Saturdays @ Opera Bar
Location: Just outside the Opera House, Circular Quay, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Smart Casual is the norm, but anything goes here.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free
Music: Instrumental house.
Crowd: Classy.
Atmosphere: Cold, and so there weren’t many people outside – but enough to fill up all the seats.
Timeline:
So anyway, we are dancing casually, and suddenly an old asian man is dancing like a madman! His wife is looking at him with dismay, and I think.. “I like this guy – I want to be like him when I grow up”, so I joined him. Here’s the video:
The old man is the dude on the right. Seriously
Right afterwards, security warned us that we should take photos quicker, as they “dont like that sort of thing” (the dancing) in here. I wonder why a DJ is installed here then!
Recommendation
This place is just a bar, and nothing more. Pretty nice views though 🙂
Crowd at The Ivory, Wollongong NSW
Four of us are here to check out the Wollongong nightlife for one night – We just left The Harp Hotel, and we are off to the next club down the street – it’s Ivory Bar, so here we go!
Saturdays @ Ivory Bar
Assessment Time: 11:30PM – 12:30AM
Opening Hours: 8:00PM – 3:00AM
Lockout: None
Website: No website could be found.
Address: 77 Crown Street, Wollongong NSW
Dress Code / Door Policy: Probably safe to dress smart casual here. Most people were dressed smart, though casual was allowed you would be probably looked down upon. No hats allowed. No photography allowed.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $10 flat charge all night
Guestlist: None
Inside: Imagine The Establishment in Sydney, but without the back room, and half the size of the main room / bar area. This is exactly what you get at the Ivory – You walk into a lengthy room with one bar to the left adoring the wall. There is a section behind this wall for smokers. DJ booth (I cant even remember if there was a DJ booth) should be at the front. There is a big LCD screen displaying random messages set by the people here partying tonight. Lounges near the entrance and to the right hand side. Main dancing area is at the back.
Cloak Room: None
Bar: I did not drink here tonight. The bar specializes in cocktails, so you can imagine the prices at this bar to be of the upper end range.
Music: House / Funky House
Crowd: Older crowd, but dressed up nicely, so as to keep up with appearances. Mostly late 20s, 30s, and some 40s and 50s were spotted here. A lot of good lookers. Entirely Caucasian.
Entertainment: No extra things to keep the vibe going. It held up on its own for a bar.
Atmosphere: Music is loud, the venue seems new and the vibe amongst the dancing patrons is pretty good. People are dancing and drinking away. In terms of dance space, it is a little cramped, but not sardine packed. It’s enough to survive an hour here, but I would not imagine an entire night here.
Video: Walkthrough Video
Continue reading »
Are they real?
Today I am avoiding RnB – and I have never been to Club 77, so lets check it out – Here we go!
The Party @ Club 77
Assessment Time: Part I: 10:30-11:00PM, Part II: 02:15-02:30AM
Opening Hours:10:30-4:00am
Website: http://www.myspace.com/club_77, http://www.myspace.com/mrparty
Address:77 Bayswater Road, Kings Cross, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual is the norm here.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: I haggled the guy to $5 each, under very suspicious circumstances.
Guestlist: None
Inside: The entrance to Club 77 is a typical black wooden door, with the party smoke gashing out of it. The Club itself is underground, so you got to walk down the smokey stairs to enter the area licensed to hold 280 people. Bar is on the left, DJ at the front, and a handful of lounges at the corners, where it is very dark.
Cloak Room: None
Bar: $3 for a lemonade as far as I can recall
DJs: Who knows, and more importantly, who cares?
Music: I can’t put my finger on the crap that the DJ was playing. It wasn’t quite house, and it wasn’t quite retro and it wasn’t quite pop. It made me feel uncomfortable. You would try to dance to it, but the music was such that you couldn’t go hard at it – you were forced to relax to the thumping noise. Imagine being at a gay bar and hearing this kind of music…
Crowd: Part I: Entirely Asian. Yes, can you believe it? Easy to explain – It was just me and M for the first 30 minutes. Part II, it was more mixed now – half asian, and the other half were two caucasian guys. No females at all.
Entertainment: None
Atmosphere: Dead, dark and shit. I would rather go have my fingernails pulled out to get my adrenalin rush than to be here.
Walkthrough Video of Club 77
Read on about the travesty that is Club 77 – porno, cockroaches and more.
Continue reading »
Star Bar 19th March 2010
Friends of M have forced me to go to Star Bar, after leaving the dismal Shark Hotel. I have only 3 passes this year to visit Star Bar as part of my new years resolution, and after tonight, I will only have one left. So M and I go in for a dance.. here we go!
Helm Bar Sydney in Front of the DJ
