A birthday at Arthouse tonight. We kind of debated for half an hour outside in the cold, outside the venue, to whether we should go in or not. Of course, we went in eventually. A second visit for tonight’s event, let’s see how it fares:

AJ Rafael performs (1:30AM)

Flirt Saturdays @ Arthouse Hotel – Saturday Night – 11th August 2012
(some content will be similar to last week’s review)
Assessment Time: 11:35PM – 3:55AM
Opening Hours: “10:00PM” – 3:55AM. The quotes are subject to how long it takes for these guys to setup the DJ equipment and venue for the event. 
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 275 Pitt St, Sydney (near Town Hall Station)
Venue Website: http://www.thearthousehotel.com.au
Event Website: http://www.fb.com/flirtsaturdays
Promoters: Urban Agent in conjunction with 1nitestand, VIPList, Eso, and others. 
Occurrence: Every Saturday since July 2012. 
Outside Line: There is a general line and a guestlist line. When we were debating whether to go in or not, there was a line of about 10 people. After deciding to go in inside, the line had been cleared by then – we got in without trouble.  Considering the rain, at least they put one small table canopy up for whoever was standing in the front of the guestlist line. 
Dress Code / Door Policy: There was no enforced theme/dress code, so casual was definitely okay. I had a long jacket with a double layer t-shirt (Breaking some fashion crimes there) with cardigan, jeans and casual shoes. I looked very daggy, but I was cold, and I didn’t care how I looked today.  Half the crowd were casual and half were dressed smart proper. 
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $20 on the guestlist before 12:00AM, otherwise $25. I would recommend getting your name on a discount guestlist. 
Guestlist: Send lists to your preferred promoter or check the Facebook page for details. 
Inside:  Main Room: Enter via the cashier entrance and you are at the back of the room- It’s a large, tall, long-ish room – now split it as such. The whole left wall is lined with lounges, tables and stools. The right wall is the main bar to hold about 5 bartenders at a time, with a secondary “shots bar” with a small selection of shots. This leaves a narrow path in the middle for which people line up and mingle. Right at the front the area widens for what is the general dancefloor area to hold about 40-50 people comfortably. DJ is right at the centre front, with a sight adjustment tonight – there is a large-ish podium in the middle. This was to be reserved for AJ Rafaels performance. Guys and girls were not allowed up on here. Arthouse has gone through a few additions since my last visit, to make it more ‘club’ friendly. There has been a proper segregation between tables/lounges and the mingling area with an open panel wall in the middle – people can dance and others can drink in peace. Also laser lights and squares of LED colour lights have been installed. Let’s also chuck in a few ribbons as well to break up the space – this defintely helps in making the place feel a bit more intimate as the ceiling is like 10 metres high. There is also a common back area for smoking, general chit chat. 
Inside: Second Room: Again, the second room had a private party! Luckily the party was to end at midnight so I had the chance to finally get my grubby feet into the House music. Enter the room via cashier entrance and you are at the front. DJ on your right and bar on your left on the far end wall. In between is just dancefloor with lounges lining one wall, with large barrels (literally those barrels you see on pirate ships) along the middle length of the dancefloor to break it up. Also a tall room, and its pretty dark in here.