For this post, I will time travel to Spring Break 2009, which I spent in South Beach, Miami. My focus for this entry will be what I believe to be the best club in Miami: Nikki Beach.
Nikki Beach is an odd name for a club; anytime I've asked someone if they have been to Nikki, they reply with "you mean South Beach?" The thing is, they think Nikki Beach is actually a beach. Well, Nikki is nestled on the shore of South Beach; the back entrance of this posh club leads to a torch-lit patio with a tribal theme. This elevated patio overlooks South Beach, and in between the torches and the lapping waves of the beach, is this scene, the backyard on the beach:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/nikki%20beach%20miami/neil_higton/eScala/Alt_Lay20Day20at20Nikki20Beach20Clu.jpg
Back inside Nikki Beach, the upper-level Pearl Lounge, VIP:
http://www.southbeach-usa.com/interview/interview1/dupoux/pearl-420.jpg
And downstairs, underneath the patio but not quite on the beach yet, the Nikki Beach lower-level lounge:
http://futureofwebapps.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/nikkibeach2.jpg
So now you know the scene, and if these pictures did any justice to Nikki Beach, you know by now how great a club Nikki is. To put it frankly, I had the most extravagent and fun night of my life at Nikki, on Sunday March 8, 2009.
The night started off with a tad bit of uncertainty. There was 6 of us in Miami; another 6 were coming the next day, so we wanted to really enjoy this first night that we would have to ourselves. We had just gotten there and to our condo from Miami International Airport about 5 hours ago, the crisp South Beach breeze was enticing us; I had never felt such amazing weather in my life. The sunlight was perfect, the day was perfect, and little did I know, but the night that I was about to experience would be perfect, too.
In Miami, Sunday nights = Nikki Beach nights. South Beach has a bustling nightlife scene, with a plethora of clubs, bars, and lounges to choose from. Forget all that. Any Miami native, hell even any Miami tourist, will tell you that on Sunday nights, you go to Nikki Beach.
We were in the right spot, with the right crowd. Nikki is located right at the beginning of Ocean Drive, before the cross streets even hit 1st, 2nd, 3rd... etc. Arriving at Nikki was a bit intimidating at first; Miami in general can be intimidating to new-comers. At the door, the bouncers let us in without much of a hassle, because we were getting a table: two bottles of Grey Goose for $800, split between 6 friends; not bad at all by Miami standards, especially for a place like Nikki, and during Spring Break.
The euphoria of being in Miami prompted us to head out earlier than we would have liked. Arriving at a place like Nikki at 11 PM can be a bit disheartening. Aside from a group of 4 girls sitting opposite us, about 50 feet away, we were the only people in the club. A few shots later, it was midnight, and girls just started pouring out of the woodworks. It was phenomenal. The best night I've ever had, at any venue, anywhere.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Midtown
I just created this blog about 5 minutes ago. I'm going to be dedicating this blog to my weekly forays into the Washington D.C. nightlife, letting you guys know where the best spots are, what's new, who's spinning what music and where they're spinning it. Don't take my word for it because I have odd taste in music, I only occasionally drink alcohol, and my mother doesn't know about any of this.
To give you a taste of what to expect from me, I'll start by illustrating my experience at a club called Midtown located in the Dupont area of D.C. this past Friday night the 16th.
http://www.washingtonian.com/page_dbimages/13436/midtown.jpg
and at night...
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2647/3908334096_2f25b7578a.jpg
and inside...
http://www.dcsocialite.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/midtowndc.jpg
Midtown is the epitome of a D.C. club; it's not fabulously chique, but it does the job. It's got a city vibe, oddly reminiscent of New York, a good spot to chill after school on Thursdays and Fridays. My friends and I usually head to D.C. at about 11 PM, get into the club/lounge by midnight, and party it out in that one venue until 3 AM when the place closes down for the night. We've gotten sick of this trend over the past 16 months, so we've decided the next step is to make it a goal to explore more of the city during the twilight hours right before the sun sets, pre-game at some local bars, hop around from one enclave of the city to another, and really become intimate with the city. This shift in the way we go out has gone pretty swell so far: this gives us more time to meet people, particularly girls.
Midtown is a spot that I've been to many towns throughout the past year. I have gotten to know the architecture, the bartenders, and the crowd, and I consider it a "regular" spot for me. On the 16th, all of that changed. I walked in to find that they had just opened 2 new floors on top of the old (bottom) floor, and both of these floors were much better than the one which we were familiar with. The 2nd (middle) floor was dimly lit and had a brick-wall theme and was laid out more like a bar than a club. Despite that, the energy level was high, and the DJ was definitely spinning for the dancers. The 3rd (top) floor is quaintly called "the Loft" and has a Mafioso theme; patrons inside the Loft indulge in cigar smoke in a tweed environment with soft echoes of house music in the background. Unlike the other 2 floors of Midtown, the Loft requires patrons to have on evening wear; the vibe is much more classy than your typical D.C. club; it is actually reminiscent of Josephine, another lounge named after Napoleon Bonaparte's wife, but that is another story.
Sidenote: ***
To give you a taste of what to expect from me, I'll start by illustrating my experience at a club called Midtown located in the Dupont area of D.C. this past Friday night the 16th.
http://www.washingtonian.com/page_dbimages/13436/midtown.jpg
and at night...
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2647/3908334096_2f25b7578a.jpg
and inside...
http://www.dcsocialite.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/midtowndc.jpg
Midtown is the epitome of a D.C. club; it's not fabulously chique, but it does the job. It's got a city vibe, oddly reminiscent of New York, a good spot to chill after school on Thursdays and Fridays. My friends and I usually head to D.C. at about 11 PM, get into the club/lounge by midnight, and party it out in that one venue until 3 AM when the place closes down for the night. We've gotten sick of this trend over the past 16 months, so we've decided the next step is to make it a goal to explore more of the city during the twilight hours right before the sun sets, pre-game at some local bars, hop around from one enclave of the city to another, and really become intimate with the city. This shift in the way we go out has gone pretty swell so far: this gives us more time to meet people, particularly girls.
Midtown is a spot that I've been to many towns throughout the past year. I have gotten to know the architecture, the bartenders, and the crowd, and I consider it a "regular" spot for me. On the 16th, all of that changed. I walked in to find that they had just opened 2 new floors on top of the old (bottom) floor, and both of these floors were much better than the one which we were familiar with. The 2nd (middle) floor was dimly lit and had a brick-wall theme and was laid out more like a bar than a club. Despite that, the energy level was high, and the DJ was definitely spinning for the dancers. The 3rd (top) floor is quaintly called "the Loft" and has a Mafioso theme; patrons inside the Loft indulge in cigar smoke in a tweed environment with soft echoes of house music in the background. Unlike the other 2 floors of Midtown, the Loft requires patrons to have on evening wear; the vibe is much more classy than your typical D.C. club; it is actually reminiscent of Josephine, another lounge named after Napoleon Bonaparte's wife, but that is another story.
Sidenote: ***
Dear West Virginia, please get your shitty drivers off Virginia's roads. They go 15 miles slower than the speed limit, they don't let me pass them on 1 lane roads, they box me in on 2 lane roads, and they flick a cigarette out the window every 3 minutes. Please contact the Federal government for funding, build your own... roads in your own state, and use those from now on. Thanks.
***
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