Quick snippits of plus and minuses I encounter starting with
The W Hotel has a Karma Lounge now? Just saw it in the Feb 944 Magazine event coverage part.
My friend Sara and I were trying to come up with a name for the lounge at Osetra and mangement ended up using E-5. Another club using their adress. Well at least adresses don't repeat in a city! Sometime's club names do. Like B Lounge at Bandar and then B Lounge at Ben's. Sadly Ben's is closed (I wonder how I can find Rommel, now that he's not manager we need to kick it) Nicky Rottens is taking over the place and expanding. I wonder if that means they're going to get a dance floor? I like Nicky Rotten's theme and would love to see it expanded upon.
I've been thinking a lot lately after I made my scathing review of On Broadway. Most of it is because I was there 3 weeks in a row! Birthday, after birthday, after birthday, at On Broadway. This Saturday is no exception as I have ANOTHER birthday to go to at On Broadway. This time for one of their promoters.
I just don't want to be seen as a hypocrite. Using my events list and social calendar it's easy to track down where I'm going to be. Or maybe you'll spot me in a club that I gave low ratings to.
You'll spot me dancing up on some girl or witha group of friends partying it up and go "he's supposed to hate this place!" Well it's not that my contempt for where ever it is I am at has disappeared. I'm following one of my party ethics rules to not let (as much as possible... which means copious amounts of alcohol) my personal bias against a place, promotion group, or crowd get in the way of partying.
There's no use in sulking in the corner in contempt over the venue. I am THE last person who wants to be detracting from the reverly of the occasion. Partying is my business. I have to represent a good time in front of people as much as possible. I also like to maximize the fun I'm having even if conditions are not ideal. In general I can still have a good time at a place I'm bored of or hate. It's just easier to get turned off if any sort of mishaps or drama starts in the club.
San Diego's first mega club. On Broadway ushered in the golden area of San Diego's night life that we live in now. That means this place is ancient compared to the rest of downtown, so why is everyone treating this place like it opened up last week? Why is it the end all be all of common joe blow clubber? It's not even the largest club in San Diego anymore. That distinction goes to Stingaree.
It's not as posh and high class as it was when it first opened. Even the dress code is relaxed. If you go to On Broadway's website http://obec.tv/ you can watch the video and see guys in tshirts and sweat shirts. Some of the bartenders are dressed down. It irks me how it's treated as such a world class event center when I haven't heard of anything mind blowing going on. I think the W Hotel had more celebrities than On Broadway.
I also wonder what is with women's fascination with On Broadway's woman's bathroom. It's a BATHROOM why must you take pictures of yourself in this particular bathroom? On Broadway can't be the home of the best woman's club bathroom in all of San Diego yet every woman who goes to that club feels compelled to take a picture there. Case in point look at the photos at the bottom of this post.
Let's talk about the different rooms On Broadway has to offer. The top floor is called Zen Cafe. Why is it called a cafe when it's the largest room of the entire club and is a full on resturant and sushi bar. The website even says the place has "34,000 square feet of banquet space". Anyways, I can tell you the food is excellent at least. I suggest the "seal the deal" roll made with crab and lobster. It is completely worth the premium roll price.
Karma Lounge, I have no idea why it's called Karma Lounge. The place looks nice and is used as On Broadway's primary entrance it just dosen't seem to have anything to do with Karma or lounging. It's On Broadway's decent hip hop room and is overly popular. By overly popular I mean there's a line into that room once the club is in full swing. Let me repeat that if you missed it. There's a LINE into a ROOM inside of the CLUB you waited in LINE for to get in.
What. The. Fuck.
This room isn't VIP or has any other special amentities compared to the rest of the club yet it has a LINE. Sometimes a very LONG LINE that extends all the way in front of the bar in the Gallery Room. That line ruins an entire room in the club! Why do people put up with this shit?! They always have a barely decent hip hop dj in there too.
The Gallery room is entirely under utilized. It's a little odd shaped but it does have its own seperate bar. I think it's because they always start that room off with a shitty ass dj. There have been some very good talent in the Gallery room but they always follow after the crappy opening dj. Then the Gallery room gets taken over by the Karma room's line. It makes their bar ineffective too.
Remember that 34,000 square feet of club space that the main floor is made of? THAT ENTIRE SPACE IS NEVER USED. Not only is there more bar and dance floor space that's never used there's almost an entire room of free space. So why do they try to cram all the people who come to the club for hip hop in the smaller Karma room downstairs? My theory is that they are always promoting the big electronica acts in their main room even though no one seems to care. For some reason in San Diego techno in a club is an "upscale" thing to be marketed. Everyone upstairs on the techno dance floor could fit downstairs and everyone who's waiting to get in the hip hop room would fit upstairs. Ugh!
The Vault has the potential to be the coolest room in the entire place. The main entrance is the original vault door that the building had when it was a bank. The interior is lacking for such a dramatic opening. They could of turned the space into an intimate lounge but it's furnished with portable event furniture. Sad. They always seem to play a music genre that doesn't get enough people in the room. That makes no sense to me. Especially when there's a freaking line outside!
The last room Ultra Loounge is home of the infamous girls bathroom. It is also the only room out of the three mini rooms that get anything right. Even though the music is different every night there seems to always be enough people dancing in there looking happy to justify its existence. Sometimes its 80s, or funk, or even an old school trance set and every time people who hang out in that room make the most of it.
On Broadway seems to be birthday party central for lots of girls so they are doing something right. I would like to belive that most people are just ignorant to other choices downtown has to offer. One last nit picky thing I must add. Most cell phones get no reception downstairs and that leads to all sorts of hassle when you're trying to find your friends! If I were you I'd just wait in the Karama lounge, everyone wants to be in there anyways. Don't leave so you don't have to wait in line to get in. Most likely your friends are in that room or plan to get in that room.
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