Nightlife Correspondent Shadestein stays up late and downs copious amounts of Redbull to find out what's worth checking out, and what should really be in Arlington Heights.
I don't know how fair of a review this will be as I only stayed for 8 minutes and ½ of a vodka redbull, but that time and partial drink was all I need to determine I would never return to Republic – Chicago's newest "ultra lounge"
Thursday night was the preview/friends and family/invite only party at Republic. Having been to these sort of events in the past, I was looking forward to the night as the crowd is usually top notch at theses parties before the general public is allowed in. HOWEVER, the general public would have been better than Schaumburg-esque, suburban, 19 year old, straight off the Metra, 1999 club spiked hair crowd that was waiting on line to get in. Clearly I don't wait on lines, so after giving about 42 dirty looks to the little kids on line, we walked up to the front, handed our passes over and then faced the BBBB (big bad black bouncer) who took his job of IDing everyone more seriously than anyone else I have ever seen. He literally held our IDs up to our faces for at least a minute each. After 30 seconds, I said "dude, I'm double the age of all the morons in line, let's move this along" He did.
The place itself looks nice. I saw it empty the night before and there was potential. There's a smallish room when you first walk in and it opens up into a giant second room. If you are in the first room, you get to hear a nice mix of the music from both rooms blending into each other. There's nothing like having a conversation whilst hearing a DJ Sammy song from 2001 mixed in with Lil John. I mean if it was an intentional "mash up" it might get creativity points, but this is strictly due to a bad set-up. Anyway, we moved into the main room, with our drink – there are a few bottle service tables surrounding the dance floor. This is the type of place where I'd laugh at anyone getting a table, buying a bottle(s), or for that matter committing more than a half hour to the place. It's not a place to see and be seen, it's a place to see and get the fuck out.
Pros: Its cool looking when it's empty. The bathrooms have nice stalls
Cons: Crowd, drinks in plastic cups, music, BBBB.
Anyway, after the 8 minutes were up, we left and went to Underground which although is more like a Disney theme-bar disguised as a cool club, is pretty much the only place to go in Chicago right now. We did swing by RiNo for a few minutes, and that place is OvEr Bring on Martini Park. Or, bring me a flight back to Miami.
No comments:
Post a Comment