As someone who has frequented this place for the last couple years, I believe I can give yall a…read moregood idea of what to expect.
I mostly come for MondayNightVibes, their karaoke joint. It's often going to be the same people performing, and most are actually singers. Lol. I won the karaoke contest a few months back, and was very annoyed that you can only redeem your win the FOLLOWING Monday. If you win, you get a free drink tower and table. Forcing people to use it the following Monday is idiotic. All of us don't go out every Monday night or consecutively like that. We're creatives with lives, and I was actually going to be out of town shooting a movie the next week and couldn't be there. This particularly rubbed me the wrong way, especially because in order to win, I had to send so many people from my page to vote for me, which required them to follow the MondayNightVibes page. So I sent all that foot traffic and followers (potential new customers) their way, only to not be able to redeem the benefits of my hard work. The only one who benefitted was them. Being that so many people in town are artists, they should know many of us are working actors. I even DM'd them directly (see photos) and they wouldn't accommodate me or allow me to use my winning prize on another night that wouldn't conflict with my shoot schedule. Bad business all around that they didn't even try to make it right, and it put a sour taste in my mouth being that it was the first time I ever did karaoke without a partner, just solo. And I won. But couldn't even redeem my prize. 10 thumbs down.
They also have this "arrive by 10:30pm to get in free" thing because they claim to be passionate about keeping a free option available, but they put you through hoops to get it. They make you RSVP for the free slot, but honestly the RSVPs are rarely available, and the people who take them don't even show up. Why not just acknowledge the people at the door by 10:30 regardless of RSVP, or at least let people know it's for the first 15 or so people?
On AfroBeats night (Saturdays) expect to be groped. The place gets way too crowded, too hot, and I had an annoying experience of being grabbed at too many times to count. But they encourage that type of thing with how the servers are dressed, which is my final complaint.
I'm not a prude. I get it. Sex sells. But over the years, the hostesses' outfits have gotten skimpier, to the point where the last time I went, some ladies didn't even have leggings. Just straight thong over ass. It's not a strip club. It's not even a hookah lounge. We get it, black spaces love to have ambiguous women to allure the men, as it's a collective preference within the community. That's all fine, but they should be pretty enough to sell the sex as is. Why is someone rubbing her bare ass on me to walk by? I didn't like that, and I feel when you're doing that in spaces that aren't sex worker spaces like strip clubs, you rub consumers the wrong way. LA is full of singles. Nobody's trying to meet a man in a club with almost naked women serving drinks and flirting with them. They're literally hugging on men and rubbing bare ass on everyone to walk by, and don't get me started on how they act when a celeb has a section. I've watched them sit on laps and let Trey Songz slap and jiggle their butts. It's just trifling to me because it's not a strip club, and frankly not the vibe of the space. To be honest the women will eventually just stop coming because we're not about to try to compete with that to maybe meet someone. Of course I always meet people because I'm attractive, but I mean in general for a party space, I believe it throws off the energy if it's not a strip club. They're literally dressed like they do lap dances with happy endings in the back. And I have seen a change in the aesthetic of men and women coming into the establishment. People just don't have time for that, and like I said earlier, it encourages a horny energy from men who start grabbing on us, the clubgoers, to continue the energy the hostesses started, and we're not on that type of time.
Overall, it's a pretty cool spot with a fun reputation. I come because I enjoy doing karaoke and it kind of is ingrained into my LA experience because my friend used to take me here often. Mel & Tavares & Amber always brought a crowd, but they don't even frequent here anymore, so it just hasn't been hitting for me lately.
Adding the Jamaican food vendor inside of the venue was a pretty interesting choice, as there's already barely nowhere to sit to eat in the first place, but I guess they're figuring it out.
The 2 stars I'm giving them are for the good times I had in the past.