See the Room

Last night as I walked back from a social event, dressed in a well-tailored gray suit jacket and a dark red silk button-down shirt and jeans, I passed by a new nightclub that had been open for a couple of months but that I hadn't yet visited. I'd heard from most people that it was big, and nice, but was only "good" for the first month or so. But I figured I'd check it out anyway.

I paid the entrance fee, walked around the ground floor, and saw some stairs leading up into a roped-off VIP section that encircled the downstairs from above. I liked to survey a new environment the first time I walk in, so I know all the nooks and crannies from the very beginning and have the lay of the land down before I settle in. I walked authoritatively up to the bouncers standing guard, smiled slightly at them and nodded, and they gestured for me to go up, so I did. Upstairs I found that the VIP section was effectively closed - no one had rented anything out up here, or maybe up here was not open for renting on a weeknight.

Most of the staff cleaning up up there ignored me, but I spotted one of them locked onto me with his eyes, clearly realizing I was not supposed to be there, so I ducked into one of the bathrooms to use the facilities. When I came back out, I went to do down a flight of stairs to head back, only to find a large metal sliding door shut in the way at the bottom of them. I went back upstairs and ran into a tall, stern-looking bouncer, and he gestured in another direction. I made a graceful thank you gesture, and headed down the stairs he pointed to, back to the main floor.

Downstairs, I found a spot at the back end of a bar, in a prominent position overlooking the crowded dance floor, but not crowded itself. I took that as my spot, and leaned against the bar, ordered a drink, and looked out over the crowd.