There are too many clubs in Houston for one person with only a couple years' experience to write about. In fact, though most of my club experience has been confined to Houston's West side (in the Galleria area between the Interstate 610 inner loop and the Beltway 8 outer loop), there are many venues I have only heard about, and undoubtedly many which I don't even know exist.
I have enjoyed dancing at many different places, although I have only visited some of them once or twice. Some locations held great promise, but for reasons beyond our control, they just never worked out for me and my friends. So, I am not even going to attempt to provide a comprehensive guide to Houston Latin dance venues. The clubs I mention here are a fraction of what Houston has to offer.
And I am not sure anyone really has done a good job at that kind of project anyway. There are Web sites where people post reviews of various clubs, and the Houston Chronicle has a reviews section. But these resources are all limited in one or more ways. The fact is that the Latin dance experience is so diverse and widespread, you just cannot cover it all even in a mega dance Web site. There are venues which seem to know nothing of the Internet, and could care less for the local business directories.
And those of us who have enjoyed dancing from 8:00 PM to Midnight or 2:00 AM are a very different crowd from the after-hours dancers, most of whom are Hispanics who (I am told) often speak very little English. My friends (some of whom are Hispanics) often wonder aloud when those people sleep, and what kinds of jobs they hold. Some of the clubs we visit actually have what we call two "shifts" of dancers: the early folks who have to get up in the morning, and the people who replace us.
Everyone has a favorite club, too. I admit that mine is probably Club Tropicana, although I presently don't get to visit there as often as I used to. Still, they recognize me, so I must have dropped by more than a few times. The dance floor is excellent, one of the best I have ever danced on outside a studio, but for me the best charm of Tropicana is its ambience. When they turn the lights off and light the candles on the tables around the club, I am transported back in time to the glamorous world of night clubs in Hollywood movies and Ricky Ricardo's Copa Cabana.
But I have also spent a great deal of time at Elvia's Cantina. Elvia no longer owns the cantina, but her picture still hangs on the wall. The dance floor is considered one of the worst in Houston, but my lady friends have discovered that sprinkling baby powder on their shoes improves their experience. Elvia's charm lies in the quality of the artists who perform there (Mi Rumba, Mary's Band, among others) and the friendliness of the staff.
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Despite occasional grumbling, many of Houston's better dancers still hit Elvia's regularly.
Many dancers say Scott Gertner's Sky Bar is the current hot spot. The first time experience is worthwhile, especially in good weather, when they cook hot dogs and hamburgers on the balcony. The view of Houston's nightline sky is almost as breathtaking as the young women who gather there. Salmerum plays the Sky Bar on Thursday nights.
Ringside at Sullivan's Steakhouse was probably the most popular venue I have visited. It was also the most reasonable one in my experience. They offer free valet parking with the option of parking yourself in a side lot. Sullivan's is divided into three sections: the restaurant, the bar, and Ringside. Ringside's floor is not the best, but many of my friends loved dancing there. Sullivan's stopped hosting Latin nights in mid-2004, for reasons I have never clearly understood. They brought in the best selection of bands of any of the clubs. I heard Mary's Band, Yelba, and Urbana there for the first time, as well as Cache and many others.
The Palace is an interesting club. They are located one block from the Dance Place, where I have been taking lessons for over two years. When my friends and I heard a Latin dance club was being opened there, we went over to check it out. The sound system was great, and they had two dance floors. Our only problem with the dance floors was that they were very small (a common problem in Houston clubs). I did my best to bring my group there on Thursday nights, but at the beginning of 2004, the ownership closed the club for remodelling. When they reopened it, they started catering to a later crowd.
A new venue that just opened in late 2004 is El Arroyo Grill and Cantina. Located just two blocks from The Dance Place (in fact, right next door to The Palace), they have some interesting plans. They opened their Latin dance nights with Mary's Band. Talk about coming out of the gate with a bang! And the food is good, too.
El ChibCha is another popular club some of my friends have visited. Well, it's not really a club. Like so many venues, El ChibCha is a restaurant with a stage and a dance floor. They have two dance floors, one smaller than the other. I found the strobing colored lights to be too intense and distracting, so I have not gone back. But I know several people who say great things about El ChibCha.
The Melody Club is not really a night club. They are more of a dance hall who rent out their venue to organizations for private events. I have attended a couple of Asian functions there.
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