Dharma Lounge

Charlotte nightlife is inudated with big room, top 40 in your face night clubs.  Dharma Lounge is such a refreshing change of pace for our city.  They regularly host  'underground DJs' from all over - ranging from house, tech house, techno, DnB, Hip hop, Afro beat, Booty Bass etc!  The music is far reaching.  They have hosted Rich Medina, Daz I Ku, Mark Farina, Justin Martin, Christian Martin, King Britt, Danny Daze, Simon Baker, Jaques Renault and the list goes on and on.  Judging by the list above there is something musically for everyone at Dharma.

The owners are very hands on and take a lot of pride in their business.  They care about the 'scene' and keep our local DJs in a heavy rotation (the local DJ's have been known to blow the headliners out of the water from time to time too).  

The venue is spacious, unique and beautiful.  

The bar staff ROCKS.  Drink prices are great.

Never had a problem with any of the door staff.  

The outdoor patio and firepits are wonderful.  The clientele is eclectic and fabulous!

Parking is easily accessible and It is FREE.  

They offer free donation only Yoga classes every Tuesday evening as well.

I highly recommend this spot...

Was visiting with friends over NYE weekend, and they had plans to go to Dharma for the big night. Not being from Charlotte and having no other places to go in mind, we tagged along.

We each paid $20 to get in. For being over 21 I thought that was insane, even for NYE. The crowd and DJ were really shitty so $20 a pop is way too steep.

It was also an 18 and up night. So the crowd included many college babies. These kids looked like they'd just passed their 18th birthday. Definitely weird to mingle with, though I'm not saying they can't go out and have fun too.

I didn't drink much, but the prices were moderate. I mostly socialized and danced. I have to say that the decor is epic. The Buddha with headphones borders on cheesy but I thought the paper cranes were awesome. It was too cold to spend a lot of time outside, but the patio was cozy and just as chic. When I wanted to take a break from dancing the bed lounges were comfy and not as awkward as they look from the dance floor, though folks tended to hog them because they were too lame to actually get up and dance instead of watching everyone.

I'd say the major downside was the DJ. Genuinely just not good and played tired, decade-old beats. Since I was mostly in the mood to dance this put a damper on things, as I was basically just dancing along with everyone instead of enjoying the music holistically.

All in all- it was a cool night. The owners are definitely some cool cats, but I doubt I'd be down for coming here again if I'm ever back in town.

Well, this used to be my favorite dance club when I lived in Charlotte! Sadly, I'm a Brooklynite now and gone of the days of pretension free dance clubs- NC has a gem in Dharma Lounge.

The cheap drinks, frequent well-known DJ's, fire pit outside and the free Yoga are all things I'd kill for now being an NY-er, but alas Dharma is still around when I visit NC.

I LOVE Dharma and Laura, who helps run the place is amazing.

The crowd is usually quite diverse- there is International Nights, Hip Hop Thursdays and the Le Bang Wednesday party which all have their own stereotypical crowd- all nights are fun though.

Why 3 stars then? The DJ's are no consistent- one night you have Green Velvet & the next night you have an awful DJ over-mixing Rihanna songs (this really happened). Aside from that, the crowd is always hit or miss- sometimes the place is pin-drop empty on Saturdays and others (especially when there is a visiting DJ around) are PACKED to the hilt and you can barely move.

Overall, this is a great club. The doormen are awesome, the drinks are cheap...you can even do Yoga here. Just make sure you know which night to come out to this place, look to see if there is a visiting DJ to ensure that you aren't in a room with 15 other people awkwardly swaying back and forth.