Upstairs Lounge

The true story of how Upstairs Lounge was born:
A couple of stoned dudes were in one of the dudes' mom's garage, hungover from a night of candy flipping at a trance club with their high school friends. They were both white, but each of them had at least one black friend. With glowsticks fading with the dawn, they talked about how they should start DJing. This is the high school dropout version of the "we should open our own bar" dream. So the dudes talk to their friend's cousin, who happens to know a dude who DJs. They begin to dabble in it, but usually succumb to an afternoon bongfest before things get too intense. The club starts out as just a Saturday night thing in the garage, or occasionally the mom's basement. They drink from the cheap clear plastic cups (Solo cups are too expensive and totally selling out). This is before hipsters, but pretty sure not that long before hipsters. One night someone calls the cops and they decide to move the party. A chick at the party is squatting in an abandoned loft above some Vietnamese restaurant. The party ends up there. They tape some newspapers over the window to ensure that no secondhand smoke is wasted, and the party takes off. Some nights four, maybe five people show up. Things are getting crazy, and the dudes realize they need to be more legit. They invest in a used disco ball, because chicks love disco balls. Chicks also love cartoons, at least the chicks they want to bone, so they get a few TVs.  Not long after that, they realize the men's bathroom at their party has been ranked as the number one glory hole in St. Louis by a poll in the Riverfront Times. Officially on the map, DJs flock to this ultra-hip party, which they are now just calling "upstairs". "Hey man, where's the party at?" "Upstairs". Throngs of 20-somethings, whose skin has never actually been exposed to daylight, flock to the club, eager to get behind the horse stall of a DJ booth and go toe-to-toe with some other music geek who has also read every issue of Vibe and Source, in addition to every issue of Spiderman. Becoming ambitious and business savvy, the dudes ask the Vietnamese restaurant owner if they can put up a sign outside their club. They forgot if the dude said yes. They also forgot to get a sign. Meh, whatever. In a strategic marketing move, they rename the party a "lounge", as to convey the upscale clientele and overall vibe of the party. A local strip club goes out of business, and somebody's brother barters a motorcycle for the strip club's red vinyl booths. Sometimes it's just the same people at this party as in the old days, but sometimes some newbs stumble in, not even sure how they got there. It's often referred to as the "new dance club on Grand", because even after 13 years, nobody's ever heard of this party. The hipster movement in St. Louis explodes, and this underground party becomes every hipster's wet dream. Nobody here really cares if you can't dance or if you didn't take a shower this week. Every afternoon, the dudes who founded this party wake up in a daze, wondering if last night was real, or just some trippy dream (they are kind of bummed when they realize it was real. That's a lot of responsibility, man...) Just like you will wake up tomorrow afternoon, wondering if Upstairs Lounge was real, or if you need to lay off the shrooms.

P.S. Nothing I've ever read comes close to the awesomeness of how this club describes itself on their website. You will actually have to have been to this club to understand what I mean. <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fupstairslounge.com%2F&s=addc530641049c688698ed45c643aeabfe3ca4193d7ada570b5c90aa2152ae0a" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://upstairslounge.co…</a>

P.P.S. They actually do accept credit cards, and will even let you open a tab. When you come back up to order a second and third drink, the bartender will ask if you have a tab open. You will look around the empty room and blink at her, wondering how she forgot that you just gave her your credit card, and how she doesn't realize that the only open tab is your open tab, because you are the only person to show up for Kung Fu/Anime/HipHopParty night.

Glad to see you are doing well at what you love : )
My younger sis hangs out at your place when she is back in the Lou'.
***Danielles friend Laura from way back in the day***

Felt like dancing with the girl friends and stumbled upon this place.

Entrance: It is SO HARD to find this place, because it doesn't have a sign for it facing the street. Just look for MeKong and it's right above it (As in, the owner owns both places, interesting business endeavor!). You go in through the side door on the side street and after getting your ID checked, you go up some narrow set of stairs and you're there!

Decor: Dark, alternative. There are booths along the side of the room and of course, your bar and (small) dancefloor. Mind you, this place is a very small place. As in, you have to squeeze by the bar to get to where you want because there's a narrow width of about 2 people here.

We went on a pretty crowded night and they were playing house sort of music with the 2 DJ's switching off. I loved that my girlfriends and I could rock out to the music with other people without being creeped on by creepsters. It was just a very fun, chill crowd- do what you want, be what you want!

Oh and I also enjoyed the (weird/trippy) things on the TV screen, definitely something that I stared at a lot lol

Overall: Very cool for a nice chill night to dance/drink/watch! Bad thing: cover charge.