Nightlife battle:memphis vs indianpolis vs st.louis vs jacksonville vs tampa

[Shakeesha]

I prefer martinis and smoked salmon over bud light and pig guts so my list in order...

1. St. Louis
2. Tampa
3. Indianapolis
4. Jacksonville
5. Memphis

[tigerphan]

Tampa is awesome.

At Louis is also in a different league than Memphis, as is Indianapolis. Memphis is actually kind of lame. There are a few bright spots, but it's largely a huge disappointment for a city this big.

I haven't spent enough time in Jacksonville to give an honest opinion.

[mjtinmemphis]

Now that I am living in St. Louis again, it smashes the hell out of Memphis!!!

[STLgasm]

With all due respect, St. Louis in general is pretty far superior to all the other cities mentioned, and nightlife is no exception.

[ViolentDisasters]

I've lived in several of these cities. The only one I don't know much about is Tampa.

Indianapolis has very little nightlife to speak of, and what it does have is nothing to write home about. Unless you're going to a college bar in Broad Ripple or a first Friday art event in Fountain Square, there's really not much of a coherent nightlife scene. Also, the bus system generally stops running around 10:00 and taxis are overpriced and unreliable -- giving the late-night partier few options.

While St. Louis has the largest bar selection and is certainly in a different class overall than the other cities listed, as far as decent nightlife goes, it's disqualified due to the fact that bars are legally required to close at 1:30 am. While I find the touristy Laclede's Landing to be extremely overrated, St. Louis makes up for it with extremely unique bar districts like Delmar, Soulard and Cherokee Street. The transit system here is much better and runs much later than other cities -- but whats the point of all-night buses if bars and so many other establishments close so early? If St. Louis ever became a late-night city, it'd blow all the other cities out of the water, but as it stands I can't seriously consider because it closes down at peak nightlife hours.

Jacksonville is a completely overrated tourist trap when it comes to nightlife. The scenes that exist, mostly along the beaches and downtown are forgettable and try too hard to emulate Las Vegas and Miami. The city's nightlife seems stuck in the 90s themed bar hell.

Nightlife is actually possibly the only place where Memphis beats out the other cities. None of the other cities listed have anything that would compare to the world famous Beale Street, an bar district of neon and 19th century facades that draws an mix of locals and international tourists, and features outdoor live music, several all-night clubs and bars, one of the only bars that legally serves absinthe in the country and can claim to be one of the birthplaces of Blues. Other interesting late-night districts include Cooper-Young, South Main, and Broad Avenue. Like Indianapolis, public transportation closes down way too early, but taxis are a bit more affordable.

Tampa I've only visited once and don't feel comfortable making a fair assessment of.

[Shakeesha]

Originally Posted by MiamiRob28

I have been to 4 out of the 5 cities listed so here goes my ranking:

#1: Memphis (a real city)
#2: St.Louis (a real city)
#3: Are you kidding? Tampa, Jacksonville if you like strip clubs & 7-11's after hours!
#4: Indianapolis but have never been there but you seemed to have done a good job with the Superbowl.

They are all real cities lol.

[Caesarstl]

Originally Posted by ViolentDisasters

I've lived in several of these cities. The only one I don't know much about is Tampa.

Indianapolis has very little nightlife to speak of, and what it does have is nothing to write home about. Unless you're going to a college bar in Broad Ripple or a first Friday art event in Fountain Square, there's really not much of a coherent nightlife scene. Also, the bus system generally stops running around 10:00 and taxis are overpriced and unreliable -- giving the late-night partier few options.

While St. Louis has the largest bar selection and is certainly in a different class overall than the other cities listed, as far as decent nightlife goes, it's disqualified due to the fact that bars are legally required to close at 1:30 am. While I find the touristy Laclede's Landing to be extremely overrated, St. Louis makes up for it with extremely unique bar districts like Delmar, Soulard and Cherokee Street. The transit system here is much better and runs much later than other cities -- but whats the point of all-night buses if bars and so many other establishments close so early? If St. Louis ever became a late-night city, it'd blow all the other cities out of the water, but as it stands I can't seriously consider because it closes down at peak nightlife hours.

Jacksonville is a completely overrated tourist trap when it comes to nightlife. The scenes that exist, mostly along the beaches and downtown are forgettable and try too hard to emulate Las Vegas and Miami. The city's nightlife seems stuck in the 90s themed bar hell.

Nightlife is actually possibly the only place where Memphis beats out the other cities. None of the other cities listed have anything that would compare to the world famous Beale Street, an bar district of neon and 19th century facades that draws an mix of locals and international tourists, and features outdoor live music, several all-night clubs and bars, one of the only bars that legally serves absinthe in the country and can claim to be one of the birthplaces of Blues. Other interesting late-night districts include Cooper-Young, South Main, and Broad Avenue. Like Indianapolis, public transportation closes down way too early, but taxis are a bit more affordable.

Tampa I've only visited once and don't feel comfortable making a fair assessment of.

I was agreeing until this... You'll be happy to know that no, this is incorrect. There are a lot of 3AM bars (the license is just more expensive), and quite a few bars/clubs in the metro that serve alcohol all night long so I've no clue where you got this idea from.

Memphis is an oddball for me here that as you implied bats above its weight but is still far under St. Louis for me due to the limited options and overall "touristy-ness" of its ace that makes for a great weekend but after...

[Dawn.Davenport]

Originally Posted by MiamiRob28

I have been to 4 out of the 5 cities listed so here goes my ranking:

#1: Memphis (a real city)
#2: St.Louis (a real city)
#3: Are you kidding? Tampa, Jacksonville if you like strip clubs & 7-11's after hours!
#4: Indianapolis but have never been there but you seemed to have done a good job with the Superbowl.

What? Indianapolis is a lot of fun. You have all the trendy bars and cocktail lounges on Mass Ave. Then there are the more "hipster-ish" bars in Broad Ripple. Fountain Square is up-and-coming with neat places to hang out and have a good time. Downtown Indy has great restaurants and bars. Head west, closer to the Speedway, along 16th street, and there are tons of strip clubs and dive bars--they're kinda trashy, but whatever. The point is that Indy is a miniature Chicago; it has something for everyone, and I always have a blast whenever I visit.

I haven't spent enough time in St. Louis to really talk about in detail, but the city piqued my interest and I'm excited to go back and visit again someday. I've been to Memphis, but again, I haven't spend enough much time there to really comment. Though unlike St. Louis, Memphis seemed pretty dead, and I don't have much interest in going back and exploring deeper.

I have never been to Tampa or Jacksonville. Tampa interests me somewhat; Jacksonville not at all.

[projectmaximus]

Originally Posted by ViolentDisasters

Jacksonville is a completely overrated tourist trap when it comes to nightlife. The scenes that exist, mostly along the beaches and downtown are forgettable and try too hard to emulate Las Vegas and Miami. The city's nightlife seems stuck in the 90s themed bar hell.

Haha, I've never heard "overrated tourist trap" to describe Jax! That is astonishing to me. I don't necessarily disagree with your assessment, but I thought a place had to have some kind of tourism reputation to be considered overrated and a trap.

It's clearly a subjective impression but I wouldn't ever have considered Jax trying to emulate either Miami or Vegas. The Jax Beaches are completely different from South Beach, and aside from the brief Club Paris experiment that crashed and burned, and the Suite club that belongs to Dale Earnhardt Jr's chain, I can't think of anything that remotely belongs in Vegas. And both of these places are a tiny blip in Jax's nightlife scene.

Alright, that said, I am not gonna argue that the Jax scene beats out any of the other cities on this list.

[projectmaximus]

I would rate on a scale of ten the five cities as follows:
Tampa - 7
St Louis - 7
Memphis - 6
Indy - 6
Jax - 5

But I'm really only confident in my ratings for Jax and Tampa.