Upscale nightlife in Des Moines??? (Wellman: hotel, college, live)

[lawyernupe]

My wife and I are looking for an upscale spot where we can dance & mingle with like minded professionals. We are looking for a place that plays R&B, hip-hop, or jazz. Is there anything remotely fitting this description in Des Moines with little to no college age kids? Thanks.

[tollfree]

Try Blue Moon piano bar in West Glen. Tonic is a nice place too.

Wellman's, 515 lounge, Cabaret are your standard college-type bars, years beyond college. Packed to the brim, loud, cheap drink specials. You really aren't going to find much in the way of "upscale nightlife" the way you'd see in a bigger city.

It's a very heavy bar culture in Des Moines, with a lot of re-branding of bars by the same owners every few years.

[capitalcityguy]

The Continental in the East Village has live music periodically (often jazz) , and it won't be the college crowd.

The dancing part? huh....I think there is a hole in the DM scene there unless someone else can recommend a place?

[Luke9686]

East 25th street pub is always classy and upscale. So is Gerry's, Main Gate, and Johnny Mac's.

[capitalcityguy]

Thought of a few more:
A couple other ideas.

Mohan's (sp?) Speakeasy in the Savory Hotel used to have live Jazz periodically so you may want to check that out. The lounge in the Suites of 801 Locust might be worth a shot.

If you check the Thursday Des Moines Register's weekly Datebook, they have a section on live music by type of music. Maybe that will help you too.

At one time, there were plans for a Jazz Club in the basement of one of the buildings in the East Village with a back alley entrance. Not sure what ever happened to that but hopefully it will eventually happen.

[lawyernupe]

Thanks for all the advice. However, looking at the various websites it seems that none of these places have dancing. Nevertheless its good to know of these places. I guess if my wife and I want to go dancing we'll have to head to Kansas City???

[DMRyan]

There are places to hear hip hop and dance, they just won't fit the upscale, non-college aged bill.

There are plenty of great bars but little in the way of a club scene. Various ultra lounges come and go, stale dance clubs that I went to 10+ years ago are still there, only under with a different name and a new paint job.

In downtown, you can try Liar's Club, Komodo Club, Pelican Bar, and Lounge 101 if you want to dance and listen to hip hop, but none of these will blow you away. There's an existing ultra lounge called the Lime Lounge relocating and reopening in bigger digs downtown later this fall, and there's always The Garden, which is a gay dance club playing electronic music.

[lawyernupe]

For others that might be looking for live jazz/dancing in Des Moines. I just got off the phone with a representative of Monihan's Speakeasy Lounge (see above) who confirmed that they do not feature live music.

So I am still looking for a upscale spot to DANCE and mingle that plays jazz, R&B or hip-hop away from the bar / college age scene. Thanks for all that have contributed to this conversation thus far. Although, I still haven't found what I am looking for in Des Moines maybe some others may benefit from this information.

As some have intimated above, there seems to be few establishments offering this form of entertainment here.

[El Rhino]

The last Saturday of every month at the Beechwood on Locust is Pressure Drop, a DJ night spinning old reggae and soul records - there's a ton of dancing there.


It's a younger crowd and probably not very "upscale", but if you can hang with the sans culottes of Des Moines you'll probably have a good enough time.

[Heckler]

Originally Posted by lawyernupe

My wife and I are looking for an upscale spot where we can dance & mingle with like minded professionals. We are looking for a place that plays R&B, hip-hop, or jazz. Is there anything remotely fitting this description in Des Moines with little to no college age kids? Thanks.

In other words you are trolling for a middle aged couple that wants to swing. Lot of that going on these days.