| rev:text
| - It seems there's a lot of drama in the reviews of A Plus VIP Lounge, but my honest experience wasn't bad, nor was it outstanding, either.
I've seen the place walking by and heard rumor it was an upscale, perhaps expensive, club-like atmosphere. We decided to come at around midnight on a Saturday to give it a shot.
We were pleasantly surprised to find there was no cover charge, but quickly found out perhaps why that was.... there was hardly anyone in the place, practically empty!
We scoped the place out before ordering and I was actually impressed with the ambiance and décor, it really has the look and feel of a city nightclub or lounge. It was extremely clean and well-kept which is a nice change of pace from the notoriously scummy campus bars.
I asked for a menu to look at the cocktail list, I ordered a "Taurus" and my roommate got an "Innocent Eyes". I very much enjoyed mine, I thought it was a really tasty cocktail. He thought his may have been a little on the weak side. These were $8 each, a little expensive, but in all fairness it was a great cocktail I would order over and over. My only reservation about the price was because I could have sworn I seen the bartender(s) use the well liquor in my drink, and I would at least expect something a little better than wells for an $8 drink. A cranberry vodka I had later was ~$5. Other friend was a little disappointed they didn't know how to make a "Singapore Sling", which perhaps might have been more likely at a nicer place like this, oh well, not a big deal. He did like the Mai Tai they mixed up though. The place uses the goofy iPad/tablet for when you close a tab or buy a drink with a card, which is a pet peeve of mine, especially when our intoxicated group can't figure out how to work the damn thing.
They had a DJ that night and the music was typical mixed top 40 stuff, not necessarily my style, but I have heard worse and the volume was not entirely unbearable. The ~10 other people in there had taken spots up from closer to the DJ while our crew hung out towards the back and more or less watched. This girl, bless her heart, approached us and asked what it would take to get us up front dancing in terms of a song. Drunken me blurts out "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees since the group kind of hesitated. It was the first thing that came to mind and it's a dancing classic for anyone who appreciates music of that style and vintage. She looked a little confused and didn't seem to know the song, but alas went up and requested the DJ play it, which after a quick dirty look he reluctantly did. We had our couple minutes of fame, embarrassed ourselves, and returned to our table and resumed observing everyone else.
I really think this place has some potential to be awesome. Unfortunately, the location isn't on campus and I'd expect most students don't necessarily know about A Plus VIP Lounge. I would definitely say there is a customer base for this type of establishment at UIUC, students just don't seem to be aware of it and consequently draws more local people. They should do some campus advertising, maybe even have a one time (or more often) discounted Friday or Saturday drink special to get the ball rolling.
Maybe we came on a bad night, it was a little rainy/drizzly so that could be a factor.
I will definitely come back.
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