Here's the story with The Drake Hotel.
it was a total dive in a crappy area known as Parkdale and then five years ago, they did this hot revamp and turned it into a boutique hotel.
It ignited West Queen West as a hip artist area, and drove the dive-inspired Parkdale past the bridge. It also brought Starbucks and a ton more night club spots.
So it's a hotel, and it's a restaurant, lounge, rooftop patio and there's the underground. Each has different night life programming that suits the crowd, but the underground is where all the good jams happen. Basically, it's become a weekly mix of monthly parties featuring a healthy mix of local and out of town acts. They also book it for screenings and private parties, but generally there's something doing every Friday or Saturday down there.
The room holds about 250 with a small stage and screens for projections. There's one bar, and it's a basic square. It's also the same level where the bathrooms for the Lounge/Main Floor and the Underground are, the coat check and the ATM machine.
The cover at the Drake is usually $5 to get into the building. The general rule of thumb is: Suits on the roof, rich kids and waspy uptowners in the Lounge and party kids in the Underground.
Pick your floor, seal your fate.
All in all, this is like a meat and potatoes meal as far as decent nightlife goes. There's something for everyone, and it's easy to have a low maintenance good time on any given night.