Just my first day in Paradise.

My anticipation of checking out this bar has finally been rewarded to me this past Thursday night. Plans that my boyfriend had that evening were cancelled, and I jumped on the opportunity to tell him that we should check it out. It has been a few months since Paradise's grand opening, so I was hoping it was no longer clouded by the 'brand new club' vibe. I've heard mixed things about the place, and decided it was time to see how it was for myself.

On the appearance, this place is quite small. The parking lot is probably bigger than the building itself, and when I drive by from time to time, I notice that it's almost always quite packed. Walking inside, I had forgotten that the place used to be an old Burger King, but I was reminded once more when I saw the size and the interior setup. Most of the seating was black leather bar stools and chairs surrounding the stage against the right wall, where there were 2 girls dancing for 2 song sets. The stage is made of wood, but isn't laminated, and I imagine for girls that like to walk along the edge of the stage or move over it to get more personal with the tippers, it's potentially a safety hazard. The edge of the stage eventually gets wet from the drinks that have sat on it from patrons sitting and viewing from the front row seats, and the moisture on top of the wood is not friendly with the shoes most of the girls wear (even with grip on the bottom). One girl almost lost her footing as she was crawling in front of me, while another flat out fell on top of me as she was in the process of moving from the edge to straddle me - and while having a girl on top of me isn't a complaint, the transition couldn't have been any less graceful due to the slip-and-slide she hunched on.

Before my boyfriend and I had moved to the stage, we had sat at the end of the bar, which I found to be the prettiest part of the club so far. The counters were marble with color changing lights within it to make it more dramatic, and were practically overstocked with small and large ash trays. Thankfully, there weren't that many smokers, so it was easy to breathe in the room. The drinks did taste a bit watered down, even when asking for top shelf. I always get a Long Island when going bar hopping, and while I still managed to get a buzz off of just one tall glass, the flavor itself could have been concocted better.