6 for $100

Fantasia is about 15-20 minutes south of Huntsville on Memorial Parkway. It’s well outside the city, but Memorial Parkway is a heavily traveled main highway and it’s not a bad looking area. It’s in a stand-alone, two story metal building between two other buildings: a large fireworks store and another smaller building that looked like offices. There was also a sign for a restaurant, but I don’t know where it was. I noticed that Fantasia had menus for the restaurant on the bar, so maybe their kitchen is the restaurant, but I never saw anyone eat.

I pulled into the potholed parking lot about 9:00 p.m. on a Thursday. I was surprised to see that the parking lot was almost full. I went to the back of the lot, dodged a crater-like pothole, and parked. I got out and walked to the entrance, which is at the corner of the building where it fronts on the highway. On way to the entrance, I passed a metal stairway on the side of the building that led to a door on the second story of the building next to sign painted on the building that said “Sugars.” More on that later.

Fantasia is solidly in the dive bar category. The main club area is basically one big room. The D.J. booth is right next to the door, and the D.J. doubled as the doorman, asking me for $5 as I entered. The main stage projects from the left wall, the U-shaped bar is on the right, cheap looking metal framed and plastic chairs and cocktail tables in between. The restrooms are in the far left corner. Everything looks pretty well worn, but not totally dilapidated.