A few visits to the Sahara while traveling to the OC

I found myself traveling from the East Coast to Orange County for a few days of work so naturally I had to search for a SC option somewhere nearby. After reading some recent reviews I decided to try Sahara which was between 20-40 minutes from my Newport Beach Hotel depending on traffic. This is a summary of a short 1 hour visit on Monday from 4:30 - 5:30pm, Tuesday from 6:30 - 8:30pm, and Wednesday from 8:30 - 10pm.

The club was a little hard to find on my first visit. Waze was taking to the area but maybe I missed a street sign or something because I had to drive around for a few minutes to finally find the actual address and still didn't really see any "Sahara..." signage. I finally found and began looking for a place to park and only a few spots outside the doors with only one tight spot open. I drove to the large parking lot behind the building and saw towing signs posted so that made me a little uneasy about parking there so I parked in the only spot across from the club and squeezed my Ford Explorer rental in between two other cars with barely a foot on either side.

Once inside the entrance you pay the door fee or show the roll call from the website for free entry (doesn't work on Tuesday's because of discounted VIP). They also check your temperature and have you sign some liability form. No ID check so you can sign anything. They also tell you there is a $10 mandatory drink fee once inside. Note: on Wed night they added an extra $5 fee/coupon and said they are required to have food now to stay open. I'm not sure if this is legit but they had a couple people grilling hot dogs and selling tacos in the parking spots across from the entrance. Also, mask required for entry and once inside the club. I heard the DJ remind customers to keep masks on so they're somewhat strict about with customers, not so much with the dancers.