Great Escape #3: Las Olas

A mere 30 minute drive from the upscale pulse of South Beach lies Las Olas Boulevard, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Those of you who want to get away from the oftentimes pretentious vibe of Ocean Drive can mosey on over to Las Olas and have a more gritty, seedy, but fun night filled with dance, cheaper drinks, and a more down to earth environment.

Las Olas reminds me of New Orleans, a city known for it's sizzling hot night life with an undercurrent of danger that can spring out at any moment. Upon entering Las Olas on a Saturday night we were immediately challenged to a fist fight and a drag race by drunken patrons who were too wasted to a) know what they were doing and b) follow through on their threats. After searching for parking for 20 minutes we strutted our stuff down the Boulevard and witnessed a huge melee by a group of drunk college boys. The scuffle was quickly broken up by a pack of police officers and who were a few feet away. That's the main difference between Las Olas and the N.O. The cops are just a devils breath away, waiting to slap a pair of handcuffs on you if you get too out of pocket.

It only cost ten bucks to enter the The Palace nightclub, which was dark, hot and had an even darker and hotter dance floor. The djs were from NYC which meant they knew how to blend their sounds to entice everyone to get loose on the floor. They played hip hop, both old and new school, and Caribbean music, both old and new. I teetered around in 5 inch stiletto heels and gave it my best, but after a while I kicked off my shoes and danced all night barefoot. I couldn't help it. Las Olas is not a place for the wallflower, prissy, poseur crowd. If you go to Las Olas come prepared to get down!

There was a raffle towards the end of the night and my fiancee won! To my surprise, the prizes were pretty nice. We won two 14k gold pieces of jewelry from Macy's, with the gift receipts attached so we can return them. I plan on keeping them though, because they are really nice and would look great with a little black dress, which is what I plan on wearing tonight when I party at my new buddy Darius' graduation party at Crazy Horse...