Clarendon Ballroom

I usually end up here for happy hour on Friday and I have a good time. I haven’t had any complaints.

Ok, what’s going on? Sat night, and the place is dead! Music is good, drinks are overpriced and despite the place being empty they are charging a cover. Hmm, what is the problem? First time here, a fluke perhaps? Management what say you?

I give this place a 4 star because I haven’t tired the food there but when I go there the DJ is always playing the hottest music. It is a $ 5 dollars coverage they’ll stamp you at the door so if you do want to leave out you can come back and show your stamp so you don’t have to pay again. The place is pretty big they do have more then one bathroom so that’s a good thing and a seating area if your waiting on a friend or whatever it’s a chill cool place to hang at.

This place is A-​OK and has served as a good venue for a number different corporate, networking, and non-​profit event. The place has an older, slightly run down, feel. This was the first time I have been when heavy curtains were pulled closing off the bar area. The beer and wine was instead available at a central station run by the group (my guess it was a paid staff vs volunteers compromise). We took a table near the entry area and still had a good view of the bands. I thought the sound quality was pretty good. They had both regular and veggie gumbo, we stuck with regular, and thought it was pretty good all things considered.
Clarendon Ballroom is a good event venue if you are looking for a place to house an event in Arlington.

I am in my mid thirties and am not into the bar scene, however we wanted to go to a place that we could take our girlfriend, the bride to be, out dancing. This place seemed ok, the Music was good, drinks ok, and the night would have been great, except the fact all of us that the three of us that had started and closed tabs on our credit cards, mysteriously ALSO had our credit card information stolen, and ironically, all our cards were duplicated and used in the same area in North Carolina. This was the only place we had all three used our cards at the same place and the same time, and all three of us are from different states. This was not a coincidence, do not go to or trust this establishment at all. We reported this to the police as well. DO NOT GO HERE! They employ thieves!!!

Just went through the door. If your door person checking IDs and your door person receiving cover charge can’t communicate — then it’s a problem. My wife went to the ATM to pull out cash to pay cover ($ 5/​piece per person even though it ended up being empty) and we were all lambasted for having one of our party use the ATM «without permission» even though the security guard told her to within earshot of all of us.
The lady receiving the cover charges was beyond rude, and after I told her we weren’t feeling very welcome she told us we could «leave, that inclusion was voluntary» which is true. But it is a business, and she should want the $ 300 in business we spend per establishment.
I’ve never felt so unwelcome by a club, compared to downtown DC/​Richmond/​NYC and LA. First time complaint for me.

Interesting looking interior, and neat bar, but…
(1) It smelled kind of funny when I walked in. Musty and moist.
(2) Check out that cool tin ceiling. Neat right? Now look closely and note the corroded places where water is leaking through. Water from where? Who knows. Hopefully a cooling system and not an upstairs bathroom. While I was standing around, I got dripped on. Hopefully, the waiters pushing the food carts around know to avoid them and not wipe out the entire function’s attendees with a bad case of Legionnaire’s Disease.

Although it’s surprisingly hard to get a drink, somehow everyone is drunk, getting in your way, looking for the hook ups, and the floors are ridiculously sticky. Enough said.

Great place to come if you want to be out or dancing — while avoiding the club scene. You can dress casually or «club-​ready», it’s all here.

AWESOMELY LOUSY!
They are playing satellite radio on New Year’s Eve when I’ve already paid a $ 65 cover.

The guests here need to be served sippy cups until they learn to stop spilling their drinks.
I almost fell out of my shoes as they stuck to the ground that was completely covered in spilled drinks.
When my friend who lives in DC said to meet her here my first thought was «What the?!» At least now she knows…

Interesting atmosphere, the roof is pretty nice. No cover before 10pm so that’s good otherwise it’s a bit slow but it’s still a nice place to chill.

I’m from LA so this spot was quite different from what I’m used to and not really sure how the whole night life spots are like around here but in comparison to other places I’ve been to.
Parking — good luck. You might get lucky and catch someone leaving just in time and find street parking. But it seems like quite a mission finding parking around here.
Cover — I don’t see why there’s a cover to get into this place. If it weren’t for the people I was with I wouldn’t pay to come in. That’s probably why there’s no girls inside.
Music — just a big mix of no specific genre. It’s just everything. People were dancing but can’t say really feeling the music.
Crowd — too many dudes and maybe five girls. Seems like the age of the people are in the 30s.
Good stuff — I give it three stars cause the bartenders were super nice and quick to be of service. And there’s tables and chairs you can sit at. They allow in and out for the smokers. And doesn’t seem like they’re that strict when it comes to dress code.
Despite all the negative things about this place I still had a good time. When you’re with good company and a good amount of alcohol doesn’t matter where you are. You can still have fun.

Let’s see trying to make an nonbiased review for this place is extremely hard for me. To be honest this place really isn’t my scene.
The vibe of this place seems to be a really awful meat and fishmarket. The drinks are strong and cheap. The music is straight up Sir Mix A Lot’s Baby Got Back from the 90s. Then out of nowhere comes the lines of «Sweet Caroline». Yeah rewind.
Oh yeah the disco ball and the strobe lights are blinding! The light show is kind of extremely 70s euro trash meets 80’s. It’s really kind of funny if you stand at the edge of the bar and watch the dance floor. Oh yeah if you ever want to see dance floor where people don’t know how to dance this is the place.
During the summer if you want to escape the horrible music the rooftop is refreshing. The rooftop has a nice view of Clarendon. Feel free to drop spitballs on the person who dissed you back in high school. You know you want to.
So after a long night of potential date rape, beer pong, flip cup and other frat like debauchery. Head on down to Clarendon Ballroom!

Since I am not the one to sit here and write out a 3 page review, I will get straight to the point.
1. Why have a cover charge? No one else did. At least if we wanted to come back we wouldn’t be charged.
2. Drinks were expensive as hell. I’m sorry but $ 7 for a small plastic cup of yengliang (or how ever you spell it) is crazy. I got a blue motorcycle as they call it and it was like $ 11, wasn’t bad but still not made right.
3. The dance floor is friggin huge, to bad there was no body in there to fill it on a Friday night (bad marketing? I don’t know). Maybe I should go back on a Saturday night and see if it’s any different. A 3:1 mixture of guys to girls, so if you are a guy the sword fight is on and if you are a «lady» looking for a guy, go somewhere else… I’m not saying that everyone was looking rough, but from what I saw looked like a struggling spot just trying to make it. Maybe it’s just Fridays.
4. The music. Well since this was my first time going out in the area, the music was what got my attention… at first. You decent hip hop/​rap mixture. Not to bad I guess. Don’t get me wrong I love all music, but I guess that I am getting old because I just was not feeling it this particular night.
All in all I think that maybe I came on a bad night. I would definitely try this place again on a Saturday night to see if my one night was just a fluke.

**HIT OR MISS**
But more misses than hits than I can count on one hand. I’ve had some fun nights here, and then I’ve had a handful of lame nights that ended early as well.
PROs:
*rooftop bar for the summertime
*minimal lines for bathrooms
*the music. some days its poppin
*the line goes by pretty fast
*casual dress code for the lazy weekends and for those days where you’re just too exhausted from work and need a drink asap
CONs:
*annoying $ 5 cover charge (I rarely carry cash!)
*long wait to get a drink at the one bar they have on the main floor
*awkward huge space on the dance floor
*the music. some days they play the worst music that you can’t dance to. talk about buzz kill.
All in all, I wouldn’t come here unless my best friend was pulling me by my hair to go for a birthday party or something of that sort.

For me, the real draw of Clarendon Ballroom is its relatively convenient location. I live near Vienna metro, just far enough that I’m not going to haul out to D.C. for a late night of clubbing, and then rush to the metro before it closes at 2AM, wait 20 minutes for the metro, and wait 90 seconds at each stop for «scheduling adjustments.» Clarendon Ballroom is close enough that I can drive, and far enough out of the city that you can probably find street parking.
I also randomly saw a few friends there on Saturday night, so I think I’m more likely to bump into other Virginian friends there because of the convenient location.
That said, Clarendon Ballroom doesn’t quite have the glamour of a DC club, and the old décor is kind of tired. Doesn’t matter — the dance floor was jam packed at midnight, despite the $ 5 cover and absence of drink specials.

I went with my group of friends as last call loomed, so that might be why there wasn’t a huge crowd at this bar, I don’t know. But I hate crowds, so yay.
Drinks were of average price, I have no idea what music was playing (thanks, drinks!) but a fight broke out and all of my friends were sprayed with beer. Then the guy that instigated the fight was allowed to remain at the bar while his victim was kicked out. Weird, and it made me sad.
But not sad enough to leave.
There’s a weird curtain that’s just. there.
Yep.

This is a terrible establishment in my opinion.
As soon as I arrived at Clarendon Ballroom, I was met with an incredibly rude female employee taking cover payments. I might have had a couple drinks before arriving, but I know for sure I was sober and the farthest thing from obnoxious. While I explained to her who I was paying a cover for, she snatched a $ 20 from my hand and gave me the dirtiest look.
At this point, I was completely befuddled and even more offended than anything. Upon giving me my change, I snatched a $ 10 back and proceeded to walk forward. She grabbed my shirt and told me, «You don’t have to go in here.»
Since there were maybe six to twelve other people in my group, I did not want to be the one person to ruin everyone’s night. Needless to say, I swallowed my pride and apologized to her, though none was due to her.
Having been in the hospitality industry, I understand the frustration that comes with working a busy Friday or Saturday night. But even IF she was having such a bad night, she had no business unleashing it on a patron ready to spend MORE money after paying a cover charge.
This was my first visit and will be my last until the face of their business changes.

***** 3 ½ Stars*****
I’m not hating on Clarendon Ballroom. I actually don’t mind it. Drinks are decently priced and the bartenders make them strong! Definitely get your money worth in terms of adult beverages. And there’s dancing! Love coming to ballroom at the end of a fun night in Clarendon with friends. Yes there’s a $ 5.00 cover on weekends but it’s alright. You get what you pay for: drinks, loud music, and dancing!
Added bonus for summer: roof top bar!!! Decent sized space too!

I have never been to the Clarendon area and the first time that I came, my friend brought me here.
It was a Friday night and boy was it freezing.
The crowd was a good mix, music was Top 40’s.
Drinks were okay, everything was okay.
I had a good time because I went out to have fun not to meet and pick up guys.
I believe the entrance fee was $ 5 and coat check was $ 1.
Not too shabby.