The Estate

Worst place in Boston. We had a table and they me out when I asked our host why she had taken away half full bottle of vodka and brought the bill. One guy told me that they were getting guests who were spending more money per table. Ridiculously rude staff !!!

Dear Mr. Bouncer,
I am sorry for intoxicating your night with anger. You’ll have to understand you intoxicated mine with your insolent treatment of my friend and I. I am sorry we did not heed your advice to «get a cup of coffee to sober up», as it was 11pm on a Friday, an infrequent night off from worrying about the future, an infrequent night off from driving an ambulance around the city. We were standing up just as straight, speaking just as coherently, and extracting our IDs from our wallets just as gracefully as the young folks ahead of us in line. We were not overly drunk, and coffee does not actually reverse the effects of alcohol, albeit a stimulant.
Dear Mr. Bouncer,
It hurts to feel discriminated against for looking the way we look and wearing the things we wear and moving the way we move and talking the way we talk. We may be wearing clogs and flats, but we stand tall and proud in them.
Dear Mr. Bouncer,
I see you recognize that access to service is power: power to share space with people we love, dance to music we like, and exchange money for commodities. As a gatekeeper of our power to enter your club, you have power over the trajectories of our nights. With your power, you have a responsibility to keep the club safe, keep the flow of people running smoothly, and keep your enforcement power secure by demonstrating your power to your guests. With your power, you also have the opportunity to discriminate against us arbitrarily, to make us feel trivialized and bullied, to make us feel powerless unjustly.
Dear Mr. Bouncer,
I’m sorry for using strong words like discrimination, which made you uncomfortable and defensive. We challenged your power in a way you found accusational and irrational. In the grander pie of societal power, us white privileged American girls have quite a large slice.
Dear Mr. Bouncer,
I’m sorry you felt you could not reason with us while we earnestly tried to reason with you, before we got frustrated and raised our voices. As it goes, anger was toxic and did not solve our differences. I’m sorry for projecting onto you the frailness we often feel as women in a society that often fills us with insecurity and violence. Fortunately, our frail bodies were not threatening enough for you to call the cops on us. I’m sorry I projected onto you the civil rights history I’ve been studying to understand nonviolent resistance against oppressive power structures. I’m sorry I used my power as a thinking and speaking person to say words to you that disturbed the peace of your sturdily-​built white male existence.
Dear Mr. Bouncer,
I wish you hadn’t used your power to make us feel frail and powerless. I wish we could have found common ground to make our nights more full of friendship and dance, and your night more full of peace. I hope you can forgive our frustration with feeling bullied, our frustration from not feeling good enough for you and your club. I hope that in the future, you reflect on the power you have as a bouncer, and the purposes you use your power for. I hope you reflect on our natural human tendency to seek expansion of power when we taste it. I hope you reflect on the power you have on and off the capitalist clock, just by being a white male in our sexist, racist culture. I know these concepts are uncomfortable, but if you never consider them, then we will all continue to enslave each other with misunderstanding and misconnection. I hope you reflect on the power you rob from others when you use yours against them. I hope you reflect on the unpleasantness and hurtfulness you have the power to create just by doing your job and living your life.
Dear Mr. Bouncer,
The truth is that we all have different forms of power, and I do not mean to over-​glorify your existence. The challenge is finding ways to use our power that make the world more beautiful and harmonious. The possibility is taking our humanity to the heights we’re capable of reaching by this point in our evolution.
Sincerely,
Miss Guest

This place is kinda bunk. I do enjoy the upstairs lounge though. For this area in general, I can’t wait for stage to open, everything I have heard points to a major upgrade in the neighborhood.

Still not convinced the thick headed employees and management at Estate are aware they are in the HOSPITALITY industry. They run Estate like a prison. Abuse their customers, go against their own rules, yell/​push/​physically hurt their attendees. Organized events here recently and the bouncers either were aggressively hitting on our guests or shoving them into elevators as a «punishment»… Their bartenders were rude, drinks were overpriced… They wouldn’t give us water??? Their manager straight up told me I should go to another venue for my events… Overall, I’ve never experienced this low level of professionalism. Good luck to anyone who works with this venue in the future. In the words of their manager, USE ANOTHER VENUE.

«Anything you can do, I can do better.»
Not to be outdone by New York, Estate to Boston is what Circle is to New York, except minus the outright racism and favoritism.
For those of you not familiar with Circle, it’s basically known as the «Asian club» of NY, a label people have started recently giving Estate.
Now that being said, Estate is much more chill. The inside is pretty spacious, with the bar hugging the front wall near the entrance of the club and the dance floor spreading out towards the back.
The lighting is pretty good, syncing to the EDM mixes well, which was the primary set the DJ played.
My friends and I had a pretty smooth time getting in, and didn’t encounter any obnoxious bouncers, a way too prevalent group these days.
The drink prices, while not great, are nothing out of the ordinary ($ 8 – 12 for weak mixers). A major club is obviously going to upcharge you for drinks, so if you don’t want to spend the dough, make sure you pregame properly beforehand.
All in all, a pretty decent place to dance the night away.

Worst club ever, everyone that works there is a dick and only guys go. If you are looking to overpay on drinks and grind some dudes I highly recommend it.

If you want a place to get harassed and get pushed and tripped on by their staff, this is the place for you. They do not provide the second most essential necessity to people: water, instead they charge you FIVE dollars for their fancy ass Fiji water. If you want free water bring a cup to the bathroom and fill it up with tap water.
They also charge different prices for drinks depending on who you are, two friends of mine got the exact same drink but paid different prices. Maybe there is a loyalty program that you need to join in order to get discounted drinks Why is this place even open still?
When you leave with a little bit too much in your system and you are a woman, expect to be manhandled by their staff who is «concerned» about your safety even though your friends tell their «professional» staff that you are being taken care of by people you actually know. They need to learn that no means no.
It has been a year and plus since I last came here and it was a mistake to ever return. Please don’t come here, save your cover fee for a baconator, that would be a better use of your money on a weekend night.
The one star is for their decent music, other than that nothing else was good.

2

I haven’t been so disappointed by a clubbing experience in a really long time.
First things first, the guestlist situation is wack. Apparently, you’re supposed to text a number and when you get a confirmation, girls can get in for free, but it’s one per person. I texted this number numerous times; however, it wasn’t compatible with my provider or something. This being the case, I showed the girls at the front that I tried to text the number but they pretty much said «tough luck, that’ll be $ 20.» Ok, rude. Luckily, my guy friend had gotten on guestlist, so I just had to pay $ 10 or something instead.
Once we get inside, it’s pretty much empty. This club is pretty small compared to LA clubs. I guess it’s comparable to San Francisco clubs. This space eventually got really, really crowded. I was able to escape upstairs and hang out around there for a bit. Unlike LA, anyone can go upstairs (doesn’t seem there’s a VIP area or something).
The worst thing about this night was the bartender at the front bar. I ordered a glass of scotch, was standing at the edge of bar, sipping and people watching. I had set down my glass right at my elbow, which was like 2 inches from the edge of the bar. I picked it up another sip and set it down. The next time I went to grab it, it was gone. What the hell? Clearly, I wasn’t done with it. Clearly, if a drink is set close to the edge of the bar with the person who was drinking it, it’s not to be cleared. Clearly, if you put a drink down maybe like. 6 – 8 inches from the edge, it means «take this away.» Anyway, I asked the bartender if she cleared this drink and said I wasn’t done with it. She just shrugged, rolled her eyes, and walked to the other side of the bar to serve some other patrons.
I was so irked by the whole experience, which was unfortunate since the rest of my group was having a great time. Definitely not interested in ever coming back or recommending this to anyone. I guess lucky for them, I’m not a Boston local.

My friends are veterans at this place as they have been here a handful of times before me. So I figured «Why not try this place out?»
The line looked like we got into a line for a wedding. That’s how over dressed these people were to get into a hot box and sweat for 2 hours while you’re sipping on 15 $ drink. Pathetic.
Anyways, I had a nice T shirt the first time I went and some sneakers with nice jeans and was not let in by the insanely rude bouncers. So this time I was prepared and got all «yuppied out» for this stupid club. I was tricked, the nicely dressed people, the long line, the whole area INUNDATED with beautiful Asian women (Case of Yellow Fever) I was so intrigued at this place, I just wanted to see how it was in there.
Once I got in I fell victim to the $ 20.00 cover charge to sweat my ass off in nice clothing… nice…
Drinks were expensive (as stated earlier) horrible crowd of stuck up women and the dudes were a bunch of frat boy losers. The DJ kept asking the crowd if they were turnt up and every time the beat would drop we would get completely hosed down with smoke and confetti and that was the best part of my night as it was boiling hot in there… the place sucked
Oh yeah, No parking.
I dont want to come back here, but If I do I will be reluctant about it.

Don’t call them to ask about dress code requirements. Their own associates fail to know their own guidelines. On a hot night, I asked if shorts were ok and the lady stated specifically that no cargo shorts or ripped shorts were ok, but a «pair» was fine. I wore a pair of chino shorts and bouncer stepped me aside that night and said absolutely no shorts. Great way to start a night. Apart from this incident, I typically come here on the weekends and it really is fun. But something like this I would say is unacceptable.

My girlfriends and I ended up at Estate for a bachelorette party, and we had a blast. I don’t really understand all the generally negative reviews of Boston clubs, yeah Boston is a bar city but its clubs are fun enough for a night dancing.
Firstly, I emailed a few clubs ahead of time to get on the guest list, and Estate was the only one that clearly responded to me telling us we were on the list. That was super helpful.
Being on the list, we were supposed to get free entry before 11pm, but we arrived at 11:05 pm and they said we were too late. That was frustrating, but they did give us half off (so $ 10 each at the door) and didn’t make the bride pay. So looking back at it, the worker there was probably required to charge and gave us the best deal she could.
Once we got inside, there was a lively dance floor, fun EDM music. They did a great job keeping everyone entertained with gogo dancers, and stuff falling from the ceiling (foam, glitter, etc.).
The drinks were overpriced at $ 10/​shot, but that’s what I expected.
The crowd seemed to have good male/​female ratio. It was majority asians, I’m not sure if that is particular to Estate or if asians just are the ones around here that like to party.
Had a great time, I would recommend!

After working in retail for a long time, I know how to please a customer. This place does not know of such concept. I will never set foot in this place again, and here is why…
10÷27÷11: I preorder «Halloween Party» tickets for $ 25 on the internet, plus fees so $ 55 for two tickets.
10÷29÷11: I show up to this place at 10:30pm and there is a line about 50 people deep. After about 50 min of waiting, my girlfriends legs start turning blue (snow was coming down pretty hard). I attempted to contact the bouncer who would not give me the time of day. I understand it is difficult to take a guy dressed up as a rabbi seriously, but it was halloween weekend. After not getting anywhere, even after attempting to bribe the bouncer, they did not let us in.
I contacted someone at the office and they denied any halloween party costing $ 25. She claims that I bought a ticket for a different event and that admission is always $ 10. My receipt clearly states halloween party, $ 25. FRAUDULENT. NEVER AGAIN. I gave them the option of simply refunding my tickets so I would not do this, but nope… they could not take the $ 50 hit to please a customer who did not get a service he paid for. WEAK.
This is my first Unilocal by the way.

I’m giving this place a one star because of the horrible staffing here.
I was visiting with friends from New York. I was taking a dump in the restroom. And I notice someone to continue to peek over the top of the stall. I’m confused at this point.
When I’m done I see the person who was peeking over. It was a security. I inform him that I have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the stall, as I’m attempting to take a dump. And that his actions can constitute sexual harassment.
He gets upset and tells me to shut the fuck up. Uses his earpiece and calls back up. I continue to get more perplexed. He says you are getting kicked out. I was not rude to him in any way. Just stating a fact.
At that point 2 other security showed up. I didn’t even want to be part of a place like this. My friends and I left. And went to another more respectable establishment.
I will NEVER be coming back here. And do not recomend it.

We attended this club for a particular event in conjunction with PAXEast and what we saw on the website and what we got, didn’t really match up (should have done more research on the club before thinking the nice looking pictures on the website were representative of what the club was.
The space doesn’t (or rather, shouldn’t) hold nearly as many people as the website claims. The dance floor in the middle is relatively small, and for this event they weren’t letting non-​VIPs upstairs, so we don’t even know what that looked like. But the furniture and ambiance we saw in the pictures on the website was NOT what was in the club. The furniture looks about 20 years old and the floor was severely damaged.
Normal club nights have what I consider to be an awfully high cover charge $ 20, and I would certainly not want to pay that cost to be in an overcrowded, run down, space. Drinks were too much, even for Boston (Heineken and a Gin on the Rocks = $ 21). After waiting in line to get into the club for nearly 2 hours, we had the one drink, didn’t really dance (couldn’t get near the dance floor) and left. Though, it seemed like some people were having a good time, there wasn’t room to sit along that dilapidated furniture on the side, because it was packed full of people who also, looked annoyed. Not sure if that was because of the volume of the music, or the overpriced drinks. Perhaps they were just trying to make it worth the fact that they waiting in line for 2 hours to get into a shitty club.
I know the long lines were likely not the clubs fault, so much as the group that planned this particular event, however, this club boasts being able to fit 700 — and I think there were maybe 200 – 300 in there when we made it in, and it was WAY WAY crowded. I would not want to see it full with 700 people.
I would not purposely attend this club again, its next to Emerson, there are better places in the area.

Space is too small, service is so so yet they want to get as much money as they can from you. The cover is just simply not worthy.
I know it’s good to go to a busy club and have people dance around to lift up the energy. But this place is simply too small to have many people. You simply can’t dance there. On the night I went the DJ was also bad. Very few good songs. All the beats were almost the same. Sounded like they just wanted to stomp you with loud drums.
And this over-​crowd just made people grumpy and rude. I saw many people just rudely push others to get a way out. Okay this should be reasonable when you did have to tell people to make a way because they can’t hear your excuse me in a club. But one bxxch just pushed my friend really hard on purpose from behind. It seemed this kind of rudeness was very reasonable there!
The security was very rude too. A dude and a chick were making out besides the bar close to the stairs to the second floor. The security seemed enjoying the show. Yet when my friends and I were hanging out there for one sec after we ordered some drinks. The security simply said you guys can’t stay in this space. What?! He certainly didn’t care the making out show was happening in that space! Some people with drinks can’t hang out besides the bar???
If you want to enjoy some music, drinks and dancing, don’t go there. Otherwise you are wasting your money. If you want to see rudeness and douche bags, a good place to go and your payment is def worthy.

A little too small and cramped…
a little too dark and loud…
a little too expensive…
and a little too average.

I have been coming to this club for years. While the Boston club scene has adapted to the growth of EDM (which is great) it has rendered a place like Estate a sort of weak duckling. The venue is nice in concept. Dance floor in the middle, some tables around the floor, a top balcony, and a decent DJ from time to time.
However, the expensive prices, the small floor, outdated light and soundsystem, and $ 20 cover make this club a bit of a waste of money.
If there is a good show you may find that you have found the perfect intimate venue. However, I think Boston clubs still have a long way to go. I am also curious about the opening of Whisky Saigon considering the old Gypsy Bar had a shit sound system.
To me it has become about the sound and lights. Right now it is only Royale that does those two things the best for me. I want to be wowowowed by a club here. Still waiting.

This place is in a small alley off Boylston by the Commons and I would have missed it if the cab driver didn’t point it out to me. There wasn’t really a line at around 10 on a Friday night, but it was pretty packed inside.
Once inside, there is a bar that’s along the back of the dance floor. The dance floor is sinked in a little so be careful walking on the edges of it. There’s also another bar around the other side of the bar that doesn’t get too crowded since it’s next to some tables? There’s also an upstairs area that looks down on the dance floor and has comfortable couches. The only thing that’s a little weird is that the bathrooms are off to the side in a random room and def didn’t feel safe…
Drinks are typical. I don’t know if it’s the norm or if I just went on Asian night, but it def wasn’t a mixed crowd. It was fun bc the DJ was good, but it was just a little lacking in space to dance.

On a Saturday night in February while visiting Boston, my husband had taken me to The Estate for an evening of drinks and dancing. When we arrived, there appeared to be a bit of a line. My husband started speaking with a bouncer who was politely dismissing a rather intoxicated individual with worn out running shoes who tried to insist they were dress shoes. Unexpectedly, we were bypassing the line and being shown inside. To my delight, Ben surprised me with a table and bottle service. The table was right behind the dance floor. It would have been a bit better if there was enough room for even small feet between the box table and the seating, but there may have been 5″ making for awkward sitting.
The music was great, there was high energy in the place, the lighting was good and I am a sucker for the shiny disco ball… We spent about half and half time between the dance floor and our seat. The server was attentive and nice enough. She did well at watching our table (though the over loaded tables beside ours kept intruding on our space and putting their feet on the benches).
The lady’s room leaves a LOT to be desired. Messy, wet floors, half broken toilette paper holders, stalls like an 90s era public washroom. Not very pleasant. At least they had ample mirrors and enough paper towel on hand, though it was getting soggy from sitting on the sink counter. The hall to the bathroom was also run down with shabby green carpeting.
The GOGO dancers didn’t add much in our opinion, especially as one looked very unladylike. Rather manly actually.
The scrolling phrases were entertaining, especially the comical birthday wishes!
We hadn’t ventured to the upper level, though our understanding is there were additional tables for those looking for more secluded spaces.
If back in Boston, I would likely go back again.

Unless you’re on the VIP list, I recommend coming here early or get really bundled up. The place is as generic as a Boston club can be, which entails extremely enclosed dancing quarters, overpriced drinks, and unruly drunks actively trying to pick fights with you. To be fair, that’s what all clubs are like
Otherwise, I’m not sure whether I came on an «Asian night,» but the majority of the folks were Asians, which was pretty awesome. So, if that’s your scene, come check this place out. Just don’t be too disappointed if, after $ 20 cover, $ 15 beer, and $ 5 coat checks, the place is just a generic sweat fest.

THE SNARKY VERSION:
Do *you* like wait an hour in line in the Boston cold?
Do *you* like forking over stupid amounts of Cover Charge cash?
Do *you* like over-​priced, weak drinks served on sticky bars…
so they don’t slide right off through the drunk patrons’ hands?
Do *you* beg for booths that feel like the back of a unwashed rental car?
Do *you* favor floors that stick to your shoes… for better balance?
Do *you* like to have sweaty, smelly strangers bump and grind on you?
THE ESTATE is waiting for *YOU*!
THE SERIOUS SIDE:
If I was still in my 20’s, none of the above
would probably bother me much, as it’s true for most Boston clubs.
UPDATE: The owner responded with a message,
hoping I wasn’t «too chilly in June» (waiting in line)
and offered the following tips, for those who wish to visit.
THE DEAL: AVOID THE LINES by purchasing advanced tickets for Saturday nights at a discount on their website. This allows you to skip the line and the wait.
AVOID THE COVER CHARGE (or at least get a reduced one) by signing up for their text in list each week for Saturday nights where they have specific codes to text in and receive free cover before 11pm.