Sin Sin & The Leopard Lounge

Based on some past experiences, it was a sin just to hit up this lounge. I had been here several times before, all times before they charged a five dollar cover. Five dollars is five dollars too much for this place, especially when it wasn’t all that great.
But upon first glance, one will find it’s not entirely a lounge. Downstairs it’s usually very low key with good ventilation with a very dark ambiance. It’s easier to order drinks downstairs, all of which are pricey and served in a plastic cup that looks like it was from a water cooler. At some point people make their way upstairs, where I was told during my first visit the «real fun» was.
And upstairs was a cramped continuation of the lounge, except on weekend nights when it was a club. Bodies were grinding, random DJ songs were spinning, and people were sweating. Ventilation is a mess and there isn’t much room to put your stuff down (like a coat or a purse). The crowd is typically a good mix of folks and the music is sure to make folks bust a move.
Thank goodness it’s the East Village, where there are a dime a dozen places that serve cheaper drinks, play better music, have more room to dance, and don’t charge cover. The people have spoken — it seems they’re going to those places instead.

November of 2009; So I had reserved a whole section for my party and I for my birthday, OH we got a spot alright, litterally a little corner spot with a little table and a little sofa that fits two people. Mind you the «party planner» I spoke to knew that I was bringing in about 20 people. Long story short, here’s the break down:
— it was too hot and too crowded
— to get to the bar took me (and my friends) 15 minutes
— to get your drink at the bar took another 15 minutes
— to walk back to the table from the bar took 15 minutes
Sweating and all, as usual my friends and I made the most out of it and still managed to have lots of fun. As we were exiting the premises, the very nice bouncer stopped and asked me if my name was MO and I said why yes it is he then said «you should become a party planner because you brought in a lot of people tonight, I think over 30 people» that was true indeed but I don’t think I could be a party planner.
That following Monday I get an email from the party planner I spoke to and it turns out that my party & I were suppose to be on the upstairs floor where I had reserved it and that’s why it was overly crowded downstairs because they kept sending everyone that was not on my gueslist down there. Total mix-​up but whatever, I ended up getting my deposit back and a complimentary champagne bottle when I decide to go back again…
too bad they closed down before I can get my free bottle. LOL

This place might be okay if you or a group of friends just want to dance the night away without having to dress up nicely. Not good if you are looking for a fancy girls night out with martinis and cosmos at hand.
Came here with a friend who knew someone that was having a birthday here. The party was upstairs so I went up the stairs and couldn’t get past the crowd to find my friend. The lounge was a bit on the smaller side and was very dim. The bar on the second floor was also all the way in the back. Wasn’t much of a variety of drink choices in the back bar so just had a few heinekens the whole night and tried to get my dance on in whatever space i could find. I wonder if Sin Sin would be crowded if there wasn’t a bday party happening.

Closed this Saturday.

Went on a Tuesday night for a farewell party. Sin sin has the happy hour from 5−9pm, that’s a pretty long time for the 2 for 1. The upstair was closed so we hanged out in the first floor.
My first impression was that the place was so dim, so dark, that I had a hard time finding my people before my eyes adjusted to the darkness. The floor was slightly uneven and the furniture were ermm… standard bar furnishes. The bartender was friendly and the crowd were laid back on this weekday night, except for a guy or two who got very posey and unbuttoning his shirt while pictures were taken. When I saw this I believed that a layer of my cornea was burnt off. Ew.
After 10pm the place started to crank up its music’s volume and the crowd that were already swinging with the beats started to migrate onto the dance floor.
There are plenty of places in the area to grab a bite after you are done, so I guess that makes this a good place to party?

They have happy hour till 9pm. I came here with a bunch of friends on a friday night, and could easily get sofa seating area (since there was a speed dating going on there).
The bartender is really friendly and nice guy too.
But, the drinks are just ok, and the ambiance is just all right. I think there isn’t much to come back here for…

I was feeling adventurous this friday night. I usually find myself in chelsea or the meatpacking district.
heard some good music blasting, decided to try it out.
«what party are you with?»
umm.none, 5 bucks.
got in there, were stuck in the floor that played old school R &B
couldn’t find the good music!
finally we founded. extremely crowded. and they have this retartded velvet rope that cuts through the dance floor to seperate tables.
there is NOT enough space for that.
first turn off: a woman in her late 50’s dancing terribly and drunkenly it made me embarassed for this mother’s child. and husband.
second turn off: so ridiculous to navigate. there had to be about 60 people there total but it was too crowded even for a club.
third turn off: the décor is… tacky. and cheap looking.
fourth turn off: really really below average looking people. They had some village locals, some «urban guys» some fat girls, and many men absolutely DRENCHED in cologne. I am not being shallow, but don’t people, especially men pay for pretty girls? there was a handful of those there.
I did swallow hard, tried to suck it up because I had paid 5 dollars and was trying to be adventurous!
didn’t work. I tried the emergency exit, locked.
you couldn’t pay me to go in there.
for that price I’d go to webster hall. A better mix of music. ALL they played was r & b and hip hop. so you had to either slow dance or booty shake. Im all for booty shaking, but mix it up a little.
please.

this place is not bad being the cover charge is only 5 bucks. They have 2 floors but the dance floor is a bit cramped. But hey when you’re drunk and the right song is on you just go and get your groove on.
the good thing about this place is that its close by Pomme Frites, so after you’re done dancing and you’ve got the munchies.(from drinking, not the other kind of munchies… LOL) you can go grab a bite of fries…

You either love it or hate it, wither way WEDNESDAY night is the night to go. I almost hate to let this cat out of the bag because it’s basically a locals party on Wednesdays and, I was told, it’s rare for them to see newbies.
I COMPLETELY understand why this place gets some BAD reviews– it’s not the nicest venue at all and it has some questionable materials that they call walls and floors upstairs and the air quality is very questionable– but it’s the locals that are the REAL experience here.
I had such a good time and whenever I think of this place I get the NYC-​nostalgia that you get when you leave.
The Wednesday crowd is basically a bunch of professional/​street dancers that dance house. It is SO amazing because they move like NOTHING you have ever seen before.
I’ve been to a lot of dance parties in my life and seen a lot of genres, but the way they move their bodies is insane and definitely is a once in a lifetime (or weekly if you live in NY– haha) experience.
The crowd is real friendly and will chat you up, ESPECIALLY if they don’t recognize you (which is, I suppose not a suprise in NYC) and the bar staff is just super cool and there is no pressure to overdo it with the booze because it’s just an awesome house party.
LOVE this place.
PS: I dunno if James W is a dude fromt his place b/​c he doesn’t seem like a full on Unilocaler– but he’s completely right– there are DANCE LEGENDS here and as long as you don’t come with attitude everyone here is so SO nice.
To the dude that said the ppl here ddnt’ know how to dance– you are sooo crazy. The Soulgasm party is like, BETTER than any professional dancing i’ve seen on tv or the movies. it’s seriously an AMAZING night.

I wish there was a way to give 0 stars.
Spoke with Matt, one of the managers, weeks before my party. I was celebrating with two other friends, so in total we’d be bringing close to 60 people to the party. I made a point to call back and give an actual head count, and Matt said the number wouldn’t be a problem.
I show up and am told our space is two tiny «couches» with two even tinier tables. The waitress kept pushing bottles – bottles! in a shitty basement off 2^nd avenue!– and their «shot» bottles. They were $ 270 and $ 85.
The place got PACKED. Like, REALLY PACKED. A lot of my friends couldn’t even make it inside. And the issue is not with it being a typical saturday-​night crowd; the issue is that, even after giving a head count of how many people would be there, which was accurate if not less than who showed up, the bar still booked three other «parties» in the front of the room. So that’s adding more bodies to the tiny space. Look, we weren’t looking for a grand ballroom to ourselves. We just wanted to have space to breathe and dance, which we didn’t have.
If they couldn’t accommodate us they shouldn’t have said they could. Period. Is that typical nightlife business? Yes. Am I an asshole for expecting otherwise? Of course.
I wished for a birthday do-​over next month. That’s what this bar did to me.

«I’ve got a baaaad feeling about this.» — Han Solo (and myself upon entering)
a friend from Buffalo was in town for the weekend, and organized a meetup of his friends here. it wasn’t set to start until 11, so we pregamed at Peculier Pub (my strategy: get tanked off strong beer at cheaper prices).
first sign something’s up: they have my friend’s name spelled wrong. maybe excusable, since it’s not an American name at all. then the person at the door asks if I’m sure that I have the name right. «I have known this person for 13 years, I think I know how his name is spelled.»
second sign: mandatory $ 3 coat check. «I can spare three bucks, but this will likely cut into my alcohol purchasing power.»
third sign: we get led to the «table» my friend reserved. said table is actually a busted couch and hard platform forming an «L» shape in the back corner with a small round table between them.
fourth sign: I inquire as to if there are any drink specials. bartender says «I think drinks are 2 for 1 until midnight». sweet! only after they’re made, I get asked which party I’m with, and then informed that said discount does not apply to us. well, there’s $ 30 down the drain for three small mixed drinks. any smaller and they would have been shots.
I could go on (the DJ cutting too fast between songs, the bartender trying to hassle us about buying $ 12 shots), but I think you can see where this is going.
I’ll stick to my dives and sports bars, thank you very much.
on the plus side, alcohol + me being annoyed = impromptu comedy night… at the expense of anyone I see. maybe the gin and tonic was $ 10, but the Haterade was free!

Ok let me see… i found this place… one night… to meet up with some one… there was easy parking …5 bucks cover… there is a choice when you first get in downstairs Which is always not full and then the upstairs that is just crowded… now the crowd I had females with me they didn’t really enjoy the place… tell you the truth i didn’t really have fun here …
Each time i have went here everyone look at each other like What have we done why do we keep coming back here… ITS A PARADOX. …the final straw… I was in hoboken. and friend said lets go to a bday party at Leopard Lounge… He had to PRY me away from Bar in .in hoboken to go there… What a NIght mare…
Pros they had Redstripe… i like that beer

I can’t really deal with the name of the place. I am positively unable to keep a straight face and say to my friend, hey come through to SIN SIN & The Leopard Lounge. Kinda early 90’s kitsch, I’m calling it.
Anyway, it is totally a hotass mess. But, I enjoyed the sense of nostalgia rendered upstairs. The music is a weird mix: Nelly to Journey within the span of 30 minutes I was there. I can never complain about Don’t stop believing. Then there’s the smoking which will leave your hair, clothes, and everything in between smelling like tobacco. The kind of indoor smoke-​saturated hot box that even a smoker will complain about. The whole place kind of reminds me of this place called «Coolin’» that I used to frequent in Paris, minus the hot and pervy French men.
It’s really not awful, but it’s nothing I’d get hyped over. The place is really small. Downstairs, the «reggae lounge», was six different kinds of awkward. Steve Harvey type men trying to get it on with women in Spandex «pants». aaayyooow, get it on.

I don’t like paying covers for places that aren’t worth going to for free. I’ve just never really been a fan of Sin Sin or the Leopard Lounge. Upstairs or downstairs, its all the same to me… mediocre at best. The bouncers are nice (to me), the bartenders are pretty cool, but I’m not one for techno and glow sticks and knee pads and licking the walls. The only time I can pretty much stomach the bar is on a Sunday afternoon (when I dropped by twice after brunch service) for a Bloody Mary on my way home; its quiet and in nice weather the windows are open. But that’s not enough to keep me coming back.
I think they used to have free vodka once a month, but it was for like an hour and my buddies and I realized that an hour’s worth of free booze once a month isn’t a reason to go somewhere.

Eh, for a $ 5 cover, I’d expect it to be better… the first floor is dark, small, crowded with dancers and people smoking up on a hookah. Disturbing to the lungs, in the very least, I felt burning as I walked through.
Upstairs is marginally better. no hookahs when I went up, and a large seating area in leopard skin (red lighting all over) with okay music, another bar, and our group of 15 stayed a little bit to enjoy themselves, some more than others. Drinks aren’t too horrible here, but they’re certainly not the cheapest, either. Overall, place didn’t stand out too much to me as anything more than a local hangout for those who want to get drunk or smoked up. For the rest of us, we can find better quality air elsewheres.

Sometimes, when I’m in the neighborhood with nothing to do and it’s 1am, I’ll go here. It’s best to be here when you’re sober, so you can laugh at everyone. It’s more entertaining that way.
The crowd is, um, interesting? I used to come here with an old boss. He used to laugh at me because the weirdest men in the place would follow me around. I once had a guy give me a foot massage because he said he liked my feet so much. Hell no I didn’t turn it down. Would you after wearing 4 inch heels? I didn’t think so.

WARNING: DO NOT HAVE YOUR BIRTHDAY HERE!!!
I reserved 1.5 — 2 weeks in advance for 15 people, they promised me tables with a waitress. What I got at the door with my party was the manager saying someone had tried to call over and over to ‘confirm’ the reservation, but got no answer. I have a cell phone, I always have it with me, I didn’t miss one call all day, total bs! Therefore he said no tables for us. He gave me 7 drink tickets as a consolation.
The place was SO packed we seriously could barely move, and it took over 25 minutes to get the bartender’s attention for drinks. I am 100% sure this place is breaking the fire code, it was disgusting and sweaty and extremely unpleasant. If I could give this review as 0 stars, I would.
We went to Bar on A after 30 mins. (11^th and Ave. A) and did some good dancing to 80s/​techno music. But you can’t get your birthday back for a whole year, so Sin Sin was a big mistake!

There should be a word that describes the repugnant BO and sweat tainted environment that you experience at cramped little shitboxes like Sin Sin. Every breath is like my HS football locker room… after an afternoon workout… in 90 degree weather. I guess Sin Sin smells like teen spirit?
If the disgusting air quality doesn’t make you gag (or give you some weird airborne disease), the ear piercing volume that they pump their shitty, tinny sounding speakers, will give you a migraine.
Definitely not a place i’d willingly return to, but maybe i’m just getting old.

Went here with a group of friends on Friday night. I get that some people like these «lounges» which would be considered clubs anywhere else in the world, but this is not my scene. Luckily, my friend sweet-​talked the bouncer and we didn’t have to pay cover, but the drinks were still pricey, the place was still way too crowded, and the DJ was hitting and missing all night long.
I did enjoy that they had two different levels, and the bathroom was on a third level with the coat-​check. Woo Woo

Came on a weekend. Very cool lounge. gives off a more club vibe when the dance floor gets packed. Music on that Saturday was very very very very good! (mostly hiphop) Crowd is late 20s. Got there at 11pm. Too many people started pouring in at 1am. The place was too small for a huge crowd so we left. As we were leaving, there were a few people waiting to get in beause the place is so small. I saw them paying cover so maybe after a certain time they start charging at the door.
Music: 5+ Crowd: 3 Atmosphere: 3.5