Music entertainment in San Juan
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A
La Rumba
This is what you came to Puerto Rico for – a club so packed with people of all ethnicities and ages that it matters not if you are an expert twirler or a rank neophyte who can’t even spell syncopation. It won’t get busy until after 11pm, when the live bands start warming up, but soon enough the trickle of people through the door will turn into a torrent and you’ll be caught up in a warm tropical crush of movement. Expect salsa, samba, reggaeton, rock and, of course, rumba music.
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B
Kudetá
In the snakes and ladders of San Juan nightlife, Kudetá (coup d’état – geddit?) is a precocious newcomer. It is also part of an emerging new trend: a Pan-Asian restaurant that metamorphoses after hours into a hip club with a hidden upstairs lounge where diners can disappear to dance off their Indonesian barbecued baby-back ribs and Cuba Libre–cured salmon roll salad. They’ve even invented their own furniture – the suede-covered Kudetá Collection.
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C
Club Brava
A swinging club inside the El San Juan Hotel that frequently get breathless reviews from celeb spotters and all-night dance fanatics. The two-level interior is small, and the music a mix of dance, reggaeton and salsa. The atmosphere’s electric and the people-watching possibilities in the lobby beforehand strangely voyeuristic. Dress up, bring your credit card and get ready to jive to what is touted as the best sound system in the Caribbean.
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D
Oleo
This is Nuevo Old San Juan at its best or worst – depending on your musical persuasion. Forget that image of straw-hatted, guitar strumming jíbaros. Oleo is all loud dance music, minimalist furnishings, expensively-clad 20-somethings and an atmosphere that’s more Vegas than Borinquen. Communication is via shouting or sleek Latino body language.
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E
Martini’s Cabaret
A luminously lit discotheque and lounge that has booked headliners such as Whitney Houston and Jay Leno in its day – Martini’s in Isla Verde’s InterContinental is where you go for live music, dancing or the odd celeb surprise. There’s more than a hint of Las Vegas in the surroundings – and the drink prices.
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F
Blend
Blend has been described as uberchic; it’s certainly ubernew and – later on in the evening – uberbusy. Cocooned in an old colonial building on Fortaleza St, this fashionable dining and nightlife spot belts out electronic music from its cavernous and moodily lit interior.
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G
Café Hijos de Borinquen
Gotta wedge your way in on weekend nights. DJs, acoustic guitars, sing-a-long sets and even a bit of patriotic fervor as the clock hand approaches midnight. And that’s just the start. The so-named ‘Sons of Borinquen’ has been known to keep going until 6am.
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H
Gallery Café
This café in the old city features jazz on Wednesday night, and funk, hip-hop, Latin jazz and techno Thursday to Saturday. Happy-hour specials run till 9pm on Friday. You get a well-dressed local yuppie gang here.
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I
Noise
Mainly the hip-hop variety and salsa-searchers look elsewhere. Brave ladies get in free on Friday nights. There’s a metal detector and airport style pat-down at the door.
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