The Edison

By itself, the Edison makes you step back into time, almost like walking into the movie worlds of The Prestige and The Illusionist. Then you add in the Lucent Dossier troupe on Incandescent Wednesday nights, and it becomes a full blown alternate world reality where you half expect the Vampire L’Estat to make a guest appearance. If Chris Angel ever got booted out of Vegas, this would be his new home in LaLa Land.

I have heard about the Edison for quite some time now, but I don’t drink booze, so most brasseries and nightclubs just don’t catch my fancy. It took an UYE to get my attention, so a shout out goes to the Yelper that placed it on the Events section.

From the entrance, you can see the large and elegant smoker’s room. From the alley, it looks like the people inside are in a gilded cage, because of the wrought iron bars covering the front patio. If not for the smoker’s room, you wouldn’t really expect to find such an elaborate establishment, but the bouncers at the front are a dead give away that the place has more to offer inside.

I took in the view of the first floor. It was dimly lit to enhance the 1880’s Industrial French ambiance and I noticed some stairs leading up, but that was roped off. I should have touched the ropes to confirm if they were red velvet. I’m guessing the upstairs only used by employees.

The lady at the desk told me it was $10, which took me a little by surprise, because their website said it was $20 at the door. I didn’t complain and paid my admission fee. I was half expecting to get an admission ticket, but the counter lady just pointed me towards the descending staircase and said that the show was down there. I must add at this point that despite all the glamour oozing out of the place, all the employees were polite and courteous.

So I descended the stairs, following the trail of lights pointing ever downwards. Images of Dante’s Inferno danced in my head. When I reached the bottom floor, I was surprised at how large and spacious the place was. The furniture had a luxurious and gothic and industrial feel to it. Its basically a world where steam and coal generated power is still king, and electricity was still in its infancy.

My favorite part was how the workers were dressed up. Many of them had whimsical costumes on to further reinforce the Incandescent theme. Even some of the bartenders had elaborate air brushed tattoos on them. I love costumes, so naturally I fell in love. To add to the ambiance, almost all the patrons were also dressed to impress. No one was wearing shorts or flip-flops, like you see in some of the other trendy nightclubs like the Abbey. I love places that enforce their dress codes. On the rare occasions I like to go out to nightclubs, I dress to impress and I expect everyone else to do the same.

I did notice something peculiar about the crowd. About 60% of them were women. And about 40% of the crowd was of Asian decent. I was puzzled that there wasn’t a Goth sect in the crowd, since this place is soooo right up their alley. I thought about it for a minute and its basically the same demographic that flock to Cirque Du Soleil shows. So for you straight guys out there looking for where the women are at, this is the place to go – just make sure to dress to impress.

The place is almost like a maze, with several areas that are roped of for private parties and buffet dinners. It must be a popular venue to hold private parties, because there were at least 3 sections that were roped off when I arrived. There was still plenty of room to roam around for us non-VIPs.

While waiting for the Lucent show to start at 9 PM, I decided to head over to the bar and order a Coke ($4) and their mac n cheese ($14). The price of the Coke was a little steeper than some places I’ve been to, but the bartended refilled my glass 3 times without charge. The mac n cheese looked delicious and even caught the attention of the people next to me. It was actually more than I expected, but I ate every bite – I can’t let 2 year old aged cheddar go to waste!

At exactly 9 PM, the show started. Wow! Even the Lucent troupe don’t act like divas and start late. The show includes belly dancers, burlesque dancers, aerial silk performers, clowns, etc. Basically the stuff you see at a Cirque show in Vegas, but toned down for a more intimate scale. The Lucent performers also are very friendly and graciously allow patrons to take pics of them or with them.

Perhaps my favorite ‘perfumer’ of the evening wasn’t part of the Lucent troupe. It was the Absinthe Fairy, selling potions of the ‘sleeping death’ tonic and masquerade masks for the ladies. She was really nice and friendly. If I drank booze, I would have succumbed to her pixie dust charms. Edison, I heart you.

There is valet parking, but you are better off parking in a nearby lot for $8.