Easy Lounge

Reviews are lies!. I never write reviews, but reading that Easy Lounge is an upscale Nightclub with diverse clientele is such a pack of lies - that it spurred me to get active and write a review. Easy is your typical whole in the wall dive bar, there is nothing classy or nice about it. A long bar with limited alchol selection, mostly cheap stuff, and small dance area. They play all rap, hip-hop, R&B type music (which I like, but not what you would expect from the reviews here). The bouncers are rude, which is not troubling in and of itself - most are. The bathrooms are filthy. The crowd is far from diverse... it is predominately (almost 100%) black and definitely not upscale.…

Very hip, very Oakland. This neighborhood has been crying out for a new, upscale bar, and now they've got it! Replacing the old Fifth Amendment, which had been closed for more than a year, Easy brings cool sophistication to Lakeshore / Trestle Glen. The decor is somewhat minimal but very nice and warm, with many elements (including the textiles and hand-blown chandeliers) created by local artists. The liquor selection is varied and deep - it's easy to spend a lot or a little there.

The crowd is a bit older than most hip bars, and heavily professional. It's very racially diverse, like the neighborhood, with about half of the clientele being black. There have been some allegations that the bar, which replaced an old-school all-black blues club, isn't diverse enough, but one glimpse of the crowd puts that to rest (remember, the bar opened at the end of Oakland's racially-polarized mayoral election). The owners have had difficulty recruiting black bartenders from the shallow local pool (ironically, nobody seems to mind when black-oriented clubs brag about hiring all-white barstaff, like Mingles does).

The DJs are generally quite good, with Thursday nights, Friday afternoons and Saturday evenings having really interesting, fresh sounds. The other DJs represent the breadth of Oakland club music - Tuesdays is heavily New Wave, Friday and Saturday nights have the eclectic funk / disco / hyphy / pop sound found throughout the Bay Area on the weekends. Nobody does any promotion, though!

One of the best things about the bar, besides providing a new watering hole for this upscale but underserved neighborhood, is their extensive wine-by-the-glass list. They also serve root beer and other sodas, unlike most Oakland clubs. There's an outdoor patio and several booths as well as bar seating. It's comfortable and unpretentious, though sleek and hip. It's perhaps not worth a trip across the Bay or from the 'burbs, but it's a great new addition to Oakland's burgeoning nightlife scene.…