Part art and part architecture, today this semi-subterranean dance club defies the harsh reminders of war as a blinged-out oasis of pleasure and one of the best electronic dance clubs in the Middle East. Visitors arrive to a Star Wars style facade that looks as though the club could gravitate and then fly away, at least until you walk down the stairway chamber and into a foyer of 7-foot bouncers. Once inside, polished concrete floors line the main room surrounded in low-flung sofas that quickly become a stomping ground for leggy dancers looking to show-off as a retractable roof opens to expose a glittery Beirut skyline and a Lebanese sunrise. <br /><br />Located in close proximity of Port of Beirut, its architecture and history make it one of the most unique nightclubs in the world. Its location was the site of one of the deadliest militia attacks of the civil war, when it was a refugee camp of Palestinians and Kurdish refugees. Thereafter, the current owner used the space as an underground music scene during the civil war and B018 was the code number for entrance. It wasn't until 1998 that the owner and his virtual no man's land of pummeled buildings and nothingness, teamed with a noted Lebanese architect and resurrected the space as a full-on nightclub and landmark to new Beirut. <br /><br />
Tips
Weekends feature a line-up of Beirut elite, TV celebs and visiting glitterati that make the door the toughest in town.
Last Word
It’s history is a sordid one, the kind you’re best to hear while drunk to soften the harsh reality that this former-quarantine for French crews and later civil war refuge was the site of a massive military assault that completely wiped out the area.
