Home > Baltimore Bars & Clubs > Bar Review > Inside: Iguana Cantina

Sometimes you want to lounge at a classy club, sipping cocktails, sinking into comfy couches and engaging in sophisticated conversation, all while jazz plays softly in the background.

If that's what you're looking for, avoid Iguana Cantina. Here, crowds guzzle beer and cheap rail drinks from plastic cups, while grinding naughty bits into strangers on the dance floor.

Decor: Judging by the way most girls at the club dress, the theme of this place could be summarized in three words: Boobies, boobies and boobies.

Climbing out of the cleavage, you might notice a vague Western motif. Wood-paneled walls and a painted-on desert theme line walls near the DJ booth, but other than that Iguana is just a huge warehouse space with a couple of bars, a pool table and a large dance floor. (With mirror ball, natch.) There's nothing fancy about the place. The floors are even concrete, which must be handy when hosing off the accumulated nightclub gravy of spilled drinks, sweat and other questionable bodily fluids.

Crowd: It's the barely legal and college-aged crowd at Iguana. On weekends, the group skews a little older—mid-to-late 20s. However, if the DJ plays Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock's "It Takes Two," and you can remember when the song was first popular, you're probably going to feel a little old here. One positive observation: At Iguana Cantina people of all races and ethnicities get busy on the dance floor. It's a beautiful thing.

Drinks: The greatest thing about the drinks at Iguana? Most of the time they're dirt cheap or free. We went on college night. Patrons over 21 scored red plastic cups that serve as passports to Happy Land. Take said cup to the bar, and get it filled for free. One would think that free booze might result in poorly-made, watered-down drinks, but that was hardly the case. We sampled the bartending skills at all four bars that night (Hey, we said the drinks were free!) and all the drinks were well-made. Not 21, yet? This is an 18 and over-friendly club. On college nights, those not old enough for booze are given a clear plastic cup to fill with all the free juice and soda they can stand. Just one thing to keep in mind: The drinks may be free, but it's uncool not to tip. Show some love, and slip your 'tender a buck or two when you get refilled.

Insider tip: Although the standard nightclub-going philosophy is that only some pathetic lame-o gets there early, it actually pays to arrive on time here. Thursday nights, the cover jumps from $8 before 10 p.m. to $15 after 10 p.m. ($12 with a college ID). On Fridays, admission for ladies is $5 before 11 p.m. and $10 after. Saturdays, the cover jumps from $12 to $18 after 10 p.m.

Bottom line: You want sophistication? If so, visit some upscale lounge and pay $19 for orange-mango-blended-saffron drinks and lemongrass-infused appletinis. If not, Iguana is the place to get wild and stupid. Plus, it's perfectly acceptable, because everyone else is doing it.

Add a comment