Club Zoo
Pittsburgh's only under-21 night club. Located in the heart of Pittsburgh's Night Life at 1630 Smallman Street, in the Strip District. Club Zoo unleashes the hottest party this and every Friday and Saturday Night from 8:00pm - 1:00am.
Join the 1000s at Club Zoo for the wildest party ever! Club Zoo features 20,000 sq feet, 4 Levels, a VIP Room, 5 bars serving free soft drinks, bottled water, an assortment of energry drinks and food. Enjoy multiple dance levels and platforms, ladies dance on the bars, and the cages located through out the club. Jam to the best mix of music created and formulated only for Club Zoo, it is all broadcasted live over our 50,000 watt sound system, while an array of intelligent lighting shines from above and our computerized light up dance floor glows from below! Mix all of this with over 2,000 crazed party animals and you have got yourself the hottest party in Pittsburgh! NOTE: Saturday night is extremely PACKED! Get to Club Zoo early to avoid waiting in long lines.
REVIEW
Club Zoo in the Strip has become the premier party spot for the under-21 crowd
Thursday, February 16, 2006
By Philip A. Stephenson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
At 10:30 p.m. on a Friday night, along a redeveloped section of Smallman Street, against the historic backdrop of warehouse rear entrances and loading docks, another weekend in the Strip District is just beginning. Tomorrow morning, shoppers will hurry through the cold for boccacini and bok choy, Steelers paraphernalia and fresh-baked pepperoni rolls.
But now the Strip is taking on its other identity, as that of one of the most vital arteries in Pittsburgh nightlife. There will be music, there will be dancing, otherwise low-maintenance individuals will expect exceptional service from the coatroom staff, and many a number will be requested, given or faked. There will be colored lights aplenty, and no one can promise there won't be a fog machine involved -- or, for that matter, teenagers.
And while on one hand there may be some college-age kids to whom a high school dance club seems a questionable proposition, the alternative -- too often some variation on a theme of finding fake IDs -- is clearly less desirable.
"What we want kids to know is that they can have a good time in an adult atmosphere without drugs or alcohol," says Club Zoo director of operations Bernie Firman.
Firman is on hand on this relatively sedate ("we get around [300] to 500 kids on a Friday ... more like 1,600 on Saturday night") Friday evening, presiding over a staff that includes 10 bouncers, a trio working the DJ and light booth, a pair of restroom attendants, and coat room staffers, plus two uniformed officers working the front door with a bouncer.
It's a mixed crowd of kids. The girls' dress is particularly indicative of Club Zoo's wide draw. Some wear the simple tri-state casual uniform of a Steelers jersey and jeans, others step it up to camisoles and skirts, sweater sets or spangly tank tops and pristine white canvas sneakers. The hip-hop aficionados, likely in deference to the club's strict dress code, tone their bagginess down a notch, their jeans and tees only one or two, rather than four or five, sizes too big. They're easily outnumbered by the guys from the suburbs sporting short, gel-spiked hair, Hollister T-shirts and deliberately aged/striped/bleached/distressed designer jeans.
Of the club's wide appeal, Firman says, "You tell me where else you can get 2,000 kids from all walks of life, all races and schools, rich and poor, together and still have no problems?"
The real surprise about the club is how little difference there seems to be between it and an "adult" club. Upon paying the $10 cover and walking through the entrance, a wide shiny causeway turns away from the coat room out onto the main dance floor, flanked along one side by a "pop bar," (the oxygen bar is upstairs in the VIP) where a handful of girls congregate, one sipping pop, two smoking cigarettes.
The pop is included in the cover, but a hot dog will set you back $1 and an energy drink (for high rollers) runs $2. The music is pulsing or frantic, bass-heavy or melodic, depending on the selection, but always omnipresent.
The main dance floor, at its peak, is filled with the general club assortment of characters. Groups of two to four guys stand in impromptu lineups, whispering to each other occasionally, their eyes riveted to the dance floor as much as their bodies are separate from it. Clusters of girls laugh, chatter and dance as one, moving onto and off the floor together, even mounting the end of a bar or a handy raised platform to gyrate in unison or perform impromptu homages to Fergie (not the British one).
There are couples clinging here and there; a guy in cornrows dwarfing his tiny dance partner; a notably well-dressed pair writhing in synchronicity, perfectly on-beat. Toward the back of the floor a cluster of girls who dressed up for the "Pajama Party" seem to know the words of every song -- though, they are not so much wearing nighties or pajamas as they are loose fleecy ensembles with baggy bottoms and spaghetti tops. Or short sets. One has "Abercrombie" stenciled across the rear.
As it happens, there is a fashion contest between the Hollister and Abercrombie camps scheduled for the next night.
In truth, the dress code figures to be one of the most important considerations for the club. The doormen enforce the code on a case-by-case basis, even taking the "attitude" of would-be attendees into consideration. Firman says its goal is to keep the club not only "classy" but safe and free of gang-related activity.
"The dress code is the hardest part," he says. "If you're a gangbanger or skinhead type, and you can't follow the dress code, and you're giving attitude to the 6-6 doorman, what are you going to do in the club? It's a safety issue. Plus, if I go into Touch [nightclub] as an adult, and I'm coming straight from the gym, I'm not gonna get in. It's the same thing here, we tell the kids, 'dress like you're going to a nightclub, not like you're going to a gym.' The bottom line is, if you're a nice kid, you're in here."
When asked if some view the dress code as discriminatory, Firman answers, "I guarantee it." But he adds, "It's not my fault or your fault there are gangs. We wish there weren't. But those are the rules."
In his first-floor office, in addition to the detailed list of gang signs, tattoos and garb to watch out for that he keeps on hand, there are lighter-hearted, but similarly security-related, artifacts.
"This," he says, pointing to a photo of himself and a very large smiling chocolate-skinned man, "is the guy from our security I was telling you about. That picture must be 20 years old. We go way back."
Earlier, Firman had mentioned that the man in question benches around 600 pounds -- it may also be safely said that the other bouncers on duty are similarly proportioned.
Joe, who's on door duty on this particular Friday, is a man tall enough that it takes just north of two seconds for him to lower his evening snack from his mouth to a table by his post. He's been working for Firman for eight years. The McKees Rocks resident also worked at Club Zoo in its previous incarnation at Parkway Center Mall.
Should a fight break out or trouble otherwise manifest itself, Joe says, the bouncers handle it within the club, then turn over troublemakers to the officers. Lesser infractions, such as showing up under the influence, result in a call to parents.
