It wasn't long ago that Vegas popped out new nightclubs faster than Octomom did children. With clubs opening every other week they didn't need to stand out from the crowd to be successful.
Nowadays, though, it takes a little more ingenuity.
So when the folks at Tao Group set out to add another nightclub to its already impressive stable (Tao and Lavo) they knew it was going to have to stand on its own legs. A few years and $60 million later, comes Marquee at the newly-opened Cosmopolitan. And if Tao and Lavo are any example, Marquee should have no problem living up to its name.
While its sister nightclubs have made a living off of being culturally themed with attached fine-dining restaurants, Marquee puts the emphasis back on the music that made nightclubs to begin with. With three different rooms and three different musical genres played in each of them, the impact will be obvious.
But this much is clear: Marquee is more than just music.
Once you get through the masses and up the elevator to the 17th floor, you are immediately greeted with a bar. By this time you've probably lost someone in your group so remember this spot when you want to come back together.
At other nightclubs you might feel the urge to game plan your night, but at Marquee you should fight that feeling. With three distinct rooms and an attached day club with outdoor gaming, your night could be limited by imposing a game plan.
OK, back to the bar. From here you have a choice: Go left into the main area of the club where the 40-foot LED screen will surely entice you or go right to the Boom Box room.
This is where your musical senses (or curiosity) can take over. The music in the main room will almost always be house music, while Boom Box will mostly be Hip-Hop. And since you plan on spending more than a few minutes at Marquee we recommend you go wherever your heart (or eyes) takes you.
If you choose the Boom Box, odds are you'll think of Lavo as soon as you walk in. The dark tones in the room and faux-crocodile skin flooring make for a close resemblance to the popular spot at the Palazzo. But the smallness of the room, lack of a dedicated dance floor and interesting silhouette paintings on the wall make this room stand on its own.
When you do make it to the main room you'll be inundated with a number of booths, both around the dance floor and near the walkway. If you haven't sprung for a booth, odds are, right about now you're going to start to feel jealousy coming on. The spacious leather booths are inviting and give guests the rare chance to sit down in the club.
But, on the bright side, this is a club so who really sits down anyway?
The sea of bodies near the DJ is the dance floor. And thanks to the oversized LED screen and high-tech sound system, this is definitely the center of the party. Each of the impressive resident DJs has their own electronic signature on the screen, while go-go dancers shake on the catwalks above.
The sound system is loud enough for everyone to hear the music, but stays at the right decibel level to pick up that conversation with the hottie dancing with you without screaming in their ear.
Outside of the main room is the day club. There are two large pools along with cabanas that feature their own private plunge pool. To the right is outdoor gaming and beyond that (if you're lucky enough to get one) are private three-story bungalows with rooftop pools.
By this time you may already be exhausted, but there's still more to Marquee.
The Library is almost a secret room that you have to venture upstairs and behind the LED screen to get to. With hundreds of Vegas-centric books stacked around the room it resembles a library -- well if your library had a billiards table and a bar.
All this information doesn't even include the day club that will likely be the talk of the town when the warm weather comes rolling back in.
In order to live up to a name like Marquee, the folks at Tao Group were going to have to outdo their own nightclubs along with the hordes of Vegas' other clubs. And although we've had the chance to walk through the club we still don't think we've seen everything Marquee has to offer.
-- Review by Justin Lawson
