B 018 is a club very dear to my heart (even though my heart belongs to the Basement).

It’s not just me who thinks so apparently, with the world-famous after-hours club being ranked number 4 in the whole world by Worldsbestbars.com (check the link yourself)

B018’s international acclaim isn’t limited to just its drinks and music, but also its controversial architecture. B0 today stands (or is buried) in a location that saw some of the worst violence during the Lebanese Civil War. The architect, Bernard Khoury, wanted to keep some remnants of the location’s history, landing the club in every single architecture journal in the world. As I’m sure many of you have heard, the furniture is made out of caskets. Some people even dare to say the retractable roof opens like one too. For some, this might seem a bit creepy, but then again this club is a microcosm of Lebanese nightlife: clubbing despite adversity.

B0 is not a new club. It has been open to clubbers for some 26 years now (since 1984). It started off in a different location of course, because of the refugee camps which occupied the current location. Unfortunately, this club is under-appreciated by many Lebanese revelers, with inaccurate accounts about what goes on under that retractable roof. To these people, I say, thank you! B0 doesn’t need uptight commercial clubbers, it’s always stuffed with people who love music and love to dance and to whom normal clubbing hours are simply not enough. It’s thanks to your backwards thinking that b0’s atmosphere is one of the few left which do not showcase the garbage played by most of Gemmayzeh and Monot.

Now that that’s out of my system, b0’s music is bassy house and tech-house with a dash of progressive. Its residents include Gunther & Stamina who enjoy widespread acknowledgement on the commercial scene without losing their underground respect. b0’s partnership with MixFM on many occasions has helped somewhat balance out MixFM’s thirst for stadium events, with b0’s more cozy concept of an event. Names like Dany Howells, James Zabiela, Richie Hawtin and Paco Osuna were all landmark nights, without the tektonik trash that crowds Forum de Beyrouth lately.

There’s no better feeling than going to a club where no one is taking fish-face photos of themselves, dancing for a few hours, then opening the roof with sunlight flooding the underground club. My advice to you is, go on a weekday (except monday, cause it closes) and leave at around 8AM and watch all the people stuck in a traffic jam, while you go home to sleep through the day (or through class? =P)

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Club: b 018 Karantina
Location: Karantina (near Forum)
Music: House
Resident DJ: Gunther & Stamina, Ka, Big Al and Ziad
Price: 25,000LL entrance with one drink for walk-ins after 2:00 AM
Door Policy: 21+
The Verdict: A must-go after the Basement and Freddy’s