The Velvet Dog

Take my review with a grain of salt because I am not really in to the club scene and I don’t really care for W. 6^th to begin with.
Redeeming qualities: probably THE best people watching in the entire city. We seriously had a blast just watching everyone. The rooftop is nice. The beer was really reasonably priced for being on W. 6^th.
The bad? Our buddy had a VIP area reserved. Some ghetto girls decided they were going to try and take it over and when we all tried reclaiming our spot they threw a bottle at someone in our party’s head, resulting in a trip to the emergency room. Some drunk girl thought it would be cute to dance on top of the booth’s back. I tolerated her until she started pouring her drink all over me. When I politely informed her she was spilling vodka all over me, she started cussing me out. The place was also packed shoulder to shoulder which made it annoying. Overall we had a great time, but it was purely because of the people watching.
And why are there so many stairs in this place? Probably not a good idea for a dimly lit dance club on W. 6^th. Or any bar, anywhere.

oy what is going on here.
that was a rhetorical question, please don’t answer.
i went with a bunch of friends. i think they got bottle service, but half way through the night we got kicked off our table because we didn’t get more bottles. oh well.
the music, ehhh. what a weird combination of this and that. they could have done better just putting the radio on with the top 40s.
also, the people who go there. where do they find them?!
who knows, maybe i’ll be back with some other random group of friends one day… but hopefully not.

Tries a bit too hard to be a club for my liking. The bouncers were absolute jerks to me. I had a backpack (which I can perfectly understand why they don’t allow) and they tried to get $ 20 from me to watch it. I ended up paying $ 2 at the coat check for it. The DJ wasn’t that good and the drinks weren’t very cheap (~$ 7 for a drink, which is a bit expensive for the Warehouse District). They have these VIP nights where if you know whoever won a random drawing, you get $ 1 – 2 drinks for a few hours, but outside of that, this is far from my favorite bar in downtown.

The rooftop is really the only reason to attend this place. But unfortunately the bouncer at the door is so rude that it’s not even worth going there. Talked down to literally everybody in the line and it was absolutely pathetic and embarrassing. Cleveland is on the uprise velvet dog and you should hire someone to stand outside that doesn’t make you want to punch them in the face. So disrespectful to women.

It’s hard not to give Velvet Dog a 5 star rating seeing as I’m there literally every weekend. Yes it’s very clubby and can be crowded and drinks can take a long time to order, but in my opinion that’s all part of the fun hustle and bustle on a Saturday night!
This place always has great dance music. There are 4 different floors inside so it makes it super easy to change atmospheres if you’re not digging the first or second floor.
Lastly Velvet Dog’s rooftop takes the cake. There is nothing better than sucking down a nice cold drinky, viewing the beautiful CLE skyline on a warm summer day and jamming out to some awesome tunes.
Love this place!

I had a terrible experience there. The bouncer was an asshole. Took my ID and said its fake, wouldn’t give it back to me, asked me to get a cop to verify. I got the cop, he verified the ID is real, the bouncer still didn’t let me in. I’ve never seen a bouncer that rude and ignorant, he also smacked a guy in front of me. I would never go back to that place

Good place, young/​hip crowd. Cheaper than NYC. Get in the VIP area and do it right!

A well established club on w.6^th st. It’s a good place to start out the night. Bartenders are professional and friendly. The girls that go there may not the hottest or have the most class, but the place has the only rooftop bar in Cleveland, Ohio. I give it 4 of 5 stars.

I’m giving this place 2 stars only because of it’s amazing rooftop patio. Everything else is less than mediocre. 4 years ago this was my go-​to spot. Drinks flowing, good music blasting, it was the place to be. Now? Not so much. I get the vibe that 90% of the people there are confused and have no idea why or how they got there. Like everyone is just standing around with a dial tone in their heads even though the non-​existent DJ is playing those kick a** techno jams. It’s very weird.

This was one of our many stops on a bachelor party pub crawl and was a fun place if you’re with good friends. We went straight upstairs for the rooftop bar and it was packed! It’s nice to see people out in Cleveland and supporting such a unique bar. The tiki theme upstairs was a bit strange and overdone, but we were more interested in meeting new people and having some good drinks. My only complaints are how packed it was and hard to get around ad well as the lack of view. It’s advertised as a rooftop bar which, being from Cincinnati, leads me to believe there is going to be an amazing view but it was mediocre at best. Other than that the drinks were standard, there are lots of people to meet and it was a hopping spot for a Saturday night.

Probably one of my favorite clubs in Cleveland because of the awesome music and rooftop bar! Like seriously, you can enjoy the view of the 2 buildings in Cleveland up close and personal!
For several bucks, Velvet Dog makes some pretty darn strong mixed drinks! Ever since I moved to Cleveland, I’ve been trying to find a bar/​club that makes AMF, and Velvet Dog is the first place I found who sells it! It’s a really strong blue mixed drink, so try it out if you dare :)

Velvet Dog, my old friend.
In college, I spent countless nights with my girlfriends getting hit on by skeezy men at Velvet Dog. Lines like «Is your boyfriend here?» or «I like the way you dance» or «That’s a VIP area and you can’t sit there» (that last one was from a guy pretending to be security, clever!) abound. Despite that, did we keep coming back every weekend? Yup.
And why might that be? Well, for once, the first floor is prime dancing material. After denying the advances of no less than 8 – 10 men, you can form a protective dance circle and dance to your heart’s content to what is decidedly terrible club music (the best dancing music, obviously).
Once you’re tired of that, you can go to the bar and get drinks that are outrageously priced, but not as outrageously priced as other bars on West 6^th.
Eventually, you can move up to the 2^nd or 3^rd floors, preferably the 3^rd floor where you can enjoy the summer heat. It’s a little more awkward to dance up here but, for the dedicated inebriated person, it’s definitely do-​able!
I’ve been here for a bachelorette party (where my custom-​made party t-​shirt said «The Sass» on the back of it; that was definitely good material for the guys at the bar), St. Patrick’s Day (where people were visibly ill and trash covered the floor on the 3^rd floor to the extent that it was almost impossible to see the ground), and general celebrations, in addition to the typical «going out on a weekend» routine. Velvet dog is usually pretty consistent, and you’ll almost never be surprised by it.
Although I’m done with the Velvet Dog stage of my life, I will always look fondly back on my memories there (except, maybe, for the gross ones dealing with people being way too intoxicated; I would be happy to forget those). It’ll probably always be my favorite bar on West 6^th!

We talked a lot about coming to Velvet Dog before coming to Cleveland but we only stopped in for a few minutes. It was later in the night and all places in this area close around 2. While we were there people were dancing and the crowd size was decent. My only interaction was with the coat girl. I asked her how much it would cost for coat check, she said for me it would be $ 1. I wasn’t wearing a coat.

Ohhh Velvet Dog… where do I begin. W 6^th street nightlife really seems centered around The Velvet Dog and The Barley House. Neither of which I particularly like… but still seem to find myself in 2 or 3 times a year. The Velvet dog has 3 levels with multiple bar areas… all of which are too loud to hold a conversation in… but the roof top bar is probably the coolest.
The Velvet Dog is somewhere that I do actually enjoy going to… but usually after I am already drunk with friends and we have collectively decided to just get drunker.

Horrible treatment, crooked police.
I was with my girlfriend and some friends, our first stop on an east coast road trip. St. Patrick’s day after the parade we decided to stop in here. The bouncer let half of our group in, looked at me and my ID and said «this is fake». Obviously, being 29 at the time, I challenged it. He held onto my ID and threatened to call this van full of cops over to arrest kids with fake IDs, I said «go for it. call them». A police officer walked over 15 minutes later, looked at my ID and said it was fake as well. I told him to go scan it or run the numbers through, and the officer responded «if you tell me what to do once more, you’re getting arrested!» Bottom line, you’re not getting into this bar.” I think they realized once I challenged them both that it wasn’t fake, and they were too proud to admit they were wrong, so they reacted like jerks. We all left, never to go there again.
Afterwards we realized we had our passports in my girlfriends purse, I wonder what they would have said to a federal document confirming my age.
Never again, horrible unnecessary treatment.

I have been going dancing here for years. They have a great dance floor with mini stages. If the weather is nice, they have a great outdoor rooftop deck that gets pretty crowded! I have been here on Friday and Saturday nights. I was there on a Thursday night once, and they said that ladies’ night starts at 8pm with $ 1 drinks. I did not stick around to experience this though. The drinks aren’t very strong, but if you like dancing, then it’s a good time with good music and nice space for dancing. It’s usually the first place I stop at on W. 6^th to kick off an adventurous evening of club hopping.

I’ve been to Velvet Dog twice in my life. And both times weren’t too special, though they were entertaining, nonetheless. The first of my experiences was during «senior week» last year before I graduated. That was great fun, but it was mostly because we took over the place. The second visit was more recently and I was not too thrilled. Maybe that was because the evening started off a bit botched and much later than my old lady schedule would have liked. Between getting there after midnight, searching for parking (why did we drive?!), actually being talked into making an appearance on W. 6^th, someone having forgotten their ID (you’re going to a club. come. on.), fighting the ridiculous crowd to get up to the rooftop for some precious breathable air, and then paying WAY TOO MUCH for a Budlight, I wasn’t the happiest of W. 6^th-​ers. Then again, everyone else was way boozier than I was, too.
Anyways, like everyone else says, the rooftop bar really makes it. I’ve never been a fan of heights, but for some reason I really like being on this roof. Maybe it’s because I’ll never have bottle service and be super close to the edge… it could also be because being inside on the first floor was traumatizing and I never want to be eyeballed and squished up against people like that again. I should probably try to come earlier and enjoy the place during a more calm and enjoyable business hour, but I really don’t have a desire to come here out of the blue. It’s usually that one friend that gets the dancing bug and only wants to go out after midnight, so I’ll probably be back, rubbing elbows (well, for me that means getting elbows in the face since I’m barely taller than 5 feet and refuse to wear sky high heels to a place like this…) with strangers and paying too much money for a cheapo beer.
So, read my review keeping in mind that I’m not a W. 6^th kind of girl, I guess. It really just doesn’t fit with what I’d call a good night out. I’d much rather have a few beers at a tavern or go to a small concert venue. Call me an old lady, but this just isn’t my first choice… or second.

The Velvet Dog has as far as I know, one of the best, if not only rooftop bars in downtown Cleveland. Their isn’t anywhere to sit unless you have bottle service but it’s still a great atmosphere.
We arrived a bit early on a Friday night, around 10 and it was very empty. Around 11 though this place was pretty packed! What I love most is, if you aren’t feeling the dance scene there are some side rooms (I think the 3^rd floor) with a bar to the side. Plenty of seating in there to talk and enjoy your drink.
Staff was really nice and quick. Only negative, we tried to do bottle service but kept getting told different prices on the tables. We were then all ready to order a bottle of Dom when she finally told us there was a 3 bottle minimum. Later someone else told us it was only 1. Table never got filled so their loss of a couple hundred $$$.
I’ll be back but since I am pretty much out of the huge drunk dancing scene, I’d hit up happy hour and then head somewhere more laidback.

OK– Velvet Dog totally redeems itself with it’s awesome rooftop patio and happy hour specials.
(Yes, I know that everyone says that… but it’s true. So, there.)
What else do I like about Velvet Dog? They always seem to have some free food floating around up on the patio during the summer months. Umm, yay? I don’t know what I did to deserve this feast of fresh, hot pizza and chicken fingers, but I’ll take it! The bartenders up there during happy hour are always really nice and talkative too. Nothing is worse than bitchy staff. I know, I’ve been that crappy tender before.
I have to admit though, I’m not one for the club scene on the weekends. I think I grew out of that stage when I was in college. Truth be told, I had some great nights at Velvet Dog back in my day. If I were still into that «dance-​my-​butt-​off-​with-​my-​single-​ladies-​and-​get-​hit-​on-​by-​creepers» time of my life, this would be my place. They’ve always had a good DJ, and if you’re not digging the vibe on one floor, you can always scoot up to the 2^nd or 3^rd!
I also like that the crowd never gets too-​too chotchy. Don’t get me wrong, there will be some groups of d-​bags in their graphic tee’s hanging around, trying to get all Jersey Shore on you. BUT, there really is no escaping that on W. 6^th. I guess what I’m trying to say is that Velvet Dog never gets overtaken to the point of unbearable by that horrendous, yet very entertaining crowd. Plus, hell… the place is so friggin’ big, you can just run away from them anyways.
So yeah, I have no hate for you, Velvet Dog. And I’ll surely visit you in the summer months of patio happy hours, but don’t expect to see me there at night. There’s definitely a reason why VDog has been around for so long and I if they keep it up, nothing about that will change.

Dude, why did so many Cleveland Unilocalers think this place is cool?
First, we entered and went up the 3 flight of stairs… and entered a patio with cougars and just. not your typical young professional crowd. We went to the side to get drinks. hoping that would be better.
I got the Purple Viper, my friend, the Comet Cool-​aid. They both tasted like robitussin. Gross gross gross. We even tried to swirl it around to make it taste better. And on top of that, they came in PLASTIC CUPS! AAAAH.
The rooftop patio is kind of fun though sometimes, if you’re with friends… But meh.
Don’t get me wrong. This could be a cool place– we went up on the patio… but the crowd. Ugh. Gross. The music was great… but the crowd… was not even one consistency. It was just a strange, not cool, crowd to be in– the girls tried to hard, and… just… not cool. Ewww. We didn’t like it at all.