Paradise

C’mon, if you’re staying anywhere else on the boardwalk, please don’t make that mistake again. Oh, and don’t miss the line dancing either.

Shep really needs to get back on the horn and do some active management as his once famed establishment has completely gone awry.
Was here for the tea dance as well as patronizing the hotel. Hotel is fine and staff relative to hotel services are great (in particular, Doug, at the front desk).
As far as paradise club, the pool, the pool bartenders (one in particular, whose name I will not mention)? Lacking manners and class, completely rude and out of line, disparaging to women and totally TRASHY. Provincial in their thoughts, words and actions.
A terrible disappointment. Were it not for my friends who dragged me here, I would (and WILL) never return. Terrible waste of my money.
UPDATE: I expressed my upset with Chris, the hotel manager and she graciously listened and empathized with me. Said she will make sure the situation is addressed internally and appropriately handled.

What happened to the DJs? They used to be so good! It’s Sat night and the place is empty. Please bring back DJs that know how to fill a venue.

A lot of fun can be had here, but the truth is the crowds are there because it’s the only game in town. Other than one small-​ish bar near the train tracks, Paradise is the only gay club in the whole area. Certainly the only one on the Jersey Shore. Sprawling place… several bars… six if I’m counting correctly, one small and one large dance floor. Nice pool area, if you enjoy breathing huge quantities of second hand smoke (yeah, it’s outside, but it’s an absolute sea of smokers… it would be nice if at least an area of the pool were designated non-​smoking). Only portions of the place are open depending on the time of day, day of the week, and particular week of the summer or year. Not much has changed over the years as far as the layout, but it’s a fairly nice facility physically. A different DJ practically every night. Very hit or miss with the music. Often horrendous. Sometimes passable or good.
Interesting local flavor on weeknights. A lot of people on Saturday nights especially. Big events such as holidays or pride can draw huge crowds. Unfortunately with the rising popularity of Asbury Park in general, a very negative and scary New York element has been joining during such events. If you think Jersey trash is scary at the shore… well…
Fortunately there are security personnel EVERYWHERE, making sure that you don’t carry out a bottle of water or touch the strippers anywhere below the waist, and that you have proper footwear while dancing. This apparently leaves them no time to prevent patrons from assaulting each other, to curtail people from smoking pot out in the open (seriously people… do that at home… not everyone wants to smell that), nor asking completely trashed straight girls flailing about on the dance floor to leave. But rest assured no one will be leaving the club with a bottle of water.
Be careful out there, people.

Friend and I visited Asbury park on Memorial Day weekend. We wanted to have a drink so we stopped by around 10pm. We didn’t have intentions of partying up, but just enjoy a drink and check-​out a New Jersey gay club. We liked the crowd was mixed and diverse. The staff seemed friendly and drinks reasonable. We weren’t into the music too much, though. I’d probably give this place 3.5, and try it out again if I was visiting town again with friends.

Came to paradise for Santa Saturday. some of the bar tenders are wonderful, others not so much. The pricing for drinks ranges dramatically from the different bars at this club. Be careful which bartenders you go to. They can be rude.
They also had this square dancing part of the night and the organizer of this event was completely rude to anyone who was not dancing in this event.
I would not recommend coming back to this bar again.

Horrible experience on Saturday August 2^nd. I was happily celebrating my birthday with over 6 friends/​family members. When around 2am I went out of club to walk my brother and sister to the car to make sure they were ok. As entered back to club I was denied access by security guard Mike and club manager Cynthia for supposedly for being tipsy. Keep in mind I had my wrist band still on and a guest staying at the Empress Hotel. My best friend and I explained that I was fine causing no problems. If I was causing problems why was I not talked to earlier or kicked out? Regardless of my attempts I was not allowed back in. All this was noted by hotel front desk person Yvonne. This almost prompted me to check out the next day but didn’t because I still had sister in town. I felt harassed embarrassed that this occurred on my special birthday weekend. I will take this up with owner and to LGBT organizations. What a humiliating experience.

The staff at the Empress Motel, couldn’t have been nicer and more accommodating, but the security managerial staff of Paradise are a bunch of rude, pompous, arrogant Aholes! After paying over $ 200 for the room, my friend and myself had bracelets to get into the club. My friend’s daughter later joined us, but was prohibited from entering the club. The «manager» Richard, determined that her driver’s license was some how fraudulent-​her picture didn’t resemble her and she was «much» taller than 5’10″. Huh? After trying to reason with him, he started to berate me for «interrupting» him while HE was speaking and if he was speaking, I had to be silent, or else, «the conversation was over.» Yes teacher… It didn’t matter that her last name matched my friend’s last name, as I said, they are mother and daughter. It was such a humiliating and degrading scene for my friend’s daughter, who, by the way is 30 YEARS OLD. It also was of no consequence that the front desk attendent of the Empress vouched for her identity and found nothing suspicious concerning her NJDL. This AHOLE was on a power trip. To add insult to injury, after now having to go up to the room for additional ID, which she produced, the assistant bar manager continued the derrogatory verbal assaults by also lecturing in a condescending manner that «Richard» had every right to refuse entry. After our lesson on how to speak to them, she begrudingly admitted the ID was now valid. Even at that point, there was no attempt to apologize or make ammends. Sooo, disrespectful. Needless to say, after this demeaning and humiliating situation, my friend’s daughter decided she didn’t need to enter «Paradise“under those harassing circumstances. I can’t help but wonder if we had been gay, if anything would have turned out different. Oh, by the way, how do they check the ID’s of the transvestites that go there? Does NJMV issue separate ID’s, drag and non drag photos of the same person?

We were here last night to celebrate my best friend’s birthday as we have done for a few years now. We never had a problem at this place but last night it all went down the drain. Around 1:45am or so my friend and I went to walk his brother and sister to their car and when we returned to the club we were denied re entry by the most rude security guard named Michael and the club’s Lesbian manager Cynthia, who was even ruder than Michael. Mind you we weren’t causing any trouble and spent a lot of money at this hole in the wall then it was decided that my friend was walking wobbly and seemed tipsy. For the record he wasn’t. We weren’t even given a chance to explain ourselves or our stand. After this awful incident which by the way ruined my friend’s birthday night, we’ve decided never to come back to a business that don’t appreciate our business. I hope Shep Pettiebone has a chance to read this review and remove these rude staff members from the club before they give the place bad publicity. There are plenty of businesses out there that will truly appreciate our gay business, just not this one. Stay far away from this place and go to Watermark instead.

the staff are so so so so not friendly, they are actually a bunch of RUDE people. most of the bartenders are rude and just doing their job, no paper towels in the bathroom, DJ won’t take request, they play %90 of the time HARDCORE house music. not a lot of diversity. overall its not a good representation of a gay club for the shore

This is one of few places in town to hang out after the beach. Here are some comment.
Pros:
1. The drinks are pretty good. The staff actually seems to care when mixing them. The lady in the back is THE BEST, go to her. She is sweet and skilled and should be giving lessons all around.
2. There is really great mixed crowd. It’s refreshing.
3. They have some neat activities and special nights that keep things going.
Cons:
1. Smoking. It’s not 1983. If you walk out to the pull area at any given time you will be walking into a cloud of disgusting tobacco smoke. I don’t know who enjoys this other than the smokers, so it makes the outside meh.
2. The place is a little dated. The dance floor area is really old fashioned and could use an update. There is a really ugly/​gross water feature outside that gives me the skeevys.
3. The music on Saturday was ok,… well except for having Whitney blaring every other song. She’s great, but this isn’t her club.
4. I cannot for the life of me figure out why the pool area bars are not manned all the time in the summer. It seems like the natural place to hang out.
5. The layout/​look of the pool area is not appealing at all. The palm trees and murals are pretty tacky. Not sure why this couldn’t have a legit «Jersey» theme. It’s not Florida. There should be more seating. I feel like there is some lost real-​estate here.
6. They don’t serve pool side drinks.
7. The hallway with the bathroom is just logistical nightmare. You can’t tell who is coming or going and if they’re waiting in line. I don’t know how this could be remedied given the space. Loitering there should be prohibited, however.

The Paradise is huge. It’s also the Empress Hotel in Asbury Park. There’s a bar with dance floor, a smaller bar in the restaurant area with TVs, and yet another smaller quieter bar on the far end past the pool. In the summer when the pool is open, there’s also an outdoor tiki bar. You can swim during the day, and dance or drink in the evening.
The restaurant is very uninspired, and not quite adequate. They have burgers, sandwiches, and some bar fare, and I don’t think there’s a chef as much as there are people who know how to fry and assemble. That’s my only complaint. A hotel (Paradise is a club at the Empress Hotel) should have acceptable dining. Here, it’s just something to put in your belly. After dinner on weekends, they sometimes have drag shows or other shows there. It’s very much the premier predominantly gay club in the area. We go there for early drinks when we’re there for the weekend, and occasionally have dinner there. Dinner there is mainly because it’s convenient and because being a gay establishment, we don’t feel worried if we hold hands or show affection.
The crowd is mixed, by the way. While mainly gay, straight couples show up, even families with kids during the summer when the hotel is booked because it’s on the shore. All are welcome, and that makes for a nice atmosphere.

A good place to go if you’re looking to dance. Large dance floor, pool and hotel. The staff aren’t as social as some places but it is a dance club and I still enjoy going here.

This club is really cool in a campy way. I looooooooooved the whole waterfall thing that they had going at the entrance, it was sooooooo tacky but kinda appropriate. The main dance floor is something else. Its like a light system that tries too hard. like ur dancing, then all of a sudden these sirens start blasting. Some really intense strobe lights blink. Then confetti drops. And this keeps repeating itself all night, for no apparent reason, and having nothing to do with the music.
The guys at this place are typical jersey shore caricatures, which I say with the utmost respect. Oh and we actually saw a woman who looked like snookie. At around 2am older women looking like the real housewives started showing up, so we left. But AWESOME place.

What happens when a bunch of open minded hetro «punk rockers» crash in a hotel above one of NJ’s most famous gay discos and are not ready for the festivites to end well you go and see what all the fun is about and that we did. Look I can’t dance but these folks did not care they just wanted us, like everybody else to have a good time and if you were not having a good time you could be cramping theres. The music is what you might expect and the lights are flashing hard. Very welcoming crowd and a very nice staff.

I really could care less about anything that comes out of J. Lo’s mouth, however she must have cast a spell on me when she said to «Dance the night away/​Live your life, and stay young on the floor/​Dance the night away/​Grab somebody drink a little more»
So yea, I did that all.night.long. And when I got a little hot on the dance floor, I took a break outside by the pool. Then I went back inside and got a stack of dollar bills from my gay husbands to make it rain on one of the scantily clad dancer boys. Then I needed to go potty but there were dudes in the ladies room. Oh right, this is a gay club but WTF? I’m sure some stealth straight dudes rolled up in there, hoping to catch a little poon action — which by the way, is a brilliant idea for you poon loving men. Drinks were cheap and the music was fab. Needless to say, I can’t wait to go back when it’s summer proper. It’s going to be bananas!

This bar has a pool which has a disco ball suspended above it! My review should end there as that is enough of a reason to come. Ok so you need another? How about strong inexpensive drinks, a great no fuss vibe from a fun crowd, and plenty of awesome people watching? it’s a place that stays rock’n all night and always has a drink special to enjoy!
If the pool area is closed they have 2 indoor bars, one has a large dance floor and plenty of seating. The other has a smaller dance floor and is the restaurant. We haven’t tried the food here yet, however I am sure that’s 1 trip away. This is a destination spot, you go here you stay here. No need to bar hop all over Asbury before or after. Cash works best as the bar gets crowded and the bartenders always are a bit overwhelmed. That said we have never had a bad time here. The hotel which is attached is what I expected from a shore hotel. Pricey in the summer, pricier on the weekends, but clean enough and in the right location.
we’ve been here for country line dancing in the large club area, another time when there was a wild memorial day weekend pool party and few other times in between, and every time is a good time! can’t wait to go back this summer!

Never had a bad time here — slow in the wintertime but thats typical in this area — a great place to go dancing as the music’s always slammin — summer is wacky fun by the pool, frozen drink machines (think alcoholic slurpees — YUM) and lots of eye candy (men and women) — inside club is a really nice space with a huge dancefloor! Haven’t been there all summer so i’m itching to go now. In fact, i think we’ll go this friday night!!!

2 straight girls + 1 gay guy friend on a Saturday night at this place = best time I’ve had at a Jersey club! The place itself is huge & pretty nicely decorated. I liked how there were different rooms — sports bar, club, outdoor patio/​pool — so everyone is happy regardless of what kind of scene you liked. The crowd was a mix? but we chatted it up with a few fun people. The music is okay & the drinks weren’t too bad (I think it was $ 3 for coors light?). I really liked the outdoor pool that they had — it just looked pretty. I definitely would come here again!

I went to Asbury park for the fourth of July was was escorted here by a few friends — locals of the area.
I was pretty impressed. The club is situation at the bottom of a motel and surrounds the building’s pool (next to which is a bar). There was lots of space inside too — a great dancefloor. Had it not been raining that night, I would have probably enjoyed it more.