The Annex Deteroit

I might maybe have rated The Annex 1.5 stars just to give them credit for booking good talent for Movement weekend, however the experience was so terrible that they’re lucky they get one star.
We bought tickets for Sunday night of Movement for the Drumcode after party. We turned the corner to the event and saw a huge line first. We probably waited for 20 minutes because they didn’t issue tickets, so there were two men looking up your name on a list for every single person that bought tickets to the sold out event. We were luckily in line early enough because it kept growing and people likely waited longer than we did. Then after they checked your name off, they checked your ID again to give you a bracelet for drinks if you were over 21, and then they were only letting a certain amount of people in at a time. It wasn’t even busy, so I don’t know why they were making us wait, but I waited at the front of the line for a few minutes before being allowed to go up.
Once up, the space is set up weird with booths along all walls, but a huge bar in the middle so it creates a really small dance floor and cuts off half the bar from seeing the DJ. I thought it was a new place (I could be wrong here), but it looks old.
The biggest issue is that the place was miserably hot. If I had to guess how hot it was in there, I’m pushing 100. I was sweating like a bikram yoga class before the place even got busy, and the busier it got, the hotter it got. It made it impossible to even be near the dance floor with all the hot sweaty bodies. We had to stand near the door to get any type of relief, and my friend and I even went and stood in the bathroom for 15 minutes because it was the coolest place we could find and we could wash our faces with cool water. That’s how hot it was. Another friend even had to go to the bathroom to threw up because he was so sick. That’s not even safe.
This was night two of Movement, and I was wondering how the previous night’s afterparty went and if it was this hot. From other reviews, it sounds like this place might always be hot, so they’re clearly not fixing it. It 100% ruined our time and we ended up going outside for a break from the heat. The entire smoking area was packed to the brim and they even had to make it bigger to accommodate all the red faced people just trying to breathe. We ended up leaving because none of us could fathom going back up.

I have given this place a try three times and I could not tell anybody why I came back after the first. I made reservations at 350 and the weather was not in my favor and they called and said they were moving to annex. I was pretty disappointed but figured maybe it wouldn’t be so bad but it was. Their «employees» are rude disorganized and do not know what it is going or how to do their job. The entire place is an oven and literally cooks you in the building. It is so hot in there. After standing outside in a mosh pit of people for over 20 minutes and telling their so called employees we have reservations we got someone’s attention. We were led up the stairs to an over packed floor and their «employee» did not know where to seat is because other people were sitting where we were suppose to be. So she says us and said we were okay. We sat down order our very over priced bottles and tried to make the best out of the night and then one of their employees came up to us and was just rude as hell saying we were sitting in the wrong booth when someone had sat us there saying it was okay. To anyone who takes the time to read this, I would not come here or to 350. These people do not know how to run an establishment. I have been in the service industry for over 6 years and this is not how you treat people and their prices are ridiculous. You are better off going to leftys in freaking midtown.

The Annex is a douchey place for douchebags. Don’t waste your time or money there.

the best nightclub in detroit hands down until 350 terrace opens for the season!

As a returning customer, I was very disappointed with the booth service that was provided for several reasons. First, during my groups arrival we were greeted with a pretty young woman who showed us to our table and informed us that booth service was first come first serve. Makes sense. However, that was not true. My group and I arrived early and were given the WORST booth possible (a booth so bad that it shouldn’t even be an option), the booth was in a dark corner behind the stage and we were completely cut off from the rest of the club. At that time the young lady called over a manager who tells us that we cannot have any of the other available booths because they were waiting on REGULARS, which completely disregards the whole «first come first serve» policy that you informed me about. We were there first and were left with no other option besides leaving. This completely ruined everyones vibe because no one expected to receive such a horrible booth. If this was a professional business with good management, the right thing would have been to inform larger parties of where they would be seated. Also, when one employee misinforms a customer there should be some accountability on the behalf of her actions. Thank you, Annex for a huge Birthday disappointment and you welcome for the 20% gratuity (automatic gratuity) that was not deserved by any means.

Fun party place. Nice crowd. Good Dj choice of music. Drinks are reasonably priced. Waitresses are courteous and helpful.

Video review of ANNEX nightclub by WalkthruReview @ YouTube. Check us out at WALKthruREVIEW.
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