New Macon nightclub to cater to different taste, ages for early and late crowds
A new upscale nightclub in downtown Macon plans to offer “old-school” music for the after-dinner, older customers and then more current, pop music for the later, younger crowd.
Late Nite Macon opened Thursday at 420 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., the former site of Envy nightclub. It will be open 9 p.m.-2 a.m. Thursday-Saturday, and it has a $5 cover charge. It had a soft opening last week and will hold its grand opening Nov. 30, said club owner Wesley Nobles. From now until the end of the month, the club will accept cash, debit and credit cards, but “we are going to becoming completely cashless,” because it’s safer for employees, he said.
“We’re a 21-and-up, non-smoking, upscale night club,” Nobles said. “We cater to an upscale, well-dressed, business-casual type crowd. ... We will have a dress code ... like fitted jeans, fitted shirts, no hats, no sandals or flip flops for guys, no sweatpants for guys or girls, no yoga pants, no hoodies or sweatshirts.”
Nobles was the DJ for the Dea nightclub for the first two years it was open and became aware there were two kinds of crowds that came in the club. The earlier crowd was usually from their late 20s or older and the later crowd was the younger 21-25 year-olds who arrive about 11:30 p.m. and stay until closing time. So the DJ will play music that each crowd would like for listening or dancing.
The club is offering Ladies Night every Friday with no cover charge, which also will be held Thursday this week.
“We’re definitely trying to cater to the female crowd,” Nobles said. “The bathrooms have amazing lighting for selfies. ... We want to be known as having the cleanest bathrooms in Macon.”
A VIP lounge is on the second floor with a separate bar that has more exclusive cocktails. For now it’s open to everyone, but in the future, there may be a separate charge to have access to the lounge which has separate booths that could be rented for birthday parties or other events, he said.
Beginning next week, Nobles said he will be open Wednesday, the night before Thanksgiving, which he hopes will become a yearly thing.
“There are always a lot of people out and about because people come to town to visit family” for Thanksgiving, he said. “So every Wednesday before Thanksgiving of every year, we want to have a huge place that everyone can rendezvous ... a general reunion night.”
The club also will be open the night of Thanksgiving Day and through the weekend.
After the grand opening, Late Nite Macon is expected to be open Sunday nights, especially catering to downtown restaurant or bar workers who normally don’t have an opportunity to go out to a club. Many of the restaurants are closed Sunday nights.
As a way to encourage people to come downtown and eat in the restaurants, anyone with a receipt from a locally owned restaurant, not a fast food chain, will not have to pay a cover charge to get in the nightclub. The receipt must be dated the same day.
This story was originally published November 13, 2018 at 5:43 PM.