Club Critics' Pick Members Pick Staff Pick
Paradise Now

When: Fridays, Saturdays, 9 p.m.
Phone: 510-865-3225
Price: $10

It's safe to assume that most of us don't have a private jet to whisk us off to Livingston Island or Belize this weekend. Ain't that a bitch? Granted, the clubs in downtown Oakland have their particular charms - hazy lighting, clunky ceiling fans, bric-a-brac, and Chinatown doohickeys - but you know, it sure would be nice to be sitting in the shade of a plastic palm tree, sipping something pink and sweet, and ogling a hot first-generation Trinidadian.

Ah, but it turns out we're in luck - island paradise is just a straight shot through the Webster Street tube. Seriously. Right there on Alameda's west end, flanked by a phalanx of discount stores and fast-food eateries, lies the Island Paradise Club, a hunk of white stucco decorated with red and green Rasta-style stripes, designed to look like a beachfront bar in the Caribbean. This illusion extends to the club's interior, which consists of tropical murals, a checkerboard floor, and garish yellow barstools - incidentally, the drink specials invariably seem to feature pineapple in some form. Saturday's Caribbean Night is definitely the hottest time to come - this week, the Panama-raised DJ Electro (whose Web bio claims he scavenged his first TDK cassettes from a ship that sank in his backyard, since his parents couldn't afford to buy them from the store) spins reggae, soca, salsa, and R&B. The cover is $10, ergo paradise on the cheap. IslandParadiseClub.com

— Rachel Swan