Mandara, formerly Enigma, is Palladium only less so. No
sparks and no Silver Indian, it's also a bit smaller but the rest is basically
the same. Same story: steep cover, open bar, nice view of the bay, techno and
house, young trendy crowd. In fact, it's located almost next door to Palladium.
The one advantage is that the doorman scene is not as intense as
Palladium. Another advantage is that one of Acapulco's main after hour's clubs,
Privado, is right upstairs and you can enter it from inside the bar. I dig
Privado. It's sort of small and loungy and plays cool techno. It's a bar where
you pay by the drink. I think I like it best because it reminds me slightly of
my favorite dance club of all time Austin's, Proteus which in 1993 was a jewel
of the U.S. techno scene and featured in Details magazine. Today it's gone, it
got replaced by a damned Cheesecake Factory. RIP Austin, hello Acapulco.
