Neighborhood House Party

A night life oasis is hiding in Los Angeles.

Behind Venice’s boardwalk, which after sundown becomes a ghost town of closed T-shirt shops and hot dog stands, lies Drum, beating peaceful life into the night air.

Drum is one of a few nightspots in Venice--along with a handful of coffeehouses and the boardwalk’s Venice Bistro and Sidewalk Cafe--that are bringing a neighborhood-style spark to the beach community’s cool spring nights.

“A lot of people are happy to see the Venice boardwalk come to life again,” says Drum deejay Derek Rath.

The idea behind Drum, a 7-month-old Friday- and Saturday-night club held at the On the Waterfront Cafe, is a multicultural good time. But a plethora of L. A. clubs offer that. And on the outside, the cafe looks like a Southern California nightspot as envisioned by Madison Avenue. Patrons talk over beers under blue canopies as the surf hisses nearby.

What makes this club stand out from its Venice counterparts and other spots throughout Southern California is a mellow, intimate atmosphere and a smoke-free dance floor filled with varied sounds. The club, progeny of the defunct Dog-On-It, is especially appealing to those burned out on the sensory overload of rave-style spots and the earthshaking bass of hip-hop clubs.

The musical recipe includes house (thumping, soulful dance music), mellow hip-hop, acid jazz (a mix of hip-hop and jazz) and even a pinch of salsa. These sounds are spun by a crew of deejays, including Rath, who has played a similar music mix at KCRW-FM. The decibel level, as emitted through two JBL speakers (not your typical wall of sound), is tolerable.

“Everybody here,” says Rath, “is into alternative dance music.”

Promoter Regan Kibbee says Drum feels cozy because “I promote very heavily in Venice. I like the idea of a neighborhood dance party.”

The crowd is eclectic, Bohemian and post-collegiate. One man has the Mickey Rourke look, a silk vest and no shirt. He strikes up talk with a woman in all black as they lounge behind the cafe’s beach-view windows.

Farther inside, surveying the crowd dancing under the cafe’s Egyptian-style seascape, stands Audu Besmer, a 24-year-old legal assistant from Mt. Washington. “The music,” he says, “is not just beats inundating you.”

Winosa Edosage, a 29-year-old from Nigeria who lives in Marina del Rey, adds that the people are refreshing too. “They appreciate different cultures, different values,” he says.

“They are really real.”

Name: Drum (called Talking Drum on Saturdays), 205 Ocean Front Walk, Venice. Open 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday. For more information, call (310) 399-2259.

Cover: $5; no charge before 10 p.m. Patrons must be 21.

Drinks: Beer and wine. Beer starts at $2.50, wine at $3.50.

Door Policy: Non-existent. There aren’t doormen, just a cashier and promoter Regan Kibbee herself, who will greet you like a special guest at her house party.