Romper Room Strikes Affordable Compromise

Advertising can be deceiving.

Promoters of underground clubs--those hip gatherings with no permanent homes and a taste for non-mainstream music--have long used card-stock flyers printed with groovy computer-drawn graphics to advertise their gigs. Call the number on the card the day of the show and an answering machine provides the address to wherever the club is happening that night.

Well, some Orange County promoters have gotten wise and are using computer technology to attract nightclubbers to their own one-night-a-week clubs at established bars and restaurants.

But not all of them deliver what they promise.

Romper Room, an 18-and-over dance club in Brea, is such a place. This is no underground club--as a doorman with sideburns one recent evening warned a stylishly clad trio about to enter.

Romper Room, inhabiting family restaurant Magnolia’s Peach every Friday night since late summer, plays some of the music associated with underground--techno and ‘70s disco--but for most of the evening, the disc jockeys spin the Power 106 playlist. Great to dance to, but hardly the beat the flyer claimed.

With a name such as Romper Room, one could have expected some inspired goofiness, either in the decor or in non-dancing entertainment (perhaps some Hula-Hoops for patrons to use or those warped mirrors found at fun houses). Instead, the club has the drab decor of your average family restaurant.

Still, club-goers in the 18- to 20-year-old bracket might want to overlook the shortcomings in hipness, because Romper Room is a rarity--a dance club at a reasonable price. The $5 cover charge applies to all patrons, a bargain when you consider that many other clubs attempt to make up for the loss in alcohol profits by charging underage customers a higher admission. Here, at least, you won’t go broke walking through the door.

That the place wasn’t packed didn’t seem to bother the close to 200 in attendance one Friday night last month. These folks came to party and to chow on the tasty seafood appetizers ($6 to $12).

The bar offers a pretty good selection of beer: eight imports, with Guinness and Harp on tap, and the usual domestic offerings of Bud, Coors and Michelob and their “dry” versions ($1.50 to $3.75). Tap selections are served in marvelous fish bowl glasses that hold 18 ounces. Watermelon shooters ($1.50) seemed quite popular; mixed drinks (at a rather steep $4 to $6) were less so.

On the wood dance floor, a small and very young posse of house music fans bonded in a tribal-like group dance. The one thing these locals seemed in tune with was their mini-exhibitions of break-dancing. Yes, it’s back. Maybe they never knew it died.

Most of the action went down outside in an enclosed patio. Those not shakin’ it at the tiny make-shift dance area were seated at one of several tables, keeping toasty by a heat lamp--which for some might be the only way this place could get hot.

Romper Room at Magnolia’s Peach, 600 Brea Mall Drive, Brea. Open Friday only, 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Cover: $5. (714) 990-4494.