Toronto is the kind of city where there are new clubs popping up all the time- the shiny and new is appealing to many. But for me and my friends, we end up going to our old standbys- someplace where the drinks are cheap, the music is nearly always the same, and where you can sing and dance until you collapse onto the grungy, sticky floor. It’s Lee’s Palace.

Lee’s Palace is known for its bright mural on the exterior, more visible during the day, but at night is when this place comes to life. It doubles as a live music venue on the ground-floor, where you can often see local bands perform. Upstairs plays host to an evening called “Dance Cave” on Friday and Saturday nights. In fact, if you really want to be a local, we would almost never call the venue Lee’s Palace. The shorthand is always to call it Dance Cave.

Dance Cave has cheap cover but is actually free if you show a student ID (I’ve tried to pass off my ID from my student days, but no one is buying it anymore). They play a reliable amount of Top 40 from now and the last decade (you’re bound to see the crowd mimicking gun shots to “Paper Planes”) and if you get enough liquid courage, there is a stage for you to perform your moves in front of the entire crowd. It’s grungy, the crowd trends young, it smells funky- but it’s so. Much. Fun.