VIPs get in from 9 to 10 p.m. for a pre-party. The rest of us get in later. W Honolulu continues the party Saturday without promoters Komo Low and Matty Hazelgrove, who have the Hanohano Room's Skyline to host.

A Night Stuff whipping post in the past for allowing way too many in and offering way too little in return, the Wonder Lounge has chilled down quite nicely in the last year or so. Sure, the dressy, wannabe-cool crowd still gathers there en masse each Friday to admire each other. But the overall vibe these days actually sometimes resembles something sort-of lounge-like.

There's room to move around and (gasp!) dance. Service has improved considerably. Truth be told, Wonder Lounge's taken-for-granted charms became even more apparent during a recent stay at Chicago's W Lakeshore.

The hotel and staff were wonderful. But the Lakeshore's Friday Wonder Lounge doppelganger at the 33rd-floor Whiskey Sky was a room with a view and little else.

Operated and staffed by nightclub king Randy Gerber (of Sky Bar, Whiskey Bar and married-to-Cindy-Crawford fame), Whiskey Sky offered servers and bouncers who were rude when not completely indifferent. There was no dance floor. The room itself was minuscule to the point of being a joke, with an uninspiring interior to boot.

Its one saving grace? No cover.

So perhaps we'll begrudgingly drop the $20 cover/homage the folks at Wonder Lounge Honolulu are asking for tonight. I can certainly get by with one less drink at Skyline on Saturday. And DJ Haaps doesn't mash at Pussycat Lounge till Tuesday.