Shadow Room

Las Vegas was the main inspiration or Shadow Room, a city the team felt set the bar for hospitality in the nightclub industry. But a carbon-copy of a Vegas club wasn't the endgame here; as CEO Swaptak Das told Metromix, "We wanted to build something that doesn't exist anywhere in the world." And in their K Street club, far from the neon lights of the Vegas Strip, they've certainly upped the ante—Shadow Room is outfitted with novel technologies designed to enhance the clubgoer's experience.

One example: you're on the crowded dance floor. You're warm, and there's nothing but ice cubes left in your drink. You look over to the bar, where there's a crowd waiting to put in their orders. But instead of joining the queue, you take out your cell phone, log into your Shadow Room account, and order (and electronically pay for) a drink. They'll text you when it's ready, and in the meantime, you can just keep dancing.

For those who have reserved tables, the club's Nteract touchscreen table order system takes this idea even further. According to The Washington Post, each table's tablet can be used to "order a drink, request tunes from the DJ, pay a bill or ask a valet to retrieve your car." Though these do-it-all devices would seem to be enough of a draw, tables have loads of other features as well, including HD televisions, digital surround sound, two computers, and Xbox 360.

When not enraptured in the club's digital ambiance, revelers can get back to that aforementioned dance floor, where DJs spin an eclectic mix of hip-hop, house, Top 40, rock, and ironic recordings of fax-machine transmissions.