The late co-owner Angel Moraes modeled the downtown club after New York’s iconic Paradise Garage, where he DJed in its heyday. Since opening in ’98, Stereo has survived two fires and one pandemic to become one of Montreal’s best after-hours clubs, with a world-renowned sound system as good as the name implies and two dance floors (the upstairs level is alcohol-free). Catch house and techno titans (Robert Hood, Four Tet, Skream) commanding the imposing space until well past sunrise.

First opened in 2001, this former dance studio, more like a loft party than a nightclub, became a pivotal space in Montreal’s underground dance music scene. Rising rents in its ever-hip Plateau Mont-Royal neighborhood (plus noise complaints) compelled Daomé to move to its current second-story home on Saint-Laurent Boulevard in 2018, where it hosts discerning but unpretentious house and techno showcases amid comfy couches and a low-hanging disco ball.

Ring the doorbell around the side of the neon pink Chinatown building that houses the fancy Japanese snack bar Fleurs et Cadeaux and descend into the windowless basement to find Montreal’s coolest speakeasy. The 60-seat cocktail lounge doubles as a Japanese-style listening room, where vinyl-only DJs spin marathon house and disco sets each night as the chic room slowly becomes a dance party.

The Soviet-themed cocktail bar on the edge of Mile End is the kind of club where you take a first date you’re trying to casually impress: sleek and moody, low-lit by lamps and candles, with a très-cool crowd always packing the dance floor. Datcha’s rotating roster of DJs covers the spectrum of forward-thinking club music, from reggaetón and Afro house parties to old-school house and techno sets (plus live jazz accompanied by tarot readings on Thursdays in the cocktail lounge).

All roads lead to New City Gas, the massive club and events space that draws superstar DJs to its 40,000-square-foot setting in a former power plant dating from the mid-1800s (the New City Gas Company, naturally). Opened in 2012 just south of downtown in historic but condo-fied Griffintown, the place packs in ravers, but if you want to catch big-league EDM talent (Diplo, Marshmello, Duke Dumont) within reach of an on-site NFT gallery, it’s the place to be.

Is this Old Montreal speakeasy the city’s most gothic bottle service lounge, or its sexiest goth club? Hidden beneath Rue Saint-Gabriel in the underbelly of an inn built in 1754, you reach Velvet by following a doorman through a dark, cobblestone tunnel a la Paris’ catacombs. Inside the 200-cap club, lit by lasers and candles, dancers sip champagne cocktails to moody house and techno sets from local and touring DJs.

Enter an unmarked door on a sleepy side street just off Rue Sainte-Catherine, head to the second floor, and you’ve reached the brutalist slab of a venue with stark lighting, a killer sound system, and a name drawn from the fictional language of George Orwell’s 1984. Here, the lineups skew toward underground club acts from Montreal and abroad, from hard techno to classic Chicago house to baile funk and beyond, without the steep megaclub door charge.

Named for the French word for “undergrowth,” this downtown bistro du terroir, designed like an enchanted forest, turns into a raging party as the night wears on. Tucked in a Maisonneuve Boulevard basement formerly occupied by Peel Pub, Montreal’s sloppy sports bar par excellence, Soubois gets just as crowded and crazy on weekends, but with more style and a better soundtrack: think Burning Man beats inside a chic version of a rainforest café.

Formerly known by the cryptic name Blizzarts, this neighborhood hot spot on Saint-Laurent Boulevard changes its vibe night by night: high-energy techno, soulful house, drum ’n’ bass, and live jazz on Mondays in The Red Room. With its candlelit booths, cool neon signs, and solid cocktails, the sleek, snug space is a shortcut to immersion in Montreal’s club scene, hosting long-running nights from local DJ collectives like Ferias and Fella’s Q-Tips.

Housed in a 1920s bank vault in one of the city’s first skyscrapers, La Voûte offers an imperious and upscale dining-dancing experience. The grub is Japanese-inspired, while cocktails are conceived by the team behind one of Montreal’s primo speakeasies, The Coldroom. There’s something cinematic about the grand Old Montreal locale that makes you feel like you’re in a Bond film, from the dinnertime performances to, later in the evening, the funky club vibe.