The wait is over
THE night-life scene isn’t built for waiting. From club goers pushing against the velvet rope to promoters and proprietors eager to make an immediate splash with a celebrity opening and buzz- inducing lines, L.A.’s clubland is among the ultimate playgrounds for instant gratification. Only someone forgot to tell the new management at Santa Monica’s V-Lounge, the former Lush and 2020.
“We’ve had [the club] for a while,” Nik Saulm, the 28-year-old manager of the new Westside hot spot, says. “But the first year we were playing it by ear, seeing what we needed to do.”
Saulm and the owners settled on a new name and a remodel -- a modern layout built around a sunken dance floor in the main room. There are VIP booths behind ball-bearing-like curtains, side rooms for private parties and a back room elegantly highlighted by wood. That in place, Saulm and co-owner Farouk Gandhi took some further time off to spread the word before launching Aug. 27.
Maybe patience truly is a virtue. By 10:20 on a recent Saturday night, only 20 minutes after doors opened, bodies are shaking on the dance floor to Top 40 numbers like Rihanna’s “Umbrella” and the ubiquitous club anthem “Drop It Like It’s Hot.” It’s not unlike Hollywood clubs, at least in some ways.
“We want people to take the enjoyment of the Hollywood club without the hassle, without the Hollywoodness of it,” Saulm says.
That mix of cool without attitude worked well enough to attract Misty Methaway, who lives in Studio City, to bypass the closer Hollywood for the Westside with a large group of friends for a joint birthday celebration with her cousin. “We came here a couple of weeks ago and had the best time,” Methaway says. “It’s a great place ‘cause you can dance as well as hang out. It was crowded, but not overcrowded. And it felt hip and new.”
Though V-Lounge’s powers that be are happy to welcome clientele from all over L.A., Saulm believes a big key to the club’s early popularity comes from Westsiders. When it housed 2020 and Lush, the spot had a neighborhood feel. Although he says the response he’s heard has been positive, he does concede some carry-over patrons have been at least surprised by the change: “There are some people who come in and they say it feels different. It’s unfamiliar.”
Still, that metamorphosis was crucial to V-Lounge reaching new customers from the area. “We definitely tried to spread the word to a more sophisticated clientele, but catering to the Westside,” Saulm says, “because we wanted to get the Westside crowd first. We want the 25- to 40-year-old.”
And to further entice locals, V-Lounge will begin a weeknight happy hour within the next month, offering live music and highlighting its appetizer menu, which includes standard bar fare such as sliders and sesame soy chicken skewers.
Santa Monica resident Jennifer Morley believes that if V-Lounge can accomplish its goals of setting up a successful night life and happy hour, it will satisfy two missing components.
“There’s really no place like it around to go hang out,” she says. “It’s more lounge-y and chilled out, you can go there after work and get a drink. At the same time, there are not really any clubs on the Westside, especially in that area.”
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V-Lounge
Where: 2020 Wilshire Blvd.,
Santa Monica
When: 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday
Price: No cover
Info: (310) 829-1933