Toasting the Civilized Set

The bright-eyed crowd at Club Lux at Santa Monica Airport is civilized, to say the least. Here, anyone fretting about the decline of human society can witness young men and women toasting each other, even if it is with clinking Corona beer bottles.

This is also the kind of place where two young women were spotted wearing gloves , and several men wore suits and ties. Dom Perignon sells for $140 a bottle, and there are buyers.

There are moments at Lux that feel like a flashback to the movie “Metropolitan,” in which life was one extended party and everybody over 20 wanted to act urbane.

But Lux isn’t all urbane. The cocktail of the moment is something called Sex on the Beach--vodka, peach schnapps and assorted fruit juices.

Still, the 6-month-old club is strictly mainline--it’s not for the black leather Hollywood crowd. Lux is for people who appreciate a wee-hours snack of lamb quesadillas or raspberry creme brulee, which come from the DC3 restaurant next door--its owners own the club.

Like the food, the Lux decor is hip in an only-in-L.A. way. Campy-looking fringed movie house curtains enclose the main room, where overstuffed couches and armchairs are grouped around coffee tables with little shaded lamps. Flick on the red light bulb, and a waitress appears.

The optimum age is 30, give or take a few years, and the optimum plan is to arrive without a date and see whom one might meet.

“My whole theory is you might actually want to meet someone that you might want to go out on a date with, instead of going to a place where people stand around and give each other strange looks,” says Kevin Barry, one of the club’s promoters.

Around 10:30 p.m. on a recent Friday night, Dave, a 27-year-old dentist, was pondering the evening’s game plan with his friend Jeff, also 27, a business manager. Although the room was clearly packed with good-looking young women, the two were just standing there.

“We’re here for the stay, you know, the night,” Jeff explained. “You can’t go up to a girl and talk to her now because you’ll be talking to her all night. It’s too early.”

Dave said his line of introduction usually included the fact that he had “hit the wall with this girl” (they had just broken up). Even though there was no previous girlfriend, he says, it sounds good. “That way girls don’t think you’re a loser,” he said.

Not to worry if the come-on doesn’t work. On the dance floor, girls dance with boys or girls dance with girls, in pairs or threesomes. Boys dance alone, sometimes maneuvering their way into the all-girl threesomes. Sometimes, they all fall into something that resembles a conga line, even though the DJ plays a mix of funk, hip-hop, rap and oldies.

As the evening wears on, the room gets packed, and the thing to do is sit out a dance on a fat couch and order another Sex on the Beach.

Name: Club Lux

Where: 2800 Donald Douglas Loop North, (213) 399-1577.

When: Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Doorman: Dresses in black but is congenial.

Door Motto: “We don’t pick and choose.”

Prices: $10 admission. (Diners at DC3 can enter at no charge depending on available space.) Martinis, $4. Sex on the Beach, $5.50. Budweiser, $3. Raspberry creme brulee, $6.