CLUB REVIEW : Lush Prozac Needs More to Compete on This Street

Prozac is facing stiff competition, and it’s not lithium. The location of the new Friday night dance club at Checca restaurant in West Hollywood may lead to a quick demise.

Although Prozac offers cool remixes from such danceable artists as Prince and Tower of Power in a lush, two-room setting, it’s gonna take more than a funky beat to compete with the street.

Within a few blocks of its Santa Monica Boulevard site lie some of the most happening spots in town, and on a recent Friday they offered a more tempting draw. Just east is the raging restaurant Jones, where the beautiful ones are currently migrating. Across from Jones is the venerable diner the Formosa, always a rockin’ hub on a weekend night.

But perhaps the greatest competitor is Fatburger, which lies just west of the club. Not only can you get tasty late-night chow for a minimal price, but the jukebox selection--an offering of blues and soul featuring just as much Albert King as Ben E. King and B.B. King--blows most clubs out of the ring. Even campy comedian Wendy Winters, a featured performer at Prozac, can’t compete with the possibility of munching a $2.39 burger to the 5 Royales’ “Laundromat Blues.”

* Prozac, Friday s at Checca, 7323 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood . 21 and over, $5 cover. (213) 850-7471.