Wee small hours

It’s 3 a.m. and you’ve still got the urge -- to dance, schmooze, chat and otherwise socialize. Then it hits you -- there are far too few choices that don’t involve food.

Here comes Up, West Hollywood’s latest after-hours club.

The early-morning party takes place in former munitions warehouse and Sinatra hangout the Factory. One reason promoters Rick Rodriguez and Michael Boldin are so excited about Up is that DJ Mike “Hitman” Wilson -- the remix engineer for Ludacris, Destiny’s Child, Teddy Riley, Mariah Carey, Prince, Michael Jackson and others -- will be flying in from Chicago to mix it up on the ones and twos every week.

The DJ from Chicago’s China Club, the House of Blues and Nitro says he’s pumping “a kind of funky, banging house music. You know, an exciting, funky kind of train ride, roller-coaster effect.”

Boldin says he and Rodriguez selected West Hollywood because “I’ve been here working for the last seven years.” West Hollywood clubs attract “a melting pot of people -- black, white, gay, straight, Asian, everyone. All kinds of people can be in the same place having a good time.”

For now they’re running Up once a week, Saturday mornings for the next few weeks. They’ll see how the crowds develop, then decide on whether to expand.

Rodriguez, who like Boldin came west from Wisconsin, had resisted the temptation to visit or even to consider club promotions in California. Finally, Boldin convinced his longtime collaborator to come to L.A.

“I gave it 30 days -- 30 days to put a club together,” Rodriguez says with a laugh, “or I’d be in Miami. I was set to start a club there.”

As it turned out, the weather, the opportunity to cater to a cross-section of people and the venue won out.

Within 30 days the partners had secured a club site and, three months later, were in business. At the club’s recent opening, Boldin says, “We had a big crowd with local celebs, great music, great feedback and people danced till the sun came up and beyond.” “Then there was our fire dancer. She had fireballs spinning at the end of chains, spinning all around and between her legs,” Rodriguez says. “I’ve never seen anything like it before! Mouths were dropping. Oh, yeah. We’re sure Up is only going to get bigger and wilder!”

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Up

Where: At the Factory, 652 N. La Peer Drive, West Hollywood

When: Saturdays, 2:30 to 8 a.m.

Cost: $15 to $20 cover charge

Info: (310) 659-4551 or www.upafterhours.com