From Mexico, with love

La Velvet Margarita is one giant art project.

From a Day of the Dead-inspired wall loaded with black velvet skeletons to a hallway bedecked with outlaws, the new Mexican supper club is a feast for the eyes.

“It’s an homage to Latino subculture,” says owner Big Daddy Carlos, whose real name is Carlos Adley. “We like to think of it as a Mexican brothel meets a black velvet painting on ‘shrooms.”

Imagine that. The latest addition to the hopping Cahuenga Corridor -- a stretch of Cahuenga Boulevard chock-full of cool bars and shops -- La Velvet Margarita is the unique vision of Carlos, a longtime promoter and DJ on the Hollywood club circuit. Carlos owns the venue with his wife, Ava Berman-Adley, another veteran of club life. The duo also owns the popular Glendora coffeehouse Sweet Daddy’s Coffee Lounge.

Here’s the best part: They did it all on their own.

“We looked around at the other clubs in town, with their 20 investors and for-sale signs a year after opening, and we knew we didn’t want to go that route,” Carlos says. “We actually bought the building and made up our minds, we weren’t going to become a flavor-of-the-month spot but a long-term prospect.”

So the team took their time -- a year and a half, to be exact.

“We kept adding details as money came in, and before you knew it, we had exactly what we wanted,” Carlos says.

Only six weeks old, La Velvet Margarita is making a big splash, with distinctive items on the menu and off.

For example, when you order an actual Velvet Margarita, it comes in a full pineapple, top included.

Then there is the decor. Upon entering the lounge, if you take a right, you land in Dante’s Inferno, Carlos’ nickname for the very red clubby bar area, which is adorned with velvet-flocked wallpaper and flames that lick the wall behind the bar. The flames are courtesy of a film projector. And old-school peliculas are shown on two plasma screens above the bar. You’re as likely to see a 1940s shootout as you are gauchos riding off into the sunset.

“This place is a beautiful representation of Mexican culture,” says Susanna Bautista, executive director of L.A.’s Mexican Cultural Institute, who popped in to see what the buzz was about.

It’s in Dante’s Inferno you’ll find the Day of the Dead tributes. You’ll see images of Zapata and Frida Kahlo, but there is also a black velvet skeleton Elvis where the only thing separating the King and his pompadour are bones.

If you enter the club and go straight ahead, you’ll find yourself in the Blue Velvet Elvis room, which is the supper club’s dining area, and is set up to look like a Mexico City courtyard, with a low-rise wall featuring cathedral-shaped window cutouts adorned with wrought iron. Here, guests can dine till 4 a.m. on weekends -- it’s not unusual for folks to make reservations for 2:30 a.m.

The cocktail lineup keeps things interesting, with a tequila-laced concoction loaded with fresh-squeezed juices and another delectable featuring Cristal and strawberry liqueur, served in a coconut. The menu dishes come from the recipes of Carlos’ grandmother, and he even brought his aunt out of retirement to oversee the kitchen.

From either room -- whose ceilings are decorated with custom-made sombreros from Spain -- guests can pass through the Outlaw hallway and another batch of black velvet portraits, including Al Pacino from “Scarface” and Sid Vicious.

Up a set of stairs is a VIP lounge designed to look “like a Tijuana coke dealer’s bachelor pad with a slice of heaven,” Carlos says. For those who’ve seen the movie “Blow,” you get the picture.

And at the back of the club is La Velvet Margarita’s outdoor patio, which features a separate sound system and is the club’s mingling headquarters.

“You can totally tell this place was made with love,” says actor Vince Vaughn, who was hanging with pals in the patio last week. “It’s just done right, from the design to the music.”

As a member of Hollywood DJ royalty, Carlos made sure that music is the heart of the club. On any given night, you’ll find such hotshot DJs as Skatemaster Tate, Senor Amor, Cut Chemist, Ricky Vodka and Richie Rich doing their own interpretation of Latin exotica.

The venue works on so many levels that Carlos and Berman-Adley are taking their time promoting it, allowing popularity to build through word-of-mouth.

“We were offered Ashlee Simpson’s party a few weeks ago,” says Carlos. “But I had to say no. Although I’m happy to do private parties, I couldn’t close down a weekend night when we were just opening. I don’t want to be one of those places. We want this to be the beginning of something that has a future.”

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La Velvet Margarita

Where: 1612 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood

When: Open nightly till 2 a.m.; 4 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights

Info: (323) 469-2000. Reservations recommended for dining. No cover.