The Valley’s Bank Heist is stealing Hollywood club kids. No crime in that.
Hit a dive bar, engage in a lubricated bout of karaoke, rehash it all over a bite at Mel’s Drive-In -- once, that was considered a hot night in the Valley.
Now, the Bank Heist aims to rob Valley dwellers of those experiences, and even keep club- goers from traipsing over the hill to get their dance kicks. No chance? Well, the new bar/restaurant does have some currency: a location in the burgeoning North Hollywood Arts District; an imposing edifice in an 81-year-old former bank building; and a little dance-music cachet -- Ken Jordan of the Crystal Method is a minority owner.
“After putting clubs together in West Hollywood and Hollywood, I realized that there was a real need for a quality club in the Valley,” says co-owner Jason Feld (the other principal is Kat Johnson), who recruited Jordan to invest in Heist, the bar portion of the venue.
Bank, the handsome restaurant therein, is already popular with local office workers during the day.
Housed in the former Security Pacific Bank -- designed by Parkinson & Sons, the firm behind Union Station and City Hall -- Bank Heist looms large on the corner of Lankershim and Weddington. The structure, vacant for 15 years, has two floors and 13,000 square feet.
The bar features multiple VIP rooms and a balcony overlooking North Hollywood’s Metro stop. “We are really catering to the new urban aesthetic that has taken root in the Valley,” Feld says.
Although it took nearly three years to remodel the space, Feld (who helped open former Hollywood hot spots XES and Dublin’s) says it was all worth it.
“It was important to me to preserve as much of the original detail as possible,” he says. “We refurbished the original terrazzo bank floor and the steel columns [of the original bank], but I installed state-of-the-art lighting, sound, air conditioning and the like.”
Jordan has already helped put the month-old Heist on the map with his weekly Thursday throwdown, NoHo Massive, co-curated by DJ Chris Cox. “There’s a ton of the people in the Valley who want to go out but don’t necessarily want to go over the hill,” he says as hundreds of dance-happy patrons shake to hard breaks and electro both upstairs and down. “Everyone who has been so far thinks it’s nicer than most of the places they go to in Hollywood.”
Take that to the bank.
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-- Charlie.Amter@latimes.com
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BANK HEIST
WHERE: 5303 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood
WHEN: 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily
PRICE: Cover varies
INFO: (818) 760-1648; www.thebankheist.com
