Chicago
03-17-2003, 04:12 PM
Where’s The Party?
Crobar co-owner Ken Smith wants to know, New York.
Crobar needs no introduction – it’s an American nightlife institution, with locations in Chicago (which celebrated its tenth anniversary on December 4), Miami, and by the late spring, New York. With all the wild speculation surrounding the Manhattan project, you’d think that Ken Smith and his partner Cal Fortis were keeping the tale of its plan and progress under close guard, but not so. In the following, the keen, direct Smith discusses the legacy of Studio 54, Miami’s continued success, what he thinks is wrong with New York and how he’s going to fix it.
How do you maintain that which you’ve created in Miami?
We follow what we did previously in Chicago. Clubs cycle; you have to constantly change them. Keeping up is everything; freshness is everything. People get bored after they’ve been to the club twice. How many movies do you see twice? If you expect people to come back year after year after year, you have to really put it out there and keep it fresh.
We base everything on knowing people and friendliness, which sounds like a load of crap, but we do it better than anyone, particularly in the Miami market. When we came here, the difference between a bad club and a good club at that time was as easy as letting someone in the ropes and saying hello. Seriously. We told people that was our concept – it really isn’t all of the concept – and they’d look at us like we were from Mars. But we were from the Midwest, and we knew how to not just throw a party, but take care of people and remember your last and first name. And that’s critical – it’s critical to our concept. That’s what makes our concept. We have probably the best staff I’ve ever hired here in Miami – 110 people who all believe that same thing, and want to meet you genuinely. Some of them unfortunately want to take you home, which is against the rules.
What are the elements of a party?
Of course the party has to have great music, a great promotion. No one’s reinvented this wheel since Studio 54, let’s face it. It’s variations on that theme, it’s promotions, it’s this, it’s that, but nothing no one has never done before. So I think in this market, especially in a value-oriented society, which it is after 9/11, it’s critical – critical – that you feel like you’re in my house, and your house. I don’t care what place it is, or how exciting, or what DJ. Hey, after I’ve heard Danny Tenaglia three times, I’ve heard Danny Tenaglia three times.
Since Studio 54, maybe the thing that really has changed is this cult of the DJ.
I think that it has gone so far in the other direction that that is what has opened up the New York market. The last two big openings there, which should have been great places, were open solely on the backs of so-called big DJs, and I think those clubs are missing the point of club life. Limelight and Powder are both closed: Limelight’s only open on Sunday for boy’s night now. And they both should have been successful clubs. There’s no reason they weren’t: I walked through Limelight, it’s a beautiful space. Powder is a pretty nice space, all rehab-ed, great sound systems, great DJs. So what’s the problem? What’s missing? The party. Everybody forgot about the party.
In New York no less; isn’t that a tragedy?
It blows my mind. It’s like, everybody’s going, “It’s about the DJ, it’s about the DJ,” but guess what? It’s not about the DJ. It’s about the party, and part of the party is the DJ. You should expect great music at the party, right? Or you’re leaving. But the last time I went to somebody’s house party it wasn’t because of their DJ. It was because it was somebody’s birthday, or somebody’s great barbecue, or somebody’s boat party. I didn’t go, “Who’s the DJ, or I’m not coming.” It’s ludicrous.
But it is possible to merge a big DJ with the party.
Of course it is. It should be part of the party, and it should be part of the party automatically. You should always get great music. We started talking about all this probably a year ago when the DJs started being 15 grand…
And started to suck.
Yeah, they all started being into their own little deal. I started getting away from booking people who I didn’t think were what I considered Crobar-type DJ. If I had to mention one big name I think is a Crobar DJ, it would be Timo Maas. I don’t care what room that guy plays in the world, he comes in the party, looks at the crowd – Pete Tong does the same thing – and jerks a record out of his bag that makes you just stop dancing and look at him and go, “What are you on?” Then you know you’ve a party started, because he threw you a curve or did something crazy, and he does it on purpose.
So clubland’s problem is that lack of “the party.”
It’s so obvious. We got away from this too; we’re guilty also. You come up with a cool flyer, a cool name for your promotion, and that’s it. It’s like, where’s the party? I’ve got all these supposedly great promoters in New York, Miami, wherever, it’s like, alright, this flyer got me here, but where’s the party? I don’t get it. Sometimes it’s enough to just have the right crowd, but that right crowd lasts for three weeks and then the A-crowd disappears, whatever you call them, the cool 600. And hey, where’s the party after that? If it’s not the balloons, the DJ, and shit falling out of the ceiling, and you trying to get me to take my clothes off, where is it?
But I really really really know deep down that that is what New York needs. Somebody’s gotta go back and get Bianca Jagger on a horse. What’s wrong with that?
So is this why you decided to do New York now?
We always wanted to go to New York. We used to come to New York years ago. We’ve been friends with Peter Gatien forever, ever since he came to Chicago; I had a club that fed his club. There are two o’clock licenses and four o’clock licenses in Chicago, and I had a two o’clock at the time in this cute little bar, and when I closed I got to walk a half a block and go party at Limelight. It was beautiful, almost similar to the Limelight in [New York]; it’s like a mini-castle. He really had a great eye for property.
So what’s the status of crobar New York now? There are all kinds of rumors.
It took us a year to get our license. We signed a deal with our investors in August, it fell apart a little bit, we worked on it for three or four months to put it all back together. And our landlord – and I won’t say anything bad about him – is in love with his building, so it’s taken us almost an extra month to get started. Because he wanted to see what type of nails we were using. Talk about an anal guy, but we got through it. So we’re going to start. We should be on the roof next week. Hopefully it will be a late spring opening, after WMC and The Club Show. I will wait until after that to open.
What is the space like?
It’s not so huge. We’re going to use 25,000 square feet, but it seems like 50,000. It’s a space that in the old days you could have probably painted black and made a great warehouse club. But unfortunately, I don’t know how to not spend my money. It’s a pretty incredible space. We were really lucky to find it; a lot of people were looking at it. It’s across the street from Twilo, and they used to make Macy’s [Thanksgiving Day Parade] floats inside.
There’s an incredible main room, and basically we broke it up into three primary spaces, with two other little party spaces connected. There are five rooms and you can open up any combination. So on Monday night I may give you 5,000 feet, next Monday I may give you 10,000. The idea is to be able to change. Every time you come in you’ll come in to a different-sized space. I think that it’ll be fun to play with.
Do you have any idea of what kind of party schedule you’ll have?
In Chicago we’ve always had a huge gay night, and we will do one here. We are doing what we call a “hip-pop” night in Miami; you can’t ignore hip-hop anymore. We’ll throw in some curves too. We have four totally different nights in Miami, from Back Door Bamby to hip-hop night, and Fridays and Saturdays can range from hot DJs to sex parties. Sundays we do the big gay thing, we’ve had a gay night going for ten years and it’s strong. We’ll do similar things in New York.
Crobar co-owner Ken Smith wants to know, New York.
Crobar needs no introduction – it’s an American nightlife institution, with locations in Chicago (which celebrated its tenth anniversary on December 4), Miami, and by the late spring, New York. With all the wild speculation surrounding the Manhattan project, you’d think that Ken Smith and his partner Cal Fortis were keeping the tale of its plan and progress under close guard, but not so. In the following, the keen, direct Smith discusses the legacy of Studio 54, Miami’s continued success, what he thinks is wrong with New York and how he’s going to fix it.
How do you maintain that which you’ve created in Miami?
We follow what we did previously in Chicago. Clubs cycle; you have to constantly change them. Keeping up is everything; freshness is everything. People get bored after they’ve been to the club twice. How many movies do you see twice? If you expect people to come back year after year after year, you have to really put it out there and keep it fresh.
We base everything on knowing people and friendliness, which sounds like a load of crap, but we do it better than anyone, particularly in the Miami market. When we came here, the difference between a bad club and a good club at that time was as easy as letting someone in the ropes and saying hello. Seriously. We told people that was our concept – it really isn’t all of the concept – and they’d look at us like we were from Mars. But we were from the Midwest, and we knew how to not just throw a party, but take care of people and remember your last and first name. And that’s critical – it’s critical to our concept. That’s what makes our concept. We have probably the best staff I’ve ever hired here in Miami – 110 people who all believe that same thing, and want to meet you genuinely. Some of them unfortunately want to take you home, which is against the rules.
What are the elements of a party?
Of course the party has to have great music, a great promotion. No one’s reinvented this wheel since Studio 54, let’s face it. It’s variations on that theme, it’s promotions, it’s this, it’s that, but nothing no one has never done before. So I think in this market, especially in a value-oriented society, which it is after 9/11, it’s critical – critical – that you feel like you’re in my house, and your house. I don’t care what place it is, or how exciting, or what DJ. Hey, after I’ve heard Danny Tenaglia three times, I’ve heard Danny Tenaglia three times.
Since Studio 54, maybe the thing that really has changed is this cult of the DJ.
I think that it has gone so far in the other direction that that is what has opened up the New York market. The last two big openings there, which should have been great places, were open solely on the backs of so-called big DJs, and I think those clubs are missing the point of club life. Limelight and Powder are both closed: Limelight’s only open on Sunday for boy’s night now. And they both should have been successful clubs. There’s no reason they weren’t: I walked through Limelight, it’s a beautiful space. Powder is a pretty nice space, all rehab-ed, great sound systems, great DJs. So what’s the problem? What’s missing? The party. Everybody forgot about the party.
In New York no less; isn’t that a tragedy?
It blows my mind. It’s like, everybody’s going, “It’s about the DJ, it’s about the DJ,” but guess what? It’s not about the DJ. It’s about the party, and part of the party is the DJ. You should expect great music at the party, right? Or you’re leaving. But the last time I went to somebody’s house party it wasn’t because of their DJ. It was because it was somebody’s birthday, or somebody’s great barbecue, or somebody’s boat party. I didn’t go, “Who’s the DJ, or I’m not coming.” It’s ludicrous.
But it is possible to merge a big DJ with the party.
Of course it is. It should be part of the party, and it should be part of the party automatically. You should always get great music. We started talking about all this probably a year ago when the DJs started being 15 grand…
And started to suck.
Yeah, they all started being into their own little deal. I started getting away from booking people who I didn’t think were what I considered Crobar-type DJ. If I had to mention one big name I think is a Crobar DJ, it would be Timo Maas. I don’t care what room that guy plays in the world, he comes in the party, looks at the crowd – Pete Tong does the same thing – and jerks a record out of his bag that makes you just stop dancing and look at him and go, “What are you on?” Then you know you’ve a party started, because he threw you a curve or did something crazy, and he does it on purpose.
So clubland’s problem is that lack of “the party.”
It’s so obvious. We got away from this too; we’re guilty also. You come up with a cool flyer, a cool name for your promotion, and that’s it. It’s like, where’s the party? I’ve got all these supposedly great promoters in New York, Miami, wherever, it’s like, alright, this flyer got me here, but where’s the party? I don’t get it. Sometimes it’s enough to just have the right crowd, but that right crowd lasts for three weeks and then the A-crowd disappears, whatever you call them, the cool 600. And hey, where’s the party after that? If it’s not the balloons, the DJ, and shit falling out of the ceiling, and you trying to get me to take my clothes off, where is it?
But I really really really know deep down that that is what New York needs. Somebody’s gotta go back and get Bianca Jagger on a horse. What’s wrong with that?
So is this why you decided to do New York now?
We always wanted to go to New York. We used to come to New York years ago. We’ve been friends with Peter Gatien forever, ever since he came to Chicago; I had a club that fed his club. There are two o’clock licenses and four o’clock licenses in Chicago, and I had a two o’clock at the time in this cute little bar, and when I closed I got to walk a half a block and go party at Limelight. It was beautiful, almost similar to the Limelight in [New York]; it’s like a mini-castle. He really had a great eye for property.
So what’s the status of crobar New York now? There are all kinds of rumors.
It took us a year to get our license. We signed a deal with our investors in August, it fell apart a little bit, we worked on it for three or four months to put it all back together. And our landlord – and I won’t say anything bad about him – is in love with his building, so it’s taken us almost an extra month to get started. Because he wanted to see what type of nails we were using. Talk about an anal guy, but we got through it. So we’re going to start. We should be on the roof next week. Hopefully it will be a late spring opening, after WMC and The Club Show. I will wait until after that to open.
What is the space like?
It’s not so huge. We’re going to use 25,000 square feet, but it seems like 50,000. It’s a space that in the old days you could have probably painted black and made a great warehouse club. But unfortunately, I don’t know how to not spend my money. It’s a pretty incredible space. We were really lucky to find it; a lot of people were looking at it. It’s across the street from Twilo, and they used to make Macy’s [Thanksgiving Day Parade] floats inside.
There’s an incredible main room, and basically we broke it up into three primary spaces, with two other little party spaces connected. There are five rooms and you can open up any combination. So on Monday night I may give you 5,000 feet, next Monday I may give you 10,000. The idea is to be able to change. Every time you come in you’ll come in to a different-sized space. I think that it’ll be fun to play with.
Do you have any idea of what kind of party schedule you’ll have?
In Chicago we’ve always had a huge gay night, and we will do one here. We are doing what we call a “hip-pop” night in Miami; you can’t ignore hip-hop anymore. We’ll throw in some curves too. We have four totally different nights in Miami, from Back Door Bamby to hip-hop night, and Fridays and Saturdays can range from hot DJs to sex parties. Sundays we do the big gay thing, we’ve had a gay night going for ten years and it’s strong. We’ll do similar things in New York.