Let's dispense with all of the puns right now: Jet is circling for a landing (I'm guilty of that one), Jet is ready for take-off, Jet takes to the skies and anything else local keyboard pilots might come up with. It's enough to say that Jet is the new club opening New Year's Eve at Mirage with Kid Rock hosting, and it's going to be breathing some welcome life into the property sandwiched between the rebranded T.I. with its successful Tangerine, Caesars' kick-ass Pure, the Venetian's exotic Tao and Wynn's relaunching of La Bête as Tryst.
Tough competition, but after being granted a tour of the nearly complete premises that's been two years in the making, I can say that the Light Group's latest offering will have no problem carving out its own share of Vegas' world-class nightlife scene.
The Light Group team, headed by Andrew Sasson, and internationially known architect and designer Jeffrey Beers—Rumjungle, China Grill and Tabú, to name a few—have taken the best of its other club properties, some exciting new concepts and nods toward the town's hottest spot, Tao—in the form of alabaster candles in nooks and a raised VIP island—and blended them seamlessly. The 15,000 square feet can hold 2,000 partiers and is divided into three rooms, which managing partner Sean Christie explains can easily be run as one, two or three nightspots, with each space having its own DJ station. Those stations will be manned by famed DJ Stretch Armstrong and the father of house music, DJ Jesse Saunders, among others.
The main, 10,000 square-foot room is clearly remeniscent of Light's self-titled and celeb-frequented club at Bellagio: a large, long rectangle with a centered, dropped dance floor featuring VIP seating. But unlike Light's black-on-black color scheme, Jet's main room is a mix of slate walls and zebra-grained ebony. Together with amber-hued windows and gold-mottled upholstery that call up the shades used at Light's Mist and Caramel, the materials infuse the space with a welcome warmth.
There are four bars that will be manned by 25 bartenders, including one counter that's 62 feet long. As at Tao, the banquettes are designed to be stood and even danced upon, with vertical cables in place as handholds to help keep folks upright. Modern interpretations of flying buttresses accented by fiber optics add to the comfortable feel and help draw the eye to the dance floor's ceiling.
Not that help is needed, because the ceiling has a strong chance of unseating Tabú as world champion of lighting effects.
Designed by the Spider Club's John Lyons (who also created the club's unique-in-the-nation sound system named the EAW Jet series) and Beers, it consists of an 80-foot by 96-foot matrix of 120 high-powered Traxon LED panels, 20 rotating lights, laser emulators and strobes, and a half-dozen moving video projectors.
That description doesn't do the system justice, so just try to imagine a massive digital TV screen that can be broken up into any combination of 120 individual images. Want to see Scarface over 7,680 square feet? Done. Want to see pictures of flowers on 3,840 square feet and bunnies on the other 3,840? You got it. Want to see Tara Patrick and ... well, you get the idea. Heck, even the go-go pods will be uplit with LEDs.
And ladies, don't think the gents at Jet have gotten swept up in gadgetry like your boyfriend in a Best Buy store. The club offers a coat check and 22 stalls in the restroom. Somewhere, Paris Hilton is smiling.