The day outside is as cold and blustery as a bad cliché but inside Cherry, the swank new nightclub at the swank new Red Rock Resort & Casino, all is warm and red. Rande Gerber, nightlife mogul and husband to one of the world's Most Beautiful Women, Cindy Crawford, is all nervous excitement as he oversees the final stages of his 19th contribution to clubland in the United States and Mexico.
Squeezing in a walk-through while the Times of London sets up for a photo shoot, Gerber is obviously proud of every one of the club's features, starting with the door. "You enter through a womb-like tunnel," he says, explaining his thought process behind the red-lit, mirrored tube that will direct guests past the circle bar and to the club's heart.
The red theme is repeated throughout Cherry, reflecting both the names of the club and the property, as well as bringing the outside in. Wood has been used extensively, and even the highly polished metal cocktail tables handpicked by Gerber mimic the natural formations in Red Rock Canyon.
"Every time I design a new place, I want to do something I haven't done before," Gerber says. "With a five-star resort like this, I really wanted to step it up." To do so, he tapped top design talent David Rockwell of New York's Rockwell Group. Red leather coats the walls and sandy brown leather covers the banquettes, tooled with patterns that call to mind Paiute petroglyphs. Overhead, the same tribal imagery is repeated in red, back-lit designs.
Inside are 15 to 20 VIP areas, each with a curtain that can be used to expand the real estate or keep things nice and cozy. The VIP couches are a mix of leather and suede in desert tones. And this being Vegas, the now de rigueur stripper pole is present.
Centered in the 8,500 square feet is the circular dance floor. "We've floated the floor in such a way so the subs really excite the floor and you can really feel it up through your feet ... through your skeletal system," says Dan Agne, president of Sound Investment, a two-time Club World Award winner and nominee this year for its work in Miami's Nocturnal.
Adam Ward, Sound Investment's West Coast operations manager, adds that they've done "something not really done in any other club in the country" in equipping Cherry with an all-digital network. That not only means better sound out of the speakers but also that there will be no quality loss when running sound out to the pool.
"The sound system we've installed outside by the pool is better than what you'd find inside of most clubs," Ward says, joining Agne in promising that Cherry will win all of the tech awards at next year's Club World Awards, including the lighting system, designed by SJ Lighting, this year's Club World Award winner, also for Nocturnal. "It is definitely the most dynamic lighting system in Las Vegas that I know of," says Stephen Lieberman of SJ Lighting. "One of those things you'll just need to see for yourself."
Over the dance floor is a domed ceiling with a checkerboard pattern of black and mirrors, hiding speakers and making room for lights. Huge chrome cages, which were erroneously reported elsewhere as bottle-service tables, surround the ceiling speakers. (Gerber actually stops in his tracks with a puzzled expression when asked about this detail: "What? No, we don't have any tables like that. Where did that come from?")
As sophisticated as the club is, Gerber's playful side emerges in the restrooms. Coed restrooms.
Three-dimensional images projected on glass will greet patrons. Inside, a wall of one-way windows that double as mirrors will let folks get non-salacious glimpses of each other as they wash up, as will the smoky one-way window in the wall on the women's side. Puckishly grinning, Gerber makes sure to point out the urinals in the form of open mouths, designed by Meike van Schijndel of Holland's Bathroom Mania!—a hit in Europe but apparently raising misogynist paranoia on this side of the pond, despite the designer being a woman and stating the mouths are fun cartoons and not female lips.
Mirroring Gerber's successful Whiskey Bar at Green Valley, Cherry also opens to the outside, thanks to an entire glass wall engineered to fold into the club's sides. Outside is a big fire pit with a centered water feature, another island bar, eight cabanas that also feature curtains and 10 rotating day beds big enough to fit four, with walls that can be raised. Raised above the hotel's pool, a second gently arching pool and deck serve up spectacular desert views. While inside the speakers are on display, Sound Investment has gone to pains to disguise them outside, including hiding speakers inside banquettes. Look for weekly pool parties that will give Rehab a run for its money.
When asked about cover charges and bottle prices, Gerber seems uncomfortable with the reminder that, for as much as he only wants to create an atmosphere for people to have fun in, it is still a business. "We may do Friday and Saturday, a small cover. I don't know about bottles, but we certainly don't want to rape anyone."