At the ripe old age of 6, when the future of Light nightclub at the Bellagio began to look less bright, the club dimmed its trusses, gave a bow and exited the building. One final romp in August gave industry members and devotees a last chance to bumble about the not-huge club in search of old friends, good drinks and time lost, perhaps, because of too much of that middle thing. When the party was over, the work began.
Just before the holidays and the descent into New Year’s weekend—a rough time to still be under construction—the Weekly was granted first audience with the Bank, which was to open its doors in Light’s footprint on Thursday, December 27, slipping instantly into the same Thursday through Sunday (with the exception of New Year’s Eve) groove and retaining Sunday as industry night.
Those doors. How many have trembled before them? Probably just as many as have quivered before St. Peter’s pearly gates and prayed their name would appear on that list somewhere.
This time around, Light Group has taken six years of intimate knowledge of a place, thoughtfully redesigned with nods to the past, present and future, and placed the project in the hands of one who best represents the brand. Managing partner Jodi Myers—the first female to hold such a position—is said to have carefully overseen the redesign and reinvention from its conception. “The Bank is Vegas’ most exclusive, high-energy nightlife destination,” says Myers.
Passing through the shiny gold entrance and tall black doors—bold but bespoke, like a plain black briefcase filled with gold bars from a James Bond flick—previous guests will feel quite at home riding the escalators up to the landing, but that’s where their memory will have to remain. Where once there was a pitch-black hallway and a grand, candle-lit, mirrored corridor, there now sits a far more functional space. Gun-metal black and metallic gold brocade wallpaper continue the color scheme set by the front doors. Wainscoting gives the hall a saloon or bordello feel, only updated for, say, this century. The mirrored hall and dated hurricane lamps have been tossed in favor of banquette seating and 500 champagne bottles. Locked up behind special glass in the so-called Cristal room, it creates the illusion that not one but infinite rows of Cristal lie within. Surrounded by such opulence, who could mind waiting while their VIP table is set up?
Just one or two steps inside the doorway, one sees almost the entire club, save the restrooms (now downstairs) and the ultra-VIP Red Room (formerly the ultra-VIP Blue Room). To the right, a bar. What serendipity! That’s just where marketing gurus tell us the eye goes first. And where the eye goes, the body, mouth and wallet will inevitably follow. A long, smooth runway of black wood beneath croc-bossed gold leather ceiling tiles—that’s where black-clad bartenders will serve up the drinks. At the tables, a front waiter/back waiter system will have the busboys running the bottles, thus keeping the cocktail servers on the floor. The custom VIP tables feature drawers and shelves to make way for the return of Club Service, with individual bottles of soda replacing carafes. Says Myers, “It makes a better quality drink.”
A 90-degree turn left and one ascends to a balcony where the DJ booth is nestled between two very sweet VIP spots hanging over the sunken dance floor and decorated with a mesh of gold-tone brushed metal “Googie” design work (that being the pop-luxe architecture of the Atomic Age); the Bank’s own Googie is a stylized atom!
The Bank makes good use of the casino level, expanding not upward as did LAX at Luxor, but downward, establishing an inverted four-tier cake effect, connected by stairs and ramps. From the balcony, the highest tier, one looks down on the main level, the wide intermediate level with an abundance of expansive black VIP booths and the tiny dance floor, ringed with more VIP seating, making it essentially a dance floor just for those who have tables there.
Mirroring the first bar is an equally long second bar, with two-way glass giving the Red Room’s patrons a clear view of the club from within its tomato soup-red confines. On either side of the bar stand entrances to the Red Room, as well as to the restrooms, where flirty wallpaper—ladies’ stockings, bustiers—keeps one’s attention during the inevitable wait. Around the main level, an etched, LED-lit frosted glass wall emits gentle light, which cooperates with the pin-spot LED-lit tiles on the ceiling above.
The final effect will be dramatic, one that takes design elements from the past and incorporates the innovation of the future. And all inside a tiny, black leather box where, adds Myers, “all things precious are kept.”