Drai’s recipe for XS
Just hours before Tryst Nightclub’s two-year anniversary, nightclub impresario Victor Drai spoke with the Weekly about his new nightclub at Wynn’s Encore tower.
“XS. That’s the name,” and the aim, “to be as excessive as we can be. I hope it will be the most beautiful club ever made.” Inside the 40,000-square-foot space (the inside alone is the size of Tryst plus the Tryst lagoon), guests will find a nightclub built around an incorporated pool. While the pool will be open during the day for hotel guests, Drai doubts that the XS pool will in any way resemble or behave like the spate of “adult” pools coming online in recent years. “There are too many pools already in these environments. I don’t want to be in that business. I don’t like the crowd in the daytime. They’re too rough for me,” said the refined gentleman. “I don’t think it fits the Wynn.”
As for the interior: “Very sexy, very pretty, very rich.” Drai said he essentially has carte blanche from Steve Wynn to create with Wynn designer Roger Thomas the nightclub of his dreams.
The mogul once said he intended this third project to be his pièce de résistance, his final work in Las Vegas. “There’s enough business in Vegas for plenty of clubs. That’s been proven. And I’ll have two clubs on top. That’s how I see it.” And yes, he confirmed, “Definitely no more clubs in Vegas, that’s for sure.”
With XS, Drai will continue to focus on consistency. Unlike many of his competitors, Drai refrains from using paid celebrity hosts to create variety in his weekly party offerings. “And it will stay that way. I don’t pay celebrities. I don’t believe in it. I believe people will continue to come for what we offer. I’ve been doing this for 15 years this way. I’m not going to change it.”
XS is currently slated for a December opening with a schedule created not to step on big sister Tryst’s toes; the clubs will only overlap Friday and Saturday. While Drai knows the public is excited to see what he’s been keeping up his sleeve all this time, he admitted, “I can’t wait to see it myself!” It’s not unlike having a new baby. Having just welcomed into the world a two-week-old baby girl named Charlotte, Drai declared, “I’m going to raise the entrance [age] to 25!”