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| Continuing our regular series of articles covering the openings and closings of Orlando's downtown nightclubs, here's our Downtown Update. Senso Supperclub has closed and will reopen as the Avenue Gastropub. This is a huge disappointment as Senso brought in regular big-name DJ's. The recent downtown trend of venues offering "small bites" type of restaurant food coupled with a nightclub later on may be what's happening. This location was originally the home of pure nightclub Zinc Bar and then reopened as restaurant/night club Senso. But tables and chairs took up a lot of space to support the restaurant, leaving little room for late night dancing to EDM. Hopefully the new format will open more space for the latter. Will provide an update once more info is available. |
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| One South Nightclub has closed. This was yet another Orlando venue that used no imagination in its naming and thus had no discernible theming. It seemed to only attract the UCF crowd paying $20 for "all-you-can-drink" offers. I never went in. I don't think it will be missed. |
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| Club 57 West has closed. It focused more on live bands than DJ-driven music and usually seemed to have a crowd so I'm surprised. Replacement Syn Nightclub is taking over the space and construction inside is evident. Opening March 1st, they say they're going to change Orlando nightlife forever. We've heard that before. But I hope they're right. |
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| Terrace 390 has closed. Located on the ground floor of the Bank of America Tower, the venue featured an inside bar with one DJ and then the huge outside plaza without more bars and another DJ. The inside restaurant/bar is apparently still in business but the outside section is closed. Under new management, a cleverly named Bistro 390 is coming! |
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| Last but not least, Hip Hop club Limelight has become Hip Hop club Parallel. The place had received a lot of bad publicity last year when a patron from Texas was murdered outside following an altercation with someone inside. The name change should cure that! |
goes to show you how power full PI REALLY WAS!!
ReplyDeleteeven the so called busy clubs have closed! in Downtown Orlando! HMMM?!?!?
None of these places were very busy!
ReplyDeleteI would still question the ability of whoever is "managing" these clubs.
ReplyDeleteJust don't think you have the talent at management to make it work down there.
I'm hoping Senso is renovating in order to handle larger crowds. Syn will be a completely new venture. There is no relation of any of this to PI except to the extent that PI is no longer there, downtown has gotten busier.
ReplyDeleteIs it the management or the owners?
Assuming owners are smart enough to stay the f**k out of the way..it's the managers. ;)
ReplyDeleteAssuming.
I've worked with idiot owners that just had to things their way because they thought they knew better and had control of the money.
Successful clubs let the manager (now the owner) actually manage; 100% manage..
but PI was around for 18 years!
ReplyDeleteis my point! most of these clubs are fly by night! and will never last! OH and the REASON the clubs downtown are busy now IS because PI is closed! other wise downtown would be a ghost town!
funny not all owners are dumb! and can run a club! just sayin! I have seen some really dumb *ss managers who have NO real idea how to run a club!
ReplyDeletemanagers are just people!they dont really care if the club makes money or not as long as they get paid!
As a general rule, managers (the good ones) know more than the owners about how to run a club. The owner needs to be involved and provide the financial incentives, etc.
ReplyDeleteEven if it's the case of an owner managing his/her own club, it still comes down to who's calling the shots and do they have a clue.
As an outsider to Orlando, I've never understood how a lot of these clubs turn a profit when I'm seeing such low/nonexistant covers and cheap drinks. Like anywhere, there must be the occasional laundry being done - not sure if that contributes to any opening/closing.
ReplyDeletePI was open from spring of 89 to 2008 19 years, i helped build it was there the very first night soft opening 8 Trax was Videopolis East
ReplyDeleteAnon at 10:59pm, I don't think there are any club managers that don't care if their club makes money or not. That's a quick path to unemployment.
ReplyDeleteBelle, it's all about supply and demand. A lot of places would simply go out of business if they introduced a cover charge. Many can get away with a $5 charge and very, very few can get away with with a cover charge higher than that.
Anon at 10:23pm, email me if you have any pics from back then. Would love to do an article about Videopolis East! (and The Cage)