Club Report: The Edison

The Blog was the first to report the New Years Eve opening of The Edison and urged anyone interested in attending to buy their tickets immediately. We can report that it is now a sold out event, even at over $200 per ticket. Since I will be checking out the DJ's at EPCOT that night, we'll wait a little longer to check out what The Edison will actually be offering.

Last week Patina Restaurant Group, the outfit that will be operating The Edison and its adjoining venues, provided guided tours. Blog Reader Troy was there and has this detailed report:

Got there a earlier in the day, well before my tour started yesterday, to discover hard hats, vests, and safety gear. Which was somewhat surprising considering they were offering tours, but also goes back to our thoughts that the venues aren't as far along as we thought. We were told almost immediately that Pizza Ponte would not be included - apparently crews decided to rewire the building yesterday which made it impossible to go into. Obviously, this is no big deal as it was at the bottom of my list.

The tour begins and we walk around the backside of the venues (which I don't remember ever using, even when PI was open) and enter through the back entrance to Maria and Enzo's. A lot of people were in there already (I assume these were new employees undergoing training, as they were present in all three venues and dressed nicely). The venue is...nice. It wasn't completely set up, but the "performance arena" design is there, just not used in that way. It looks like the entrance will be up top and people will walk left or right to dual winding staircases that will take them to the bottom floor where tables and chairs are set up for dining. Lots of air travel themes are present, terminal signage is still up. There's also a VIP-style area for "first class," which I assume is just more private and costs additional money. Obviously Italian food, no mention of any type of entertainment. 

Next we were led back outside and over to Enzo's Hideaway Tunnel Bar. It's a lot larger than I expected it to be - I was expecting something small like The Hangar or Trader Sam's - a lot of stone work and exposed bricks. More employees in here for orientation. This was the only place we were allowed to take photos; against either a stone wall or against one of the small bars. They're being careful on what they want out on social media and the like, especially with construction still going on in most of the venues. One of the walls also has a lot of graffiti on it, some Disney-related stuff. Looks like they will also serve Italian style food here. Doesn't look like any entertainment here, but will probably be a must visit place while at Disney Springs.  

Last but not least, the tunnel bar has an entrance to the bottom floor of The Edison. We were limited to only the bottom floor of the venue (it looks like they were still doing some work up top and welding crews were doing some last-minute work on the staircases), but it definitely is a very, very cool looking place. It's definitely rocking the steampunk look that's popular these days, a lot of dark colors and deep reds around the venue. 

By day, it will be a full restaurant and there are three bars, two on the bottom floor and one on the top floor. It looks like seating will be available up top (the old Zebra Mezzanine from Adventurers Club) in addition to down below. At 10 p.m., the restaurant portion will shut down and become a nightclub. They did, unfortunately, get around to removing the old Adventurers Club railing and it's replaced with chrome and glass.It's been almost a decade since I've been in Adventurers Club, but it looks like the "entertainment area" will mainly be contained to the old Library portion of the venue. During the day, it will have chairs and tables for dining, but those will be removed at night and a stage will be set up (I'm not sure if the stage will be set up every night or if it has yet to be installed...it wasn't 100 percent clear, but there was no stage yesterday). There will be professional dancers and aerialists working in tandem for the show; it sounds like there will be a DJ, but he'll be committed to the "show" that's going on and what kind of musical styles that is, I don't know. The shows will be more burlesque-style, so I can't imagine it being today's hits if that's the vibe they are going for. So it appears dancing will be fairly limited to the professionals, which I know isn't what you or other PI faithful were hoping for. 

And I think that about covers it. The Edison is definitely going to be a great, beautiful venue that will offer "some" nightlife options that Disney Springs has been lacking; it'll be a great addition to the area. It's a venue that could have worked at Pleasure Island years ago, though it probably won't please a lot of PI faithful that were hopeful it would be a full-on dance club. 

Wow, GREAT report, Troy!  Thank you so much for letting us know what you saw and your opinions about the complex! Excited that this is finally here and can't wait to see what that means!
Photo Credit: Disney Parks Blog