NIGHTLIFE
Originally published on Monday, 02 June 2008
Le Roi Est Mort
It always takes a few years for a decade to die. 1992 may as well have been called '1989 part 3', for all its originality. But come now: it's 2008 already.
On the site of the old Denim, the new Kingly Club is a slick affair of LED-lit curves and iconic fish tanks. Basically, bleach the garish purple, and it's Denim all over again. But white. Very, very white. Behind it's double-height glass frontage, it feels like a set from Star Trek. A futurism drenched in the luxurious minimalism of the 1990s. And a crowd, I foresee, who are still impressed with that.
So far, so 90s. But descend into the sleek, contrasting black gloss basement, and they've converted the sleazy old dancefloor into a good-sized, Japanese restaurant with a very special, tiny, ten-tabled cube of white banquettes and wall-to-wall fish tanks. I'm wondering whether the irony of the sashimi menu was intentional. And no, you can't pick your own.
But it does make you feel like a Bond villain aboard a luxury submarine, a glass of champagne in hand as you ponder your next plan for world-domination over a plate of immaculate sushi.
The 90s may be dead. But long live the 90s!
The Kingly Club - opening Thursday June 5
4 Upper St. Martin's Lane, WC2 - 020 7836 5211