Kings of Clubs

The coke-drenched era of nightclubs is over, but now a new group of entrepreneurs is ready to reinvent the scene

A A A Comments By Mark Stuertz Thursday, May 1 2003

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Mark Graham

Blue will be a flurry of adult distractions including belly dancers, VIP lounges, aerialists, a huge dance floor and a restaurant; below, club denizens plead to get past the doorman at the Starck Club, a 1980s den of sex and drugs.

Mark Graham

"People had drugs and people were attractive and people had martinis and nobody slowed down," howls '80s club mogul Shannon Wynne, top. Now, says Wynne's one-time partner Matthew Mabel, below, clubs are run by geeks in lab coats.

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The other person Black seems to model himself after is his late father. "He was square as hell," Black says, dabbing his red eyes after recounting the stunned but silent look of pride he remembers on his father's face when he flew him to Dallas to show him Iguana Mirage. He composes himself. "I'm what you don't think of as a bar owner," he stresses. "I really don't drink that often. I don't stay out late. I'm in bed by 11:30, 12 o'clock. What you would normally think a club guy would do, I don't. I'm not much of a schmoozer. I'm a boring guy."