Add a little life to your night

Viva Las Vegas. It was an Elvis Presley movie. Ann-Margret was in

it. That’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about “Club

Vegas.”

Entrepreneur and club owner James Raven has been given the nod

from the Costa Mesa Planning Commission to create an upscale

nightclub in the basement of the Pacific Savings Plaza building on

19th and Newport. And thus, the ever-evolving Pacific Savings Plaza

-- the Mission without a mission -- takes another interesting turn.

“Club Vegas” will be big, brash and first cabin, as one would expect

from a project with a robust $2.5-million budget. Even at today’s

prices, that’s a lot of paper drink umbrellas.

James Raven is no neophyte to nightlife, having been involved in a

number of upscale clubs, including Aysia 101, the terminally trendy

pan-Asian restaurant for the spelling-impaired.

Given the past tussles between the city and other downtown clubs,

like the Empire Ballroom and “NYC,” local pundits thought the Club

Vegas request would be tossed onto the dust pile of denials. But the

Planning Commission reasoned, wisely I might add, that if there is

any place in a city for a nightclub, this is it -- in a basement,

with plenty of parking and no homes in the immediate area.

Of course, whether a club survives or not depends a lot more on

what’s going on outside the doors than in. Oftentimes, people who

have had too much to drink will act as if they’ve had too much to

drink. I don’t know why that is, it just is. But when they act that

way as they venture back outside in the wee small hours, the

establishment from whence they came is not long for this world. But

Raven has the experience to handle those issues, and I hope it works

out, on two counts.

Count-one: The city and local businesses have put a lot of time,

effort and moola into revitalizing downtown Costa Mesa. Moola is a

slang term for money, not to be confused with dough, clams, drachmas,

shekels or simoleons. Wait, what’s a Greek urn? About 30 drachmas a

month. I couldn’t help it.

But the point is, 20 years of redevelopment efforts in downtown

Costa Mesa have worked. Try this. Next time you’re down there, stop

right in the middle of the intersection of Harbor and Newport. Now

get out of your car and climb up on the roof. Don’t worry about the

other cars. They’ll be glad to wait.

Now look around. You see Borders Books? It was an abandoned gas

station. Pacific Savings Plaza? An old school, overgrown and used for

storage. Triangle Square? A strange, walled complex that looked like

a small prison camp in the Gulag Archipelago. Mimi’s Restaurant and

the Courtyards? A scary, rundown strip center that was best-known for

a Furniture-in-the-Nude store and a crumbling parking lot that could

swallow a Toyota Tercel in one bite.

You know what the biggest ingredient in the marvelous makeover of

the downtown area has been? Nightlife. Gotta have it. In those days

there was none -- the death-knell for any downtown area. Today,

whether it’s Borders Books, the cinemas at Triangle Square or the

cadre of restaurants and bars, it’s a happening place, day and night.

Also, in case you haven’t noticed, Costa Mesa has become a hotbed

of nightlife, with an amazing range of choices, from chic to hip to

funky, it’s all here. There just aren’t a lot of cities where you can

start with a little foie gras at Troquet, walk across the street and

scream “bravo” until you’re hoarse at the Performing Arts Center,

then cruise a few blocks down Bristol and finish up with a mint julep

and a jazz trio at Memphis Cafe. Amazing.

Count-two: I’d love to see a rebirth of the golden age of

nightclubs -- the Cocoanut Grove, the Latin Quarter, Ciro’s, El

Mocombo, the Copacabana, etc. I don’t know if Club Vegas will be

anything like those legendary clubs, but we can always hope.

For those of you who are too young to wrinkle, a real nightclub

was a place where fully-grown men and women spent an entire evening.

There was a bandstand and a dance floor surrounded by cafe tables.

Dinner tables and booths lined the walls, elevated above the main

floor. There was a stage show, usually twice a night, sometimes with

a big name, sometimes not. A pretty girl with a camera the size of an

accordion would snap your picture and bring it back to your table in

a cardboard frame with “Club Whatever” on it.

And here is the truly astounding part -- people got dressed up, in

suits and dresses even. (Men in the suits, women in the dresses.)

Unheard of.

So there you have it, Club Vegas. Oh, and I really, really liked

this description of the new club as reported in these very pages this

week by our very own Lolita Harper: “It will cater to an older crowd,

between 25 and 40 ... “ Yep, that’s it ... an older crowd. I gotta

go.

* PETER BUFFA is a former Costa Mesa mayor. His column runs

Sundays. He may be reached via e-mail at [email protected].