When it comes to San Diego's glitzy nightclub scene, James Brennan is arguably the King of the Velvet Rope.
During the downtown development boom, the native New Yorker and his partners opened the chic Gaslamp Quarter nightspots Stingaree and Side Bar. Stingaree and the now-closed Side Bar reveled in exclusivity, with dark-suited doormen deciding which fashionistas got in and nightly bottle-service tabs running into the thousands of dollars.
EARNIE GRAFTON / Union-Tribune
Truc Nguyen prepared the bar at Universal, an indoor nightspot in Hillcrest, in advance of tonight's grand opening. It's part of a $5 million, 15,000-square-foot nightclub/restaurant complex at University Avenue and Vermont Street.
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Now Brennan and his development group, EnDev Enterprises, are launching their latest creation – Universal and Dish in Hillcrest – a nightclub-and-restaurant complex that promises to deliver similar swank.
But this time, with a nod to Hillcrest's gay community and the looming recession, it comes with a difference.
Unlike the sometimes-daunting Stingaree, a 22,000-square-foot, tri-level nightclub/restaurant with an industrial air, Universal aims to be more organic, intimate and affordable, Brennan said.
The $5 million, 15,000-square-foot complex, at University Avenue and Vermont Street, is broken into four distinct “scenes”: Universal, an indoor nightclub that opens to the public tonight; Dish, an “urban comfort” restaurant slated to open in early May; The Garden, an open-air lounge area with fire pits that connects the nightclub to the restaurant; and a Ciro's Pizzeria.
“Opening a Stingaree these days would scare the (heck) out of me,” Brennan said with a wry smile. “If you don't have 800 people in there, it looks empty. Any of those gigantic places really have to fight to make sure they get market share, and these days there is not enough to go around for four or five megaclubs.”
EARNIE GRAFTON / Union-Tribune
James Brennan and his development group are hoping their latest creation, Universal and Dish, will set a tone that the Hillcrest community will embrace.
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Still, for scale and attitude – Universal is aggressively marketing itself as an inclusive nightclub for gays and straights – there is nothing in Hillcrest to rival the EnDev venture, some Hillcrest community activists say.
The Universal nightclub has an elevated, oval dance floor underneath a soffit of 60 flat-panel screens that will project images and artwork, and a vertical, 15-foot bottle display lit by hundreds of candles.
Among the nightclub's features will be a new bottle service, dubbed Mixology, in which customers can select liquors and champagnes from a menu and mix up their own individualized specialty drinks.
“There is quite a lot of excitement over Universal. It's really going to raise the Hillcrest night life a notch,” said Nicole Murray-Ramirez, a weekly columnist for the San Diego Gay and Lesbian Times and chairwoman of the city's Human Relations Commission.
“They've taken it to the next level in design, financing, the look of it,” Murray-Ramirez said. “And nothing in Hillcrest has been marketed that way – 'universal' – where everyone is welcome, even if you're from Mars. You can get a cocktail, go to the restaurant, grab a pizza – you could actually live there.”
Well, not exactly. But Brennan, 35, is hoping Universal and Dish will set a tone that the Hillcrest community, gay and straight, will embrace.
“We really want to create an atmosphere where everyone is welcome, if you are gay, straight or whatever,” he said. “And if you're not OK with one of those other people, you won't be welcome. That's the tone, and we really want to live up to that.”
While Brennan appears to have an uncanny knack for churning out the next “in” nightspot, his early entrepreneurial success was in the more pedestrian mortgage loan business. It didn't take.
“I woke up one day and couldn't do another mortgage,” Brennan said. “I just hated it.”
He also wasn't a fan of San Diego's night life. So in 2002, Brennan and partner Demien Farrell co-founded 3/73 Management, which opened Side Bar and Ciro's Pizzeria in the Gaslamp.
“There was no good place to hang out, no intimate, New York-style lounges,” Brennan said. “So we created something we wanted to go to.”
In 2005, 3/73 opened Stingaree, which garnered national media attention as a chic, celebrity-strewn place to be seen. Last year, the nightclub landed on Conde Nast Traveler's coveted Hot List.
Other entertainment spots, including The Witherby, a high-end corporate-and private-event venue perched above Side Bar, and Bar West, a lounge in Pacific Beach, followed.
In 2006, Brennan merged 3/73 with another entity he co-founded, real estate development firm Halcyon Cos., to form EnDev Enterprises. Among EnDev's new projects is a complete revamp of the now-closed Side Bar, which will open this summer with a new, undisclosed name and look.
“It will have a totally different look and feel – more comfortable, warmer, not so intimidating,” Brennan said. “ 'An upscale dive bar' is how I often describe it.”
Brennan said nightclubs periodically need to be refreshed or rebranded, and given the recessionary times, Side Bar's replacement will strive to be more of a “neighborhood bar.”
“Maybe it's a nod to me getting older,” Brennan said. “I don't want to do this again in five years, so we are building it for sustainability.”.
Meanwhile, well-heeled San Diegans and out-of-towners still have Stingaree for an ultra-indulgent downtown experience. There are no plans to revamp the nightclub, which, after suffering a downturn during last year's wildfires, is again “hitting its numbers,” Brennan said.
Last year, the profitable nightclub generated $11 million, and out of all of EnDev's nightspots, only The Witherby remains unprofitable, Brennan said.
“There are still a lot of people out there with money,” he said. “But everyone is fighting for a select few, because it's few and far between who can go out and spend $1,800 on a liquor tab for the night.”
Penni Crabtree: (619) 293-1237; penni.crabtree@uniontrib.com
