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New Universal CityWalk club promises to give 'themes' a rest
Scott Powers, Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted June 1, 2006
Sometimes, a theme just gets in the way for a themed club at a theme park.
That's the thinking that Universal Orlando planners brought as they created the latest addition to CityWalk's club row -- the cool but warm, retro but contemporary, swank but casual Red Coconut Club.
Grand opening is Saturday night for the lounge, which promises premium dry martinis and filet tips appetizers, a house band that plays Sinatra or Mellencamp, pool patio ambience with art deco flourishes, and an open room look with intimate little seating hideaways.
The Red Coconut replaces the old Motown Cafe, giving CityWalk what Universal hopes will become a general-purpose bar -- where people might go if they just want a comfortable place for a drink.
Universal runs seven clubs along CityWalk's club row, and each of them is aimed at least a little at market niches. Motown Cafe didn't add much that was unique, and it never quite had the packed houses that the Groove dance club or Pat O'Brien's music venue could provide regularly. So Universal closed it last year and began looking for a new idea.
"What we didn't have was an experience that wasn't necessarily tied directly to a theme or a music genre," said Ric Florell, Universal's senior vice president and general manager for revenue operations. "We didn't have that lounge. We didn't have that gathering place."
Under John Fitzgibbon, Universal's senior director for attractions development, the company's "universal creative studio" split the building. The bottom floor is becoming the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant, which opens in July.
For the rest of the building, Florell and Fitzgibbon worried that too much theme meant steering a club toward a niche market. They figured CityWalk had most of the niches covered. What they needed, Florell said, was that place people might go just to relax by themselves, "where there's not another particular reason that you come."
Not that there aren't market segments that Universal wants. Florell and Fitzgibbon want to capture more of the after-work happy-hour crowd, who probably wouldn't head for CityJazz. And they wanted more of the general crowd of out-of-town visitors who might be staying at International Drive hotels, and who might not consider relaxing at Latin Quarter.
They envisioned the Red Coconut's personality changing through the evening and through the week.
The happy-hour crowd wants casual. Next come people enjoying evenings out, seeking elegant. Late at night, the club needs to be ready for what Florell called the "heartier partiers."
So Fitzgibbon and his staff looked for ways to keep the club flexible, and to meet mixed expectations. Some seating looks straight out of a 1950s-era cocktail lounge. Other areas look space age. The dance floor shimmers like a swimming pool, surrounded by a patio. The decor features slate, stone, wood, stainless steel, bamboo and coconut trees. The five-piece Paul Vesco Band can cover Sheryl Crow or the Eagles, if that's what the crowd seems to want. Or it might play Harry Connick Jr.
"We introduced it all in an eclectic mix to make people feel comfortable," Fitzgibbon said. "They're materials that people might be used to seeing, but maybe not in this mix. The music and the architecture work well together because it is a broad mix."
Scott Powers, Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted June 1, 2006
Sometimes, a theme just gets in the way for a themed club at a theme park.
That's the thinking that Universal Orlando planners brought as they created the latest addition to CityWalk's club row -- the cool but warm, retro but contemporary, swank but casual Red Coconut Club.
Grand opening is Saturday night for the lounge, which promises premium dry martinis and filet tips appetizers, a house band that plays Sinatra or Mellencamp, pool patio ambience with art deco flourishes, and an open room look with intimate little seating hideaways.
The Red Coconut replaces the old Motown Cafe, giving CityWalk what Universal hopes will become a general-purpose bar -- where people might go if they just want a comfortable place for a drink.
Universal runs seven clubs along CityWalk's club row, and each of them is aimed at least a little at market niches. Motown Cafe didn't add much that was unique, and it never quite had the packed houses that the Groove dance club or Pat O'Brien's music venue could provide regularly. So Universal closed it last year and began looking for a new idea.
"What we didn't have was an experience that wasn't necessarily tied directly to a theme or a music genre," said Ric Florell, Universal's senior vice president and general manager for revenue operations. "We didn't have that lounge. We didn't have that gathering place."
Under John Fitzgibbon, Universal's senior director for attractions development, the company's "universal creative studio" split the building. The bottom floor is becoming the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant, which opens in July.
For the rest of the building, Florell and Fitzgibbon worried that too much theme meant steering a club toward a niche market. They figured CityWalk had most of the niches covered. What they needed, Florell said, was that place people might go just to relax by themselves, "where there's not another particular reason that you come."
Not that there aren't market segments that Universal wants. Florell and Fitzgibbon want to capture more of the after-work happy-hour crowd, who probably wouldn't head for CityJazz. And they wanted more of the general crowd of out-of-town visitors who might be staying at International Drive hotels, and who might not consider relaxing at Latin Quarter.
They envisioned the Red Coconut's personality changing through the evening and through the week.
The happy-hour crowd wants casual. Next come people enjoying evenings out, seeking elegant. Late at night, the club needs to be ready for what Florell called the "heartier partiers."
So Fitzgibbon and his staff looked for ways to keep the club flexible, and to meet mixed expectations. Some seating looks straight out of a 1950s-era cocktail lounge. Other areas look space age. The dance floor shimmers like a swimming pool, surrounded by a patio. The decor features slate, stone, wood, stainless steel, bamboo and coconut trees. The five-piece Paul Vesco Band can cover Sheryl Crow or the Eagles, if that's what the crowd seems to want. Or it might play Harry Connick Jr.
"We introduced it all in an eclectic mix to make people feel comfortable," Fitzgibbon said. "They're materials that people might be used to seeing, but maybe not in this mix. The music and the architecture work well together because it is a broad mix."
