No, I didn’t misspell the word “city” in the title of the post. The word Citi is a reference to the uniquely designed Citibankbuilding on Oakland Park Blvd and US1 — the same building that now has a new nightclub attached to it called Sky Nightclub. Don’t worry scenesters, we didn’t know about it either until yesterday evening. The club is hard to miss if you’re driving through the Federal/Oakland Park Blvd intersection after sun down — the multi-colored spotlights swirling on the building won’t let you drive by without rubbernecking. And even though that particular strip of Federal Highway is no stranger to spotlights, particularly the bright Bat-signal that leads the local horndogs to the boobies at Solid Gold, you can’t help but hit drive grandma speed and gawk at the bank-turned-discoteca.
After a raucous performance by UK trancecore band Enter Shikari at Culture Room, Fat Hand, Young Turk, and myself staggered across the street to grab an another beer at this mysterious locale. Located on the second floor, accessible via an entrance near the roundabout in front of the building, we entered into a swanky main room, totally underdressed (Turk was wearing an old school Phoenix Suns jersey. I was wearing my ‘hangout’ shorts and a sweaty tee from a BBQ restaurant. An old man laughed at me when I walked in). According to a flier I picked up off the ground near the entrance, the dress code is strictly enforced — clearly, our confident swagger superseded any rules for acceptable attire. The small-to-midsized, circular interior was covered in hues of red and purple lights. A few couples were on the dance floor, completely immersed in the latin music blaring from the speakers. The ceiling was painted with columns, leading to the center where there was a fake sky — slightly disappointing that they don’t have an actual moon roof revealing real stars. I’m not complaining or anything, but it seems a little odd to name a bar Sky that’s neither on the top of a building, has a good view of the city, or provides a glimpse to the Earth’s atmosphere through a window on the roof. But I digress.
Sitting at one of their sleek bars, enjoying a Wednesday 2-4-1 drink special (I’m pretty sure girls drink free), we chatted with the friendly bartender Melissa who provided us with some info, along with some icy cold, vortex’ed Miller Lites. According to our source, the club has been open for about a month, and although many nights have been slow, they’ve had some well attended events and are expecting bigger crowds as soon as the word gets out. On the weekends, the DJ spins house and hip hop; during the weekdays they’ll mix it up with more Latin music (this particular night, we were graced with salsa). As of now, they’re open to 4am everyday of the week, except for Sunday and Monday. I’m rooting for them to do well, but their business hours seem a little over ambitious for a club in Fort Lauderdale during the middle of the working week; don’t blame me if you stumble from a lap dance at the Solid Gold to Sky at 3am on a Tuesday night and it happens to be closed.
In such a competive industry, the only way they’ll stay in business is to get the word out. I read on a daily basis every active Broward blog, the Sun-Sentinel and Miami Herald, and various local websites, and I had never even heard a mere mention of this nightclub. That can’t be good sign for them. For starters, a well designed website would help, along with some social media presence to announce upcoming events. Get the New Times, popular blogs, and newspapers to review or preview your club. And even with all that, it will be tough because, at the moment, the only aspect of this club that is truly unique is that it’s attached to a bank. I mean, geez, could you pick a more generic name for a club?
On first glance, the main room has potential for a midweek indie dance party, which I mentioned to one of the promoters that night. The owners probably won’t bite on my recommendation, but who knows? Maybe DJ Mig will spin there one night — our readers would be the first to know.
Check out Sky Nightclub for yourself, even if its simply out of curiosity. In my opinion, Sky is a hard sell and will need some luck to succeed; I’ll be rooting for them to do well though.
Pictures of the club can be found on NightCure.com
