City
Crobar’s New Baby Is Born. Say Hello To Exit 66.
Just weeks after Opium shut its South Beach doors and moved to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino complex near Hollywood, the guys behind the hugely successful megaclub crobar/Cameo are opening a joint at Fort Lauderdale beach. So, is SoBe style migrating north?
Not necessarily. Exit 66, which has its grand opening Wednesday night, is about as far from glam and velvet rope exclusion as one can get. The club aims to take trucker chic to the next level, billing itself as “a fusion of American life with a dose of ’60s kitsch, wrapped up in the sex appeal of the eternal mud flap vixen.”
Cal Fortis, who designed the laid-back America’s Backyard parties at Revolution in Fort Lauderdale, says he was going for a similar vibe, but with a twist. “Instead of backyard Americana, it’s the back roads of America, which are much darker and a little dirtier and sexy. So that idea developed into a fictional character named Billy and his journey along Route 66 and all of his roadside experiences. Call it Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas meets Road Trip.”
Exit 66 features five whimsically themed rooms: Woody’s Bar and Pleasure Liner Lounge (a rock ‘n’ roll bar), Cool Pool (inspired by Paul Newman’s 1963 billiards film, The Hustler), Madame B. Atch’s Bunny Ranch (a burlesque saloon), Chiki-Tiki (a surreal Gilligan’s Island) and the main room, Exit 66, with Billy’s Bar (inspired by the ’60s biker flick Easy Rider).
Fortis says that although Exit 66 intentionally departs from SoBe style, it’s no drop in quality. ”This is the level of a world-class nightclub,” he says. “It has the bones of what we’ve done with crobar in Miami, New York and Chicago, just in a more theatrical, economy-driven way.”
That means instead of having to spend $500 on VIP bottle service, Exit 66 will offer ”30 Pabst Blue Ribbon longnecks in a champagne bucket,” says Fortis. The club will be overflowing with tongue-in-cheek attitude.
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