Staying hot at Hess Village
It used to be about raising a pint with buddies. Now it's dressing up for the dance floor. Hess has gone from pub to club. What's next for Hamilton's entertainment hub?; Hess Village
August 09, 2008
Carli Whitwell
It's 10 p.m. and the black velvet rope goes up outside Elixir Nightclub. A girl sets up her till to claim a cover charge from the hundreds who make their way into the bar to dance, drink and see and be seen.
They trickle in slowly at first. It may be bedtime across the city, but here in Hess Village the night is just warming up.
The last five years have witnessed a major transition at Hess, a small downtown village sandwiched between Main and King, and lined with bars whose patios extend to a cobblestone-like walkway. Once known for its nurturing of new musical talent and its old-world pub comfort, the street has taken on a louder beat that thumps out dance rhythms and draws young crowds often more interested in meeting and mingling than catching up on conversation.
By 11 p.m. there is a lineup outside Elixir. Young women with shiny lips, mini-dresses and steep high heels clutch cellphones. Guys with designer shirts, distressed jeans and slick shoes look on.
Once they're in, they arm themselves with a drink -- a cocktail usually, or sometimes a beer. They sip a little, mingle a little, slip through the crowds and eventually make their way to the dance floor.
When that gets too hot, they cool off on the patio.
This is what is hot today at Hess, and that's what it's all about for the patrons and the business owners making a living off the crowds.
It has sparked a move from pub to club that has seen new bars spring up, old ones remodelled and reborn with new names, and live music nearly vanish.
Down the street from Elixir is a nightclub called Diavolo, offering a cavernous dance floor inside and an L-shaped elevated patio outside that's perfect for checking out the scene. Curly-haired Cassandra Aquilina and her smiling friend Kayla Campbell are standing in line, waiting their turn to enter. Two years ago this club would only fill with overflow from other bars when they got too crowded.
Now Diavolo is hot.
"We come here because everybody is here," says Aquilina, waiting patiently midway through the line. "It's the place to be."
And being new and hot is what it's all about, says Marvin Ryder, a marketing lecturer at McMaster University, explaining the constant transition of Hess.
"A young person going out in Hamilton doesn't want to feel that they are going to a place six months behind. They want a club that might rival an experience in New York, L.A. and Toronto."
So places such as Sizzle and its conjoined twin Koi spring up, with sleek and elegant interiors, art-deco-inspired dance floors, stylish bars and roped-off VIP sections with bottle service.
Decor, vibe, music -- the club scene must scream "current" or else it will be looked upon as trying too hard, Ryder says.
"Owners always have to be talking to customers and paying attention to media sources to watch the trends."
Because where the trends are, the crowd follows. And with the crowd comes the money, particularly when the goal is youth.
Mac pop culture professor Marc Ouellette says those under age 28 have more money to spend than any previous generation and want to spend it now. And if the money is scarce, it just means predrinking at someone else's house and going out later in the evening.
Weekend lineups at Hess peak around midnight. But they often start around 10 p.m., when that velvet rope goes up outside of Elixir and other clubs.
It's a time of night when the easy vibe at Hess is overtaken by the anticipation of a young, drinking crowd.
The nightclubs that fill Hess Village draw young crowds dressed up for the dance floor. 'We come here because everybody is here,' says one patron. 'It's the place to be.'
Shayne Godek feels it. The personal support worker is 43 and has been coming to Hess for 20 years. Sitting on the upper patio of the Lazy Flamingo with his girlfriend, Susan Cutts, Godek watches the transformation and points at what he sees as the reason behind that change.
"It's nightclub, nightclub, nightclub," he says.
The Lazy Flamingo offers some refuge, as a holdout for the live music scene, still offering bands every night. Here the crowd is different. Golf buddies sip a pint after a day on the course, a husband and wife share an evening out, a group of guys meet up with friends from Toronto.
But even here, the 10 p.m. transformation takes place. Plastic cups replace the solid stemware served by the smiling waitresses.
McMaster's Ryder views Hess's vibe today as an entertainment hub, a one-stop shop for bars -- the miracle mile philosophy stemming from locating all major car dealerships in one district.
"It creates the idea in the consumer's mind, 'If I'm thinking about buying a car, I know if I go to that area, I'll find what I'm looking for.' The same thing happens in Hess."
But Hess has always been about giving people what they want. Designed in the 1970s as a Hamilton alternative to Toronto's chi-chi Yorkville, the village was once a flourishing hub filled with clothing boutiques, galleries, restaurants and offices.
The recession and a fraud scandal in the '80s involving Yorkfield Agencies Ltd. -- landlord to almost half of the tenants in the village -- threatened to derail the street's success.
But by the mid-'80s, the revolution of Hess Village had begun, thanks in part to John Ankers. On Nov. 5, 1981 -- his birthday -- a young and single Ankers, then owner of the Whistling Judge on Augusta Street, opened the Gown & Gavel, which even today is described fondly as the cornerstone of Hess Village.
But the familiar names from the Gown & Gavel's heyday are gone -- Ivory's, Polo's, Norma Jean's and Mermaid's Lounge, all among the fallen, abandoned for the club revolution.
And the Gown & Gavel has gone through its own transformation, sold and shut down for months. It reopened last weekend with a new look to an eager crowd numbering around 500, according to one of its bouncers.
Gone are the dark green plastic chairs and tables and the wrought-iron fence surrounding the huge outdoor sitting area. Instead, the freshly-interlocked patio is protected by an elegant glass fence with frosted panels monogrammed with G&G. Inside, the decor is sleek and minimalist with dark colours and plush, rich fabrics.
While there's no dance floor and the vibe is more lounge than club, the upscale add-ons suggest a search for the next hot trend in entertainment.
Ankers is pleased about continuing efforts to keep Hess fresh.
"It makes me feel really good if I go to Hess on a busy, hot night and I see so many people and so many young faces enjoying themselves in a liberal culture."
The challenge for Hamilton, says Ryder, is to develop more of these hubs as the city continues to grow. Hamilton needs an entertainment district to compete with surrounding areas.
"If we don't, people would have no hesitation going where the party is and they would spend their money in Mississauga and Oakville or Burlington."
Part of the challenge is divining the next trend. The Gown & Gavel renovations, and plans for hotels, would suggest that trend might be upscale.
"The demographics of the village are going to start swinging back to what they used to be," says Lazy Flamingo owner Jim Skarratt. "Classier places, higher prices, I think we'll see it across the board."