October 9, 2007
Austin's Newest "Ultra Lounge" in the Warehouse District
And you thought hipsters tried too hard.
Soon taking over the space vacated by the Alamo Drafthouse is Pangaea, Austin's very own safari-themed nightclub in the Warehouse District.
The so-called "ultra-lounge" will come decked out with various and sundry adornments meant to evoke visions of the Dark Continent and intrepid desert expeditions — we're guessing mounted zebra heads, tribal hunting gear, and the like. Unabashedly exotic and — if its London sibling is any indication — exclusive in nature, the splashy 8,000-square-foot nightclub cost nearly $3 million to create, and will offer advance VIP bottle service at $150 to $1,000 a pop.
"I think people go out into the night to be somewhere they haven't, to be someone they weren't," said international nightclub impresario and Pangaea's progenitor Michael Ault to the Statesman, presumably with a straight face. "They act way out of bounds. This (club) is going to be a deeply freeing place. It's designed to appeal to the primal in all of us."
What do you think, Austinites?
Image from Traveling Jim
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Wow. Just wow.
That is my new favorite quote of all time.
what do i think? i think i am going to stop heading to 4th and colorado to party.
I think I feel a little sick.
The "primal" in me craves beers at Lovejoy's.
what is with all these fancy clubs coming to austin? i want to wear shorts and sandals when i go out !
retarded
I think they want to go out of business like every other club at 4th and Colorodo. If you don't go out of business you loose your lease to new condos. I can only think this is a drug money laundering scheme.
Sounds great to me. Maybe now there will be a few less people blathering away in the really cool bars while I'm trying to listen to a band.
Seriously, I'm all for it. This type of bar doesn't interest me, and will only draw the type of people that I'm really not interested in hanging out with.
That's not a cooler-than-thou sentiment, either. I'm sure they feel the same way about me.
I think Austonians everywhere are rejoicing, however the Austinites are cringing in horror...
Nothing would please me more than to see this idiotic nightclub sink like a stone financially. Austin doesn't need to cater to the jerkfaces with more money than common sense. If they want to throw money away they can just drive up and down the lovely new toll roads being gifted to us lucky Austinites. Tim's right, I normally suspect EVERY downtown nightclub/restaurant that opens is part of an elaborate money laundering scheme. Don't support terrorists, kids!
There must be some sub-culture in Austin that is buying the downtown condos and wants ultra-lounges like this. I don't know anyone in that sub-culture. Do they really exist? If anyone knows one of these mysterious beings please enlighten us as to who they are.
This club sounds awful. Another step toward the end of the Austin I know and love.
Will there be guided tours of the coked-out wildlife?
Why would I want to go here when I can drink a 40 and visit the Corner Shoppe for free?
I bought a condo downtown, but you couldn't pay me to go to a club like this. Does that still put me into a "sub-culture"? Because I like living downtown so I can bike to work and bike to Emos?
I want to know how this place is any different than the other shitty clubs in the warehouse district other than being even more expensive? More animal print? How is this any different than Vicci or Belmont or Foundation? It's just another lame club so why do we have to hear so much about it?
This place will probably succeed. I hate to say it but when you get off Red River and out of Mohawk, Emo's, Side Bar, Beauty Bar, most of the rest of this town is completely douchey (with a few exceptions, of course...) If you go to a mall (or the new Mueller development) you will see what I mean. This is not really a hip town anymore. Its more like South Dallas all the time.
I read about this in the Statesman yesterday. They're going to have dead animal heads mounted all over the walls. Wow. Oh well, at least the peeps that care for this kind of place will all be safely contained inside and hopefully stay away from the bars and clubs me and my peeps will be at. It is sad though. I grew up here and this town is just not what it once was. It's still a great place but yeah, it really has lot a lot of what made it the Austin I knew and loved.
Yes, most of the town outside the Beauty Bar is completely douchey. The town outside the Beauty Bar.
Wait. You're not trying to imply that bars with names like 'Mooseknuckle' are in any way 'douchey', are you?
This is what happens when you don't go to Room 710.
Guest #9, well done! My guess is they'll hype the crap out of this place on radio stations I don't listen to and it will turn out to be about as popular as Coyote Ugly. Or, since the walls will be covered with dead animals, maybe some PETA protester will suddenly become a flash-dressed clubber secretly armed with red paint.
"deeply freeing"
*snicker*
deeply freeing and primal = the place you go to get venereal disease.
i'll stick with the stiff drinks and friendly staff at side bar, thank you. and possibly i'll stumble over to room 710....
I thought Austin was about accepting everyone? Acceptance is accepting Douchebags too.
I've never seen a more self-important string of comments.
I'm from here, all my life, and the egotism people in this city show is astounding.
you're all CLEARLY bigger snobs than the yam-tan-bottle-service-providers that you want to gripe about it.
Hey-get over yourselves, Austin.
Yes, let the douches go to these types of bars and stay away from my beloved bars (that will remain unnamed to protect the awesome).
BTW:
Pangea:Rich Douches::Beauty Bar:Hipster Douches
1. i'm voting to ban use of the word "douche" in the comments section (casual ban. not official ban.)
i'm usually a fan of the sauce-laced words, but not that one. i find it lacks grace in a particularly misogynistic way. think about it. respek.
2. y'all need to experience *just how incredible* it feels to let out your inner camel. bring ON ultra.
just kidding. about ultra.
hmmm... I remember another International Destination Club (Hard Rock Cafe) that thought they "got" Austin... only to shutter their doors after a few years of hemorrhaging significant amounts of cash. Hope Pangea fares better.
Foundation 4EVER.
I am using a full-body bronzing agent right now in anticipation of the grand opening.
Hey guests 2,3,4,6,9,10,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,20,21,22,24 and 26. Get an account douchebags!
Oh, and you too 27.
Don't forget the eye whitener, pearl toof paint, and shark-skinned cod piece (top 3 Maxim 'musts').
Stupid rabbit. Fuck you rabbit.
I need me some Gummo ears.
hi. im a douche. i dont appreciate you associating me and my colleagues with this joint. we had a confederacy of douches meeting last week...and we all agreed that this place 'sucked mooseknuckles' and we would never go there. the only bottle service i will be participating in is ordering a high life bottle at the poodle dog. this place doesnt deserves to be called douchey. we take offense.
...and i knew when i wrote that that if there were to be any men who took up arms in defense of douchebaggery, they were also to be the men who most loved vaginas, and most feared them.
suckas.
It'll be a good change-up for when people get tired of hanging out at Lance Armstrong's bar, Six.
Seth
the question for me is what a VIP camel ride will cost... because that would be douschetastic. is there such a thing as a mechanical camel?
Gingerman Happy Hours and Fado Footy Viewings 4ever
well, now c3 has another room to put elliot yamin in. the job interviews for the new 'pangaea/emos/harrahs' booker have to be tough.
grand opening. grand closing.
This sounds really cool to be honest. I'm all about safari theme stuff and it's nice to have places that you can dress up a bit for. Kinda mix it up? They have lots of big talent rolling in too. I'm looking forward to it opening up.
-Richard Henry
Since it's just across from Vicci (no derogatory remarks necessary) and in the same block as that retarded sports bar, crappy over-priced pseudo Cuban place and lousy go-there-just-to-be seen sushi restaurant (among other "unique" warehouse district establishments), I think it will fit right in. I'm just glad it's not going in on Red River Drive.
I give it 6 months, unless it becomes some kind of money laundering scheme (yes, I know this has been mentioned) like, uh, Karma...
Wait! Maybe they can get Ted Nugent to slay real live critters right in front of the Bourgeois! Kill It and Grill It 4evah! Now we’re talking. I’ve got to dial up these guys…
Well this Dark Continent you are stating is not going to be correct representation of Africa. How can zebras and tribal hunting gear describe Africa? If you know your facts most Africans live in cities and don't hunt zebras for fun or for food. There are many diverse ethnic groups and languages in Africa. To put all Africans into hunter gathering groups is not accurate of Africa today. What you are presenting is the mistaking of Africa. So the Dark Continent you are presenting will further ingrain stereotypes into the culture insensitive America. If an American wants to know Africa then they need to live with several different African ethnic groups and learn about their culture first hand through their eyes.
-Ras Kofi
It's not an American that's presenting this monstrosity, it's an Englishman.
What!?!?! No way, people in other countries live in cities like we do? I find this hard to believe. I have taken a fair share of history classes and it is quite obvious that the USA is the only civilized country in the world. My understanding is that most other countries don't even wear clothes and hunt whatever animals they can to survive. I was so excited to hear about this new club as I was expecting it to be a real life trip into Africa as I can not afford to go on a trip to see the "wildness" of the true Africa. I'm very dissapointed that this new club isn't going to be a real life representation of night life in Africa. So sad, I feel so violated; all this time I thought I was going on safari for $20 a night.
I'll go to any bar/club in Austin and I will go to this club. As prominent as the douchebags are in some of the 4th street clubs, the clubs there are still fun. Austin's douchebags are polite and outgoing compared to the douchebags in other cities.
Not all douchebags are equal.
Douchebags.
We've been forbidden from using the word "douche" or any variation thereof by guest #26. Please refrain from using the following words to describe or name Austin's New Ultralounge scene so as not to upset #26's delicate sensabilities:
douche
douchebag
douchewad
douchebucket
douchepail
douchesac
douchesack
doucheface
douchefaise
douchestick
doucheette
douchenheimer
douchenstein
douchenberry
douchealicious
douchebaggery
The use of the word "faggy" to describe a person, place or thing is still acceptable.
Wikipedia also lists the derogatory term "douche nozzle," (referring to the part of the douche that actually enters the vagina to induce irrigation) which (in order not to upset #26, of course), I submit, also be forbidden.
I firmly believe Pangaea will be enematastic.
Doucheballoon's still on the menu though.
doucheballoon is ultralounge faggy. nobody says that anymore.
i agree with #25. beauty bar isn't much better. austinites love em some austinites. get over it.
I'm an Austinite. Not a transplant. I was born in Austin and raised in Austin. I moved to Dallas for three years after college and came back to Austin.
Dallas is full of bars like this and these bars are very successful in Dallas. However, Austin is known as the laid back, jeans and flip flop city. When you go out you can wear whatever you want, Rock & Republic jeans and stilettos or flops and shorts.
I am not sure this type of bar will make it in Austin. It will be fun at first but in the long run Austin is not the place for it.
BUT, playing devils advocate, maybe the owners of this bar know something we don't. There is a lot of money here and the high rises are exploding downtown. With money moving downtown instead of out to Westlake or Tarrytown this bar might be stable.
I dunno. Just my opinion I guess...