Charles Khabouth gives Toronto a new Ultra — 20 years after the original

Velvet ropes on Queen Street?

It was definitely a jolt when Ultra Supper Club opened exactly 20 years ago.

A bougie spot, c/o Charles Khabouth — arriving when “Friends” was still on the air and iPods were all the rage, and no one yet used the word bougie — it featured a garden of Japonais proportions, tables shrouded with diaphanous curtains, servers poured into designer uniforms and a rooftop to die for.

It replaced what had been the boho-tropical BamBoo Supper Club for years before, near Peter Street — itself an emblem of a faded Toronto or as comedian Catherine O’Hara once put it, “the hip guardian of Queen St. W. … the UN of groove … a love boat … a Caribana float.” The first place, famously, to serve pad thai in Toronto! At the time, the switcheroo amounted to a recalibration of the resto scene.

What goes up must come down and what goes around comes around: the physics of nightlife (and life). Thinking back to the Ultra of that time, I remember it being an embodiment of the Buddha Club CDs that everyone had at the time. “Top Chef”-esque food, too (a show that had just launched that year) via chef Paul Boehmer: a fab seared foie gras, for instance, coming in at a now laughable $20.

Celebs! Certainly, they were a part of the allure. They all came. Everyone from a still-hatching Lady Gaga to a wildest child-era Lindsay Lohan (popping up with her DJ girlfriend at the time, Samantha Ronson). Jude Law. Mark Wahlberg. Pam Anderson. Heck, even Beyoncé, firmly in the grasp of her “Crazy in Love” moment! She showed there with sister, Solange, to cheer on their mother, Tina, who was at Ultra presenting her fashion label, House of Deréon. (Remember that?). It was all red hot … until it wasn’t.

Well, you know how they say you cannot go home again? You kind of can … if you go to St. Clair East!

Opening next week, complete with splashy party, in what some might remember as the old Arthur’s space — and proof that nightlife king Khabouth is now at a stage where he is rebooting himself — is the new … OK … Ultra (minus the Supper Club). A first of its kind project for his INK group in midtown, in conjunction with Harlo Entertainment, think of it as a grown-up Ultra. Ultra in the age of “the algorithm.”

“We did a party for U2. We did a whole evening with them. We had to bring them in from the back, the crowd was so big,” the impresario was saying, remembering Ultra 1.0 while giving me a sneak-peek of Ultra 2.0 the other day. Specifically, the Ochre Room, a dramatic gold, octagonal room, complete with maximalist chandelier, and an array of sofas and ottomans. It is expected to be the main dining area and an anchor for a dinner-to-dancing transition.

Why this spear of nostalgia? Khabouth, whose empire continues to grow both here and in Miami, told me it was because of his 50/50 relationship with Michael Kimel of Harlo.

“He was there for many years. He feels like a lot of the people he was hanging with — in their late 30s, mid-40s — need a place that speaks to them and that is the crowd we are after.”

In a culture where remakes and sequels are ubiquitous — everything from “Gossip Girl” and “Sex and the City” to “Magnum P.I.,” “Full House” and “Night Court” have gotten second winds, after all — why not a restaurant in this town? Right? To further evoke the aughts, the menu they are going for is “Pan-Asian” (a term I have not heard in years) from executive chef Kihyun Kim (formerly of Akira Back).

Meanwhile, for the look of the place, Khabouth asked his long-time creative collaborators at Studio Munge to riff a little on the work of the late Alexander McQueen. Another splash of aughts glamour! Khabouth has long been obsessed the designer and collects him. In fact, many of the scarves he personally owns are being incorporated into the design.

Chief designer Alessandro Munge, who has a slew of other projects on the burner — including the Sagamore Ritz-Carlton in South Beach, plus an upcoming pop-up for celebrity chef José Andrés — tells me that his working relationship with Charles is rooted in their shared desire to shake up the city, “especially after it’s been dormant for the last few years. We’ve explored the world together and want to bring a much more refined, international flair to the city.”

About the McQueen inspiration, specifically, and the itch to use his work as a guide, Munge added: “Alexander McQueen is such an icon that transcends fashion to pop culture. The drama, the dark yet incredible seductive creative world, the attention to detail; I relate to his design lexicon in many ways. I love each of his collections being so narrative driven and specific in their expression …”

To that end, different McQueen collections were researched and then referenced to give each of the three spaces in Ultra a unique identity. “We wanted to create a multi-layered experience that is both cohesive yet exciting with a sense of discovery whether you’ll dine and party in the Ochre Room, the Onyx Bar or Mineral Lounge,” said Munge.

Question is: can Ultra get scenesters to live it up north of Bloor? The jury is out, but I am reminded that when Khabouth opened his first Ultra, Queen West itself was in a lull.

“We brought people to Queen,” as he says. “All there was was the Rivoli then. Back then, remember: there was no King Street scene. No Ossington Strip!”

Noted.

If anyone can get people to party at Yonge and St. Clair, it is perhaps Khabouth.

Shinan Govani is a Toronto-based freelance contributing columnist covering culture and society. Follow him on Twitter: @shinangovani

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