111 night club opened in Arena shopping and entertainment center on Feb. 5. With its excellent location and an informal atmosphere it has a chance to win many fans. (Oleksiy Boyko) 111 club was a highly popular expatriate hangout until it closed in 2005. It was officially reopened on Feb. 5, replacing the former 112 nightclub. I realize all these numbers might sound confusing to some, so I’ll explain.

The story is simply this. 111 opened in the basement of Lybid Hotel in 2001 as a part of Eric’s Family chain, named after once-popular club manager Eric Aigner. The Kyiv club scene looked entirely different back then. Partiers had much slimmer options when it came to having a night on the town. 111 quickly became a number one choice for those who didn’t care much for pretentiousness but preferred casually hanging out with a bunch of like-minded people. The spot was always overcrowded with a mix of expatriates and locals, ordering drinks by the unique rotating bar, flirting and jumping to music. But when the new management of Lybid Hotel tripled the rent, the club was closed.

Shortly after the news of the 111 closing came through, a brand new club called 112 was opened by Aigner in the basement on the territory of Mandarin Plaza. The new spot was not meant to imitate 111, yet it proved to be a great hangout in its own right. To be honest, I’ve been to 111 only a few times, but 112 became my regular hangout. The latter wasn’t exactly perfect. The club was rather crammed and often got so crowded an hour or two after midnight that it was not possible to dance without being constantly pushed. But it had some undeniable pluses. One of its regular parties was called “Anything But House” and that pretty much sums up the music format of the place. The usual mix played at 112 was anything from Black Eyed Peas and Madonna to Nirvana and Blur. Most of the time it was all hits, from the latest to golden. Anyone who preferred jumping to familiar tunes rather than mechanically moving to monotonous beats, would choose 112 over other places. The crowd was somewhat similar to the one that used to hang out at 111 – a mixture of expats, students and mid-range office workers with an extra injection of tourists, who easily stumbled upon the centrally located place – especially in the summer.

Finally, I had one special personal reason to love 112 – the cartoons. Because that’s exactly what was usually screened on the plasmas, instead of perpetual Fashion TV and music channels, usually playing at other hangouts. It could be anything from classical Disney characters, to somewhat weird Soviet cartoons like the adventures of Crocodile Gena and Cheburashka. I recall often sitting there late at night, already too tired to dance or drink, and just watching those animations and laughing to myself. Somehow this touch of childish playfulness made the place all the friendlier in my eyes.

But as everything that’s really fun in Kyiv, 112 came to an end. It didn’t close, but the club I used to love was gone. This happened about a year after the closing of 111. Aigner had fallen out with his business partners and was removed from management of 112 and other Eric’s Family establishments. The chain itself was renamed into Love and Hunger. By now I’m used to the name, but it seemed like complete nonsense the first time I heard it.

Like I said, 112 lived on. But the change of concept was soon evident. It was overhauled to adopt a more glamorous look and both the music and the crowd changed. And you bet – cartoons were gone. I hardly ever went there during the last few years, and apparently I was not the only one. Clearly things were not going so fabulous with 112, since it management decided to change it once again and adopt the formerly reputed name.

While the interior of the former 112, and now 111, wasn’t changed too radically, the alterations were evident. Glitter was brushed off the decor and the new design feels really casual with a touch of class. The division into the main downstairs hall and the upstairs balcony with a separate bar was still in place. Same goes for the square bar in the middle. But one thing about it was very different and not in a good way. At the front part of the bar, where I so often sat, sipping on a drink and watching my cartoons, right under a big sign reading: “New Level Disco Bar 111,” was the deejay with his turntables. Previously the deejay was placed in a niche on the second floor, where he could be doing his thing and not be in anyone’s way. Now he occupies the best part of the bar, and it seemed like soon enough, one of the waitresses in bright pink wigs fussing about on either side of him, would accidentally spill some beer onto his expensive equipment. The deejay playing on the opening night was a moody overweight man, and honestly, I don’t believe any of the clubbers, needed to see him so up close. The music he was playing was nothing special, either. It was danceable, but not especially catchy or entertaining.

On the whole it’s hard to judge about the atmosphere of the place after one opening party. The popular name and location are likely to draw extra guests to the venue, and easy going dance bar format is certainly not overrepresented on the city club scene, so “New Level 111” certainly has potential. Perhaps the magic of numbers will indeed help turn the old place around – as long as its owners and managers do not rely on magic alone, when trying to get it going for the second, or should I say third, time.


111

Arena Entertainment, 5 Chervonoarmiyska, 230-9632