underground cocktail club

champagne towers, craft cocktails and chinked ice blocks.
choreographed live performances
+ gatsby-worthy good times…

nightlife impresario Billy Dec had a clear vision
for underground cocktail club,
a new, next-level nightclub in river north.
to bring the polish and pizzaz—and all that jazz—
the underground crew tapped PROjECT.
for a sensorial design plan.
turned out to be a fun, full-circle moment for
director of design + dramatist Lauren Warnock,
our lead on the curation of this
rip-roaring yet refined vibe.

[Warnock + Dec worked together at dragon room back in the early aughts.] 

saturated in vibrant colors and gilded to the max
was the M.O. here, and we leaned into
radical craftsmanship + luxe materials
from the entryway to the mainstage.
cloaked in a patina of romanticism, things get moody
in the alley thanks to an old Chicago glass block wall
+ flickering street lamps.

inside, a surprisingly light and feminine space unfolds:
think crushed velvet upholstery, rose gold mirrors,
curious light fixtures, feather plumes, peekaboo palms
and a ceiling that’s peppered with parasols.

all in, cocktail club is the cat’s meow
if we do say so ourselves—
a dolled up, nifty playground for high hats + cool cats
to get rebellious and find freedom of expression.