DRAI'S RECIPE FOR "XS"
An exclusive interview with Victor Drai right before the big announcement

Thursday, April 10, 2:30 p.m. Just hours before Tryst Nightclub's two-year anniversary and the always-smiling film producer-turned-restaurateur-turned-nightclub magnate Victor Drai was, well...he was the picture of calm! That's because Victor knew something we didn't.

Another year, another birthday…and for Wynn Las Vegas, another club! Drai would that night be unveiling the name of his new nightclub at Wynn’s Encore tower—set to open December 2008—as only he can: with plenty of pomp and circumstance and a great open bar. Hosted by American Idol’s Ryan Seacrest, Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell, and with a surprise performance by hip-hop violinist Miri Ben-Ari (pictured right), Drai let the cat out of the bag.

But first, he spoke exclusively to The Circuit.

"XS. That's the name,” and the aim, “to be as excessive as we can be. I hope it will be the most beautiful club ever made.” Inside the 40,000 square-foot space (the inside alone is the size of Tryst, pictured left, and the Tryst lagoon), guests will delight to find a nightclub built around an incorporated pool. While the pool will be open during the day for hotel guests, Drai was skeptical as to whether or not the XS pool will in any way resemble or behave like the spate of “adult” pools coming on line in recent years. “There are too many pools already in these environments. I don’t want to be in that business. I don’t like the crowd in the daytime. They’re too rough for me,” said the refined gentleman. “I don’t think it fits the Wynn.”

As for the interior: “Very sexy, very pretty, very rich.” Drai said he essentially has carte blanche with Steve Wynn to design with official Wynn Designer Roger Thomas, the nightclub of his dreams. He pointed out that when he took over La Bête and turned it into the Tryst we know today, he had the constraints of working in a finite, existing space. “Steve was wonderful,” he gushed. “He didn’t want us to be limited.” For XS, it seems the sky’s the limit and not a very limiting limit, at that.

In the Weekly’s interview with Drai last August for a piece on the Icons of Las Vegas nightlife, the mogul said he intended this third project to be his pièce de résistance, his final work in Las Vegas. “There’s enough business in Vegas for plenty of clubs. That’s been proven. And I’ll have two clubs on top. That’s how I see it.” And yes, he confirmed, “Definitely no more clubs in Vegas, that’s for sure.” What is not out of the realm of possibility is another new project in LA, where Drai lives when not in Vegas. In fact, he adds, people have been bugging him to dive back into LA’s nightlife scene with “something small, like Drai’s.”

Though Drai (pictured right) might yield to pressure to grace the City of Angels once more with an eponymous venue or some other project of his design, with XS he does not intend to stray from his tried and true methods, those being to focus on consistency. Unlike many of his competitors, Drai refrains from using paid celebrity hosts to create variety in his weekly party offerings. “And it will stay that way. I don’t pay celebrities. I don’t believe in it. I believe people will continue to come for what we offer. I’ve been doing this for 15 years this way. I’m not going to change it.”

XS is currently slated for a December 2008 opening with a schedule created not to step on big sister Tryst’s toes; the clubs will only overlap Friday and Saturday so we can deduce there will be a Sunday, Monday or Tuesday industry night. “Hopefully you’ll see a lot of me in XS.” While he knows the public is excited to see what Drai’s been keeping up his sleeve all this time, he admitted, “I can’t wait to see it myself!” It’s not unlike having a new baby. Having just welcomed into the world a two week –old baby girl named Charlotte, Drai exclaimed “I’m going to raise the entrance [age] to 25!”

Xania Woodman has never met a martini she didn't like.