The Kress

Parking: Valet, Street Parking Difficult, Metered, Nearby
Old Hollywood, Bustling, Upscale, Offbeat, Themed Decor, Trendy Moderately noisy 21+

Hollywood’s night life renaissance will soon have its crown jewel. Mike Viscuso is opening his multi-floor nightlife destination, The Kress, sometime in May. “I’m bring back an institution to Hollywood,” says Viscuso, best known for turning San Diego’s gas lamp district into a booming night life mecca (he owns On Broadway and Deco’s). “The ceilings were totally destroyed,” he says of the historic Kress building at 6608 Hollywood Blvd., “but I hired a group of plastering artists and we patched all the destroyed sections...most people would have saved the 500K.”

Viscuso certainly spared no expense at The Kress, with a basement club straight out of Las Vegas (pictured), a ground floor restaurant, a third floor lounge begging for Paris Hilton and an inspired view-laden rooftop deck with “fire pits, a full service bar, restrooms and raised cabanas on both sides.”

The building, once Kress Department Store (and more recently Frederick’s of Hollywood), has beautiful bones that Viscuso refurbished at great expense. Original marble is everywhere at Kress and the ornate ceilings were restored according to the original 1930s design. “I was able to find the original blueprints that were hand drawn in the 1930s at UCLA,” says the 51-year-old.

The 220-seat ground floor pan-Asian restaurant and downstairs club will open first, with the third and fourth floors to follow, Viscuso says. “Downstairs we’ll do hip-hop, and on the third floor we’ll do house, techno and trance.” But the so-called “king of the Gaslamp” knows his club will offer something different than Hollywood’s already crowded night life scene currently provides. “It’s more than just a restaurant or bar,” he says. “I’m bringing back the old glitz and glamour of Hollywood.”

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