STK Raises the Bar with Two New Lounges

STK Raises the Bar with Two New Lounges

Photo Credit: Lori Shepler

Charlie Amter

Don't be surprised if one of the hotter bar scenes in Los Angeles this year develops not around a sexy new lounge, but at a restaurant.

"That is what we do," One Group CEO Jonathan Segal says. "We put our bar right up front and center and build our restaurant around the bar."

Segal is busy putting the finishing touches on Coco De Ville and the Bistro Bar -- dueling spots opening inside his anticipated New York City export, STK (an upscale steakhouse), on La Cienega's restaurant row later this month. Segal has made it his company's signature to commingle late-night dining and drinking -- with venues such as Manhattan's Tenjune and Sunset Boulevard's One Sunset.

Now the entrepreneur is turning his attention to the La Cienega corridor (between Santa Monica and Wilshire boulevards). While foodies of all stripes have been anticipating STK's arrival across the street from Koi, few are aware of STK's twin bars inside the stunning space.

"Coco de Ville is not a club," Segal explains from his office in New York. "But it is a place where people in their 30s and 40s can listen to fantastic music and enjoy a great scene."

While the Bistro Bar (pictured above) will serve as the restaurant's lobby bar, Coco de Ville, with a capacity of about 150, has its own entrance and almost certainly will become a destination for the glitterati. Tenjune, the trendy lounge attached to Manhattan's STK, has attracted the likes of Elisha Cuthbert, Paris Hilton and Adrian Grenier . . . and that's just in the past month.

"I can deliver celebrities into Coco De Ville without anyone knowing they're there," Segal says. "We have an underground car park and they will be able to walk straight in via a private elevator."

Having a meal at STK won't necessarily guarantee you entrance to Coco de Ville, but the bars' lead architect, Icrave Design's Lionel Ohayon, hopes as many people as possible are able to see both the Bistro Bar and Coco De Ville.

"I personally would like Coco de Ville to be a place where you go to chill out," he says. "It's a very rich palette with a lot of color."

Ohayon isn't joking: In contrast to STK's austere black-and-cream design, Coco de Ville screams "look at me," with hot pink, green, black and purple all competing for your attention.

"It's got a retro feel . . . kind of like a stylish Gucci shoot," he says.

Perhaps the intimate space's most distinctive feature (besides the circular yellow, red and purple felt-covered panels dotting the ceiling) is stadium-style seating. Says Ohayon: "It will allow people to interact with each other in a totally new way."