South Beach

Shine at the Shelborne Hotel

nyone who's been around the South Beach nightlife scene for any appreciable amount of time knows that absolutely nothing shakes-up this sensual little island like the opening of a hot new nightclub. And it appears that the next big shake-up is coming this November with the opening of "Shine," a hip new venue at the ocean-front Shelborne Hotel on Collins Avenue.

New clubs pop up in Miami Beach all the time, but what makes this particular club opening so newsworthy is that the two principals behind this new venue bring with them hefty reputations for quality nightlife entertainment.

Gerry Kelly is known throughout clubland as a nightlife innovator who not only rose through the ranks of clubs such as Ibiza's Pacha, Bash, Liquid, Shadow Lounge, and Bar Room, but who also produced one of the most creative clubs in Miami Beach history—Level. His Studio 54-style parties and theatrical tilt melded a cross section of cultures that produce a glamorous vibe rarely seen since the famous "big room" days of early 1950s Miami Beach.

Jon Cowan of Bliss Productions, who, along with his family and Shelborne Associates owns the Shelborne hotel, brings with him a rich entertainment legacy that began with his position as musical director of Greg and Nicole Brier's sexy Groovejet, a club that is generally regarded as being the pinnacle of musical purity for South Beach aficionados. Jon promises to bring in top talent on a regular basis from all musical genre's, "and most importantly, top DJ's on a state of the art Steve Dash-designed sound system."

The physical layout of the club will be an indoor/outdoor environment unique to Miami Beach encompassing not only the hotel's beautiful ocean-front pool deck area (which was used in the early 1990s as a backdrop for numerous Playboy Magazine photo/video shoots), but also the hotel's three-tier theatre-style ballroom. If you recall the nightclub scenes in the 1933 Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers movie "Flying Down to Rio," then you have a good idea of the ballroom's layout. (Having once seen the space myself some twenty years ago in its original pre-renovation condition, I can tell you that the physical layout of the room is truly striking—a lasting testament to architect Igor Polevitsky's 1940 Bauhaus-Modernist design.)

While the outdoor area will have hammocks and day-bed style seating for lounging, and ambient music filling the open-air pool deck area, make no mistake about it, the main focus of the club will be solid dance music in the hotel's main ballroom, which, by the way is slated use some of the original components from the Arc system in New York as designed for Danny Tenaglia.

Nightclubs in South Beach come and go each season, but every once in a while a club comes along that holds special promise...we have a feeling Shine is one of those clubs.

Shine at the Shelborne Hotel
(opening November 11th, 2005)
1801 Collins Avenue
Miami Beach