Opening Saturday, new Kemistry in Fort Lauderdale promises next-level EDM nightclub (with dinner service)

Rod Stafford Hagwood, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
·10 min read

They are bringing the boom.

South Florida’s electronic dance music scene is set to get a major player: Kemistry Nightclub, the combined effort of three hot-spot honchos, is coming to downtown Fort Lauderdale’s Himmarshee Village with a grand opening on Saturday, Oct. 28, during the Halloween on 2nd! Downtown Block Party.

The event is from 6 p.m. to midnight with a stage set up in front of the mammoth venue that popped up from a gravel parking lot back in 2018. There will be two other stages, but the Kemistry one is slated to include:

Admission is free, but you have to register for tickets at eventbrite.com.

Kemistry is located at 301 SW Second St., Fort Lauderdale, in the space that formerly housed the short-lived #00 Saloon and then the even shorter-lived Shato Asian Tapas & Sushi Lounge.

The trio behind the new club are Angel Candelaria (former owner of Cash Only nightclub), Danny Colica (a trailblazer in SoFlo’s rave scene and founder of Hypnotic Productions) and Pepe Vargas (nightlife host and founder of Forbidden Kingdom Music Festival).

Here is more about Kemistry in excerpts — edited for brevity and clarity — from an interview with the three nightlife impresarios.

Q: How did the name Kemistry come about?

Danny Colica: We were trying to come up with a concept, not just the name, but a concept as well. First of all, we were kind of thinking like a warehouse vibe, kind of industrial. We were also thinking what was alternatively going to be called The Laboratory or The Lab. And then Kemistry just had a nice cutting-edge (feel) to it and we could really theme out based on it. So a lot of our bars are going to be like bubbling bars, and entry is going to have like those bubble tubes. So we just thought it was a really, really cool concept.

Q: What do each of you bring to the table?

Pepe Vargas: So I think, personally, what I bring to the table … over 10 years of experience creating events and festivals. I actually own my own music festival in Orlando … Forbidden Kingdom Music Festival, which has grown a lot over the past five years … and it just keeps growing and, obviously, with that also comes Insomniac. It’s the leader company of electronic dance music across the board in the U.S., and I want to say one of the top five in the world. They concentrate in clubs, festivals, and obviously massive outdoor shows. And that’s also something that well, not only I, but all of us bring to the table because we’re going to partner up with them. They’re going to be booking our shows, operating our venue, which is a huge plus here. And I think also me being local — I mean, I grew up here in Fort Lauderdale — I think I know the scene.

Angel Candelaria: So I guess what I bring to the table is I have a company called Culture Productions for over 25 years producing events in South Florida — mostly electronic but, you know, a little bit of hip-hop, some live music also. I also was an owner and talent buyer of a club in Florida called Cash Only, which had a good two-, three-year run. So I have experience in operating locally here in Fort Lauderdale.

Colica: I started doing events in 2006, underground events at a club called Club Exit. We grew so big, I founded Club Cinema in Pompano, where we started doing events there. And then I kind of stayed out of the game for a while. But at Cinema, I had to build a big production for that venue, so for a long time I was running (Hypnotic Productions) … doing all the sound lighting and video for big festivals, even Pepe’s festival. So we’ve produced events both under Hypnotic Productions and then we carry that name even through the production end of things. We’re doing the block party out here on Halloween as well as all the production we’re packing in the club. … So on top of the years of experience of producing events and conceptualizing on events, we’re also gonna make sure that this place is a crazy experience with sound, lighting and video and lasers. I actually started as a DJ, yes, so music is the driving force behind any project I take on.

Q: How is Kemistry going to stand out from all the other nightclubs in SoFlo?

Vargas: I think No. 1 is, as I mentioned before, the powerhouse of Insomniac backing us on on this project. I think that’s going to change the game because this is going to be their first venue that they operate … outside of Club Space, and I’m pretty sure you guys are familiar with Club Space and how successful they became after Insomniac partnered up with them. … No. 2, I think, is the production element. And this kind of brings us back to why we chose Kemistry. We wanted to do an immersive experience. It’s not just going to be your typical DJ booth with a DJ playing, a few lights and a sound system. No. Bring your earplugs. By immersive experience, I mean everywhere you see it’s an experience, right? And it’ll attach to the chemistry world, the molecules, the Einsteins, the beakers … that energy of feeling like you’re in a lab. Our bartenders are going to be utilizing custom-made uniforms that are like lab coats.

Candelaria: We also are working with really good local talent to curate that experience. We have a really cool artist who is doing custom paintings. Her name is Marcy Minx. And all our uniforms are from a company called In The Night Designs, so they’re all custom-made for us. They’re really different from anybody else.

Q: And you’re going to have a full-service kitchen, that’s different for an EDM club, right?

Vargas: We’re going to be the first live venue/nightclub that actually serves food with a full kitchen. Because yes, you have some venues that have kitchens, but not nightclubs that produce our style of events. … Our demographic, I want to say, it’s more like an average of a 24 year old, you know, 24- to 28-year-olds. So I think … in our realm of music, we’re going to be the first venue. And I don’t think I’m mistaken because I know every single venue from the top of Florida all the way to South Miami, and no venue has a full kitchen that can serve food and a system to do it too.

Candelaria: And our menu is going to be curated by a contestant from “Top Chef,” Josie Smith(-Malave).

Q: What about the drinks?

Colica: So one of the things I really, really wanted to hone in on, taking on this project, is what would I expect in the nightclub when I walked in? One of my biggest pet peeves is when I go to a bar and I want to order something different … and then I never have a drink menu at a nightclub. And so I immediately (say), “Give me a rum and Coke, give me a Red Bull vodka.” So I was pressing the partners like, yo, I want a drink menu, like I want at least seven specialty cocktails that you can look at a menu and be like, “I want to try that.”

Candelaria: The company that’s curating those drinks is called Gourmet Booze. They’re award-winning bartenders … All the garnishes are made in-house by Gourmet Booze. Their program was really solid.

Colica: One of the other things I wanted to touch on is (that) all of the drinks are made with natural ingredients. So if you look them up, you’ll see that they they do all-natural fresh green juices. And that consistency, that’s another thing in clubs, right? You order a Long Island or margarita, sometimes you go and drink the margarita and there’s too much tequila and you know it’s not good. So the way we have these batched is they’re pre-batch, to be completely consistent across the board. They bartender cannot mess up a drink.

Q: There is already talk in EDM circles about the sound, so what can you tell us about it?

Candelaria: Right off the bat, the first thing they’re gonna do is feel bass.

Colica: In our world and electronic music, at every venue that I’ve been going to lately, the production has been subpar. … I want to be immersed in the music. I want to feel the music. I want that bass to hit me in the chest. I want to feel like in the Carl Cox Arena at Ultra Music Festival. And that’s what we’re curating here. It’s something that when you walk in, you’re completely immersed in the production. You’re a part of it, the lights, the video, the sound. To me, that’s very, very important.

Colica: Upon sound check, we hit 144 decibels from the back of the room when we decided not to turn it up anymore. Kemistry has the ability to hit sound-pressure levels that no other club in South Florida can achieve with … the top end and bass that will literally take your breath away. Although we will not overkill people with sound for most nights, we expect some events where our patrons want to be blown off their feet with sound.

Q: What makes you think this is the perfect location for Kemistry?

Colica: Well, we’re all Broward boys. That’s it. Events most of us curate, even though we’ve bounced around and even though Angel does some stuff in Miami, I mean Club Cinema was in Pompano, Exit was in Hollywood. This is our market, the Broward market.

Candelaria: We’re all promoters. We know how to get people to a venue that we choose. Between all of us, we have a lot of experience in that. … It’s prime downtown Fort Lauderdale.

Vargas: I think as far as location goes, we said that’s the one. When they called me and they’re like, “The first gas station that was ever founded in Fort Lauderdale … in 1921, it’s here.” It’s actually in our building. So that just tells you we’re in a prime location, right? Also, we are in the entertainment district, which means we have the whole riverfront area surrounding us.

Q: Why is now a good time for Kemistry?

Candelaria: Fort Lauderdale has always been a center for electronic music — with clubs like The Edge and Chili Pepper and even Voodoo Lounge — and we saw a hole in the market. Nobody is really bringing the world-class talent that Fort Lauderdale deserves and has always had. So we decided now was the right time with the right venue and the right team to bring that back to a city that’s always been the center in Florida for that kind of music.