Profile Ultra Supper Club

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Profile Ultra Supper Club

Ultra image, ultra performance These days maximizing your success can mean doing double duty. Supper club owner Brenda Lowes mixes fine dining and bottle service to create the stylish Ultra Words by Christine Otsuka

B

Photos by Nicola Betts

etween a homemade soap store and a women’s clothier on Toronto’s trendy Queen Street West, is an internationally known supper club. During the day, the tall Indian-carved entrance doors go

Brenda Lowes

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www.liquorcanadamagazine.com

unnoticed. There’s no sign, no address numbers. Unlike most of the businesses on the strip, this establishment isn’t advertising its location with bright lights and in-your-face signage. Ultra Supper Club doesn’t need the gloss. It’s a well-known secret. A lack of signage adds to the mystique, however unintentional. “We opened in 2003 without a sign, and we never bothered after that. We thought it gave us more of an exclusive feel,” says Brenda Lowes, co-owner of Ultra Supper Club. The building is set back from the street, prompting patrons to walk through the doors, down a narrow lit laneway and into a large fine dining room that transforms into a nightclub on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Fifteen-foot ceilings give Ultra a sense of grandeur and allow for multipurpose use. Today, special events like fashion shows, private corporate events and parties make up 25 per cent of Ultra’s business. The bamboo rooftop patio, done in white linens has a South Beach (Florida) feel and is a popular spot. Although it seats less than the dining room, it makes up half of Ultra’s business in the summer. “I start getting calls in February to book events in June,” she says.

The concept was the brainchild of Lowes and her business partner, Charles Khabouth, who has a reputation of success in the industry as the owner of such establishments as the Guvernment and Kool Haus Entertainment Complex, Pantages Hotel Suites & Spa, This is London, and his latest project, Dragonfly; the entertainment complex on the Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort grounds. It’s proven a complementary business pairing. She had success in catering, events and bar management, while he had expertise in nightclub operations, business savvy and a strong reputation in the industry. Their combined experience made partnering to open a supper club a natural fit. Together they took on a $3-million renovation project and successfully converted the space previously known as The Bamboo into a New York-inspired supper club that includes Toronto’s most sought-after rooftop patio. “It was a success from the moment we opened the door,” says Lowes. “From the dining perspective, we were busy all the time. Charles has a big strong reputation so people are always curious to see what he’s going to do next,” she says. Although Lowes says they didn’t do any promotion or advertising, Ultra was an instant hit based on her partner’s reputation, word of mouth, exquisite design and landmark location. For the first three years, Lowes put her heart and soul into the business,


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