Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 39

99drnks UTEACK Edmonton couple wins $100,000 from Plenty of Fish for sharing their online love story D2 Where The Blood Mixes review D4 Weekend TV listings DZ D9 Sjf "TT" TT Ti edmontonjournal.comentcrtainment or life SECTIOXD EDITOR: KERI SVV'EETMAN, 780-429-5346; artsSclife0edmontonjournal.com 'HI' SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2013 I liii Lj 1 Sry-1 ii I i if1" Pt Central Social Hall, at 109th Street and Jasper Avenue, is a cross between stylish spots such as Mercer Tavern and a Canadiana sports pub. Nightspots kick it up a notch eJmoutonjournal.com entertainment New bars count on quality, creativity to lure patrons SANDRA SPEROl'NES Edmonton Journal 0 To see an interactive map of the downtown and Whyte Avenue bar scene, go to edmontonjournal.com entertainment threads of female focus." So while TVs air Oilers games and other sporting events, the wood-panelled room also boasts a dance floor, martinis on tap, lighter food portions and decorative details such as retro wallpaper. Think of Central Social Hall as a cross between stylish spots such as Mercer Tavern and The Common and a Canadiana-sports pub. "We really wanted to challenge ourselves," says Kupina. "We're trying to be a little more refined than a Hudson's or a Pint.

"We haven't plastered the place with skis and snowshoes, we've got wild boars and cool wallpaper. We tried to come out of the box with something new and we felt like we were a little bit ahead of the curve by doing something that isn't happening in Edmonton." To further distance Central Social Hall from competitors, Kupina uses a cheeky marketing campaign with slogans such as "Don't just 'Like' a little, live a little," and "At Central Social HalL a friend request starts with a drink." The pub also encourages "phone stacking" games, where patrons stack their smartphones on a coaster, then try to resist the urge to use them for the entire night. (The first to cave buys around.) See CLL-BS TI BS pmge D2 before. Service is huge. You want to make sure you're being treated like royalty." The Top 40 club also features a molecular bar, which serves "sophisticated" cocktails, mojitos and freshly squeezed juices; an HD video wall, almost five metres high and three metres wide, behind the DJ booth; and bottle-service areas in the 9,000 -square-foot room.

"I think this city needs a new mega-club." says Patel. "So we definitely wanted to build it properly." Other new additions to Edmonton's nightlife include: I 02's Taphouse Grill, moved into the old Blacksheep Pub on Jasper Avenue. It's the fifth spot in the local chain's growing empire. I Encore, which opened last month, is the latest incarnation of the space that used to house Empire Ballroom and Rum Jungle in West Edmonton Mall. I Mixx Dance Club, staffed with camera crews that trans-mit your moves onto giant projection screens, took over the old Lucky 13 space on Whyte Avenue in January.

I Knoxville's Tavern, a countryparty bar with a mechanical ride that looks like a moustache instead of a bronco, replaced Jasper Avenue's most loathed club. Oil City Road-house, last fall. (A dance club. Studio 107, will open next door, in the old Vinyl spot, on March 1.) I Mercer Tavern and Kelly's Pub opened on 104th Street Shiver rooms, camera crews, moustache rides and antelope heads Saturday Night Live's club-hopping expert Stefon could have a field day in Edmonton. So many nightspots and their accoutrements seem to open or close every few months, he'd never get bored.

At least 10 new clubs and pubs have opened their doors over the past eight months from The Bower and Central Social Hall along Jasper Avenue to SET Nightclub in West Edmonton Mall. Owners say competition is stiff because patrons demand quality and innovation. Late-night establishments hosted more than 20.6 million visitors and contributed almost $687 million to the local economy in 2010, according to a City of Edmonton report. "You're selling an experience," says Rishi Patel, one of the owners of SET, which boasts one of those shiver rooms where the shot glasses, bar counter and seats are made out of ice. Patrons can borrow parkas and faux fur coats while, uh.

chillin' in the room, set at about minus seven degrees. "At the end of the day. you want to feel like you got value for the money you spent and you want to have a unique experience," says Patel. "I like things that are different, that you've never seen SHAIGHN Bl TTS FDMONTON JOl tNAl Sal Di Miao and Blair McFarlane are two of the three owners of The Bower, a club on Jasper Avenue that recently underwent extensive renovations and a name change from Halo. branched out into the pub business with Central Social Hall, on the southw est corner of 109th Street and Jasper Avenue.

By doing so, he followed in the footsteps of other club-to-pub owners such as the two Marks (Fitton and Fuller) behind Oil City Hospitality Group, and Mike Yasinski, founder of Hudson's Canadian Tap House. "Recreating yourself in the nightclub business is something you always have to do," says Kupina. "Whereas in the pub business, as long as you have good food, good service and the place is clean, you're going to build yourself a business." Yet he didn't want to copy his competitors and rely on Canuck paraphernalia to build Central Social Hall. With the help of HMS Design, he created a premium pub with "subtle last summer. I Whiskey Rock, co-owned by Jesse James Kupina, set up shop in the former Diesel Ultra Lounge, across the street from Rexall Place, last August.

(A man was shot and killed outside of Diesel last May, and the lounge's owners immediately shut the room down.) Kupina also owns two of the city's mega-clubs. The Ranch and Union Hall. His company, Twol2 Social recently r' i.