Creative director, owner, operator, artist, hipster restaurateur, high-brow bohemian, impresario and all-around cool renaissance man Varun Kataria doesn’t want to be categorised. We will gladly obey as it is as difficult – and unnecessary – to categorise him as it is to label his Bushwick, Brooklyn venue creations that now number three.
Kataria, who says he has never claimed expertise in any field, seems to have talent in several. His latest extraordinary brain wave produced Xanadu Roller Arts, which does not benefit from descriptions that limits it to a mere skating rink or even roller disco. It is much more than those. Neither is its design style just plain ordinary retro, although it has been most often described that. Or kitsch.
It is indeed all that, but it is also a well thought-out set of magically fitting colours, textures and shapes. It is a super-flexible 16,000 square foot (1,487 sq. m) event venue that changes into a night club after 10 pm, when the 500 or so roller skaters of all ages finish their fancy – or not so fancy – moves.
The stage is then revealed for live bands and DJs, and the floor becomes a dance floor for 1,000 partiers, minimum age 21. Multi-coloured light shows add yet another layer to the immersive colour palette of the space that can also be booked for private events from small private events to extravagant white-glove set-ups. The psychedelic concession stand morphs into a bar, and in one of the bathrooms, you will find a VIP club zone. It’s an intergalactic cruise ship, no less, says Kataria.
The name of Xanadu harks back to a 1980 roller disco fantasy movie of the same name, starring the late Olivia Newton-John.
The Xanadu building used to be home to a sheet metal workshop that provided sinks for Varun Kataria’s first restaurant, Turk’s Inn just a few steps away. Its chef Josh White oversees the menu at Xanadu as well.
There are few equals to Turk’s Inn’s gloriously tacky décor. Kataria bought and packed it all into black garbage bags at an auction of a rundown supper club in Wisconsin. Turk’s Inn is, of course, no ordinary restaurant. It has a döner kebab shop and its music venue, The Sultan Room hosts concerts and events and even boasts a rooftop bar. Alicia Keys is among the luminaires who have performed there.
Kataria says he is inspired by Ettore Sottsass and Verner Panton but above all, by all things otherworldly. We believe him. Tuija Seipell
Images Xanadu Roller Arts
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