To the restless suburban teenager with fake ID, or to anyone flirting on the outskirts of society in the early 1980s, one music club stood out above the rest: Club Z. The cavernous, multi-level haunt at Toronto’s St. Joseph and Yonge streets was the place to go to hang out against a backdrop of new wave, punk-gothic and house music.
Behind the venue was a wiry 22-year-old with a puff of dark hair and intense eyes named Charles Khabouth. Driven to stand out, even back then, Khabouth once toted a live tiger to Club Z to generate buzz. Today, such shenanigans have been tamed, replaced by more sophisticated marketing tactics to shill Khabouth’s more than 20-plus diverse concepts he runs under his $50-million company, Ink Entertainment, which employs 1,500 people in Toronto and saw overall venue revenues increase by 28 per cent in 2012 over 2011. The company is on track to do slightly better in 2013. Though each concept is different, an unmistakable stylish thread runs through them; this is not by happenstance. Khabouth personally conducts the show, from its inception to its curtain call.
These are restaurants such as the new Spanish hotspot Patria and La Société (another outpost just opened this past March inside the renovated Loews Hôtel Vogue in Montreal, which kicks off a partnership between the hotel brand and Ink); a new lounge/corporate venue named Storys; the music clubs Guvernment and Uniun; Veld, a two-year-old music festival attended by more than 40,000 people this past year; the poolside hangout, Cabana; and Bisha Hotel & Residences, which will be unveiled internationally in 2015. And, next year, a partnership between Toronto’s Oliver & Bonacini Restaurants and Ink Entertainment will also see the Hudson’s Bay Calgary Downtown welcome a large-scale revamp in the form of a restaurant, lounge and event venue.
As for using a tiger to titillate the public for any of these concepts, the only animal connection for Khabouth these days is the gold talons hoisting the glass desk in his seventh-floor office. His office, located in the upscale Bloor-Yorkville neighbourhood, is a fitting setting for the fashionable man who has colonized a large chunk of Toronto’s social scene — still, he’s “over” being dubbed “the king of clubs” by the press. “I’m so tired of it,” says Khabouth. “I’m not insulted by the name, but even though a big part of my business is with clubs, I’m past that point of being a club king. I’m more of an entrepreneur. I’m a businessman; a visionary who is always thinking of the next step, whether it’s fashion, lifestyle, real estate or launching a brand.”
Khabouth extrapolates on this last point, explaining his team is working on a clutch of international hotels (the aforementioned Bisha). Ensuring these extend beyond Toronto is critical, he says. “We spent triple the amount of money on the launch, because the plan is to take this brand globally,” he says. “We have to be able to travel with it. Even if the hotel is crazy busy here, if I don’t leave Toronto with it in my mind it would be a failure.”
Travel has always motivated Khabouth. Though he prefers short spells away from Toronto, a city he loves, he often splits for four days at a stretch to soak in a visiting city’s cultural high points: its architecture, culinary, music and fashion scene, which he then highlights in his projects. For example, Cabana — the poolside hangout, which opened this summer — was influenced by Miami, Vegas and the South of France.
It’s for this reason Ink Entertainment concepts aren’t static one-note affairs. Weslodge, the bar on King Street with the imposing yellow door, is not just another trendy watering hole. Instead, patrons are met with a sexy saloon festooned with cheeky high/low decor — taxidermy deer heads share real estate with semi-precious art housed in chunky gold frames. As with many of Khabouth’s projects, the space was buffed by Toronto’s Munge Leung, his go-to design team who are also behind the Bay project in Calgary.
Nevertheless, Khabouth’s input is always evident in his ventures. He finds inspiration “absolutely everywhere,” he says. “To me, beauty could be in a car, a woman, a dress.” But, he points out, for a business to become viable it’s critical to create a solid scheme: “No matter how good the project is, if it doesn’t have a concept it doesn’t work as well,” he says. “And, you need staff to be absorbed by the concept.” Incidentally, the bonus about working for Ink is its staffing philosophy allows employees to migrate between concepts, depending on their desires. The structure seems to work well, as many employees have risen in the ranks, even opening their own businesses and speaking at local schools about hospitality management. The team at Ink also participates in 25 to 30 charitable events annually, including Second Harvest and Bloor Street Entertains.
Paul Wellington, who works in reservations at the Parisian bistro La Société, says he’s always been enticed by Khabouth’s undisputed flair. “I’ve always respected his style and execution,” says Wellington. “That’s what attracted me to La Société…. Charles has a great vision for this industry. He’s always on the cutting edge. In my estimation, he’s got the ability to interpret what needs to come next.”
Tony Longo, the director of Operations at Ink Entertainment, echoes Wellington’s sentiment. Longo, who once operated Toronto’s landmark Centro and was a partner at the city’s Splendido, is the yin to Khabouth’s yang. “Charles gives you a lot of leeway to be creative,” says Longo, admitting that such creative latitude can sometimes result in a difference of opinion. “With Cabana, I said to Charles, ‘No way is this daytime place going to do well,’ but it far exceeded our expectations. It was an expensive build, but one season and it’s paid for itself, which is tough in this business.”
But money doesn’t daunt Longo as Ink Entertainment has its own operational growth; it doesn’t rely on banks for funding. “[Ink] is non-bureaucratic,” says Longo. “We sit down at a meeting, and we could make a $5-million change to our company — there’s not a lot of red tape.” It’s a fortunate, even enviable, position to be in. But, to Khabouth, it was never about the gravy: “My number-1 focus has never been money, and it never will be,” he says. “Even with Club Z, I wanted to make money, but I always loved and enjoyed what I was doing. If I got up tomorrow and said, ‘I hate what I’m doing,’ I swear to you, in a matter of six months, I’d sell everything and retire.”
photo by Margaret Mulligan
