RIGAS BROADIE REVIVAL
The ex-Love Nightlife consultant and owner of a raft of Glitter Strip hot spots says a return to the night scene is partly out of boredom
GLITTER Strip nightclub supremo Tony Rigas is getting back into hospitality, saying he had planned some gap years but became bored.
The longtime fixture on the Gold Coast night scene has inked a 10-year lease for a two-storey tenancy previously occupied by East nightclub in Broadbeach, the Bulletin revealed this week.
Rigas has previously had a hand in Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach nightspots including Shooters, Quest Lounge Bar, Mybar, Opium and The Oriental Whiskey.
More recently his partner Louise Huxham had popular Broadbeach late-night haunt Love Nightlife, with Rigas acting as a consultant.
But Huxham sold up in the middle of last year to newcomer Elliott Wicks who has kept it as Love.
“We were planning a couple of gap years and I was all for it,” Rigas says.
Then I became bored — it took about 10 months,” he added with a laugh.
Now he is anything but bored, saying he is hugely excited about creating a new “next level” theatre cabaret nightspot with business partner and performance art promoter Sue Porrett.
“There is nowhere to go out,” Rigas says. “For me, you go see the occasional show but there is nowhere to go. I stopped going out, friends stopped going out. A few venues opened, had their honeymoon period but that was it — there is no consistency.
“Broadbeach is always going to bounce back. The road works — without placing blame on people — took far too long and unfortunately sent the weaker people broke. But that also brings in new blood, and there are some exciting operators already going in,” he said.
“Good operators are negotiating good rents at the moment and coming back to Broadbeach.”
I was planning a couple of gap years – then I became bored