Tiger beat

Nightlife entrepreneur Charles Khabouth earns a profile in the latest Toronto Life, providing insight into how the downtown club industry has transformed. Khabouth’s most familiar property is the Queens Quay E. complex called The Guvernment, "a Swiss army knife for event planners"; his Ultra Supper Club on Queen St. W. transformed the former Bamboo space into a haven for those sufficiently past having to get checked at the door for I.D.; he boasts a piece of the Pantages Hotel, the LOFT lounge on King St. W., an uncontentious condo in the vicinity of The ROM, and a forthcoming disco at the Fallsview Casino. After staring down wretchedly excessive rival Lucid, whose well-heeled backing resulted in bankruptcy, Khabouth entered into a grander ring of investment largesse allowing him to expand stateside. It’s typical Toronto Life fare, but with a more fervent work ethic: Not long after Khabouth’s family uprooted him from an upscale upbringing in Beirut, he took a job at McDonald’s even though he had to ask the manager how to mop the floor. The landlord at his maiden mid-’80s venture, Club Z, gave Khabouth a break because, writes Christopher Shuglan, "he saw him as a kind of Lebanese version of Duddy Kravitz"; success came after the giant tiger residing in the front window of 11A St. Joseph St. had a restless glass-smashing night. leading to a visit from the Humane Society, whose tranquilizer dart ironically supplied Khabouth’s career with the injection of front-page publicity it needed.

King of Clubs [Toronto Life]