Fly Me to the Money, Baby!
A funny thing happened at the mall today. A guy walked in a typical suburban drone and left a total hipster. That’s because the shopper, seduced by a purple and leopard-skin facade and the sound of finger-snapping pop music, ventured into Ultra-Lounge. He bought some Nancy Sinatra and Esquivel CDs, an olive-shaped pillow and a marabou telephone. He bought “cool.â€
At least that’s the basic tenet to Ultra-Lounge, the small, shiny retail outlet in Sherman Oaks’ Fashion Square. Flanked by Waldenbooks and a GNC Nutrition Center, Ultra-Lounge offers to John Q. Public the offbeat and retro-chic associated with the overly trendy lounge, swing, tiki and Rat Pack scene. “We sell a lot of James Bond type things,†says store partner Lincoln Myerson. “Anything that makes one feel like a secret agent is a good seller here.â€
The highly successful Ultra-Lounge CD series, coupled with the multiplex smash of “Swingers†and “Austin Powers,†inspired Myerson, who formerly worked at the ever-wacky Rhino Record label, and partner Jackie Harris.They licensed the “Ultra-Lounge†name and logo from Capitol Records and opened the shop a year ago. It’s essentially a record store, with about 1,000 titles divided into such non-Tower Records categories as “Bachelor Pad Essentials,†“Classy Dames†and “Classic Crooners.†But it’s the merchandise--leopard-skin smoking jackets (leopard skin is, understandably, big here), lava lamps, picture frames lined with shag carpet thicker than Austin Powers’ chest hair--that gives the moody, 1,100 square-foot store its ultimate kitsch personality. A customer may ask for the recorded effort of “Starsky and Hutch†star David Soul with the reassurance that the Ultra-Lounge staff won’t flinch.
Myerson concedes that investing in fads is risky. But as long as Ultra-Lounge crooners keep serenading passers-by with everything from Frank Sinatra melodies to TV themes on Saturday afternoons, and the clientele keeps filing in murmuring “shagadelic†on entry, times are good. So good, in fact, that the partners are eyeing a larger space and an additional location on the Westside.
“In this age of homogenized everything, people are striving for some little indication that they’re a unique individual,†says Myerson. “This is playful and fun and cool and swank and hip. You can’t get that at Macy’s.â€
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Ultra-Lounge, (818) 783-2275
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