Bungalow 8 was an exclusive

nightclub A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a Bar (establishment), bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighti ...

chain with locations in Manhattan's West Side, London's West End, and Amsterdam's nightlife neighborhood

Leidseplein Leidseplein (English: Leiden Square) is a square in central Amsterdam, Netherlands. It lies in the Weteringschans neighborhood ( Centrum borough), immediately northeast of the Singelgracht. It is located on the crossroads of the Weteringschans ...

. The New York location in particular was popular with celebrities in the early 2000s. Frequent guests included

George Clooney George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961) is an American actor, filmmaker, and philanthropist. Known for his leading man roles on screen in both blockbuster and independent films, Clooney has received numerous accolades, including two Ac ...

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

Paris Hilton Paris Whitney Hilton (born February 17, 1981) is an American media personality, businesswoman, and socialite. Hilton was born in New York City and raised there partially; shuttling between Los Angeles and New York City; she is a great-grandda ...

Lindsay Lohan Lindsay Dee Lohan ( ; born July 2, 1986) is an American actress, singer, producer, and businesswoman. Born in New York City and raised on Long Island, Lohan was signed to Ford Models at age three. She appeared as a regular on the soap opera ' ...

, Zelda Kaplan,

David Beckham Sir David Robert Joseph Beckham ( ; born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer, the president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City. Primarily a right winger and known for his range of passing, cross ...

, Peter Crouch and

Nicole Richie Nicole Camille Richie (; born September 21, 1981) is an American media personality, fashion designer, and actress. She came to prominence after appearing on the reality television series ''The Simple Life'' (2003–2007), in which she starred al ...

. In the interest of privacy, Bungalow 8 had a strict no photography rule.

Locations

New York

Amy Sacco opened Bungalow 8 in 2001 in a small garage in

Chelsea, Manhattan Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side (Manhattan), West Side of the Boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New York City. The area's boundaries are roughly 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the south, the Hudson River an ...

with décor inspired by the bungalows at

The Beverly Hills Hotel The Beverly Hills Hotel, also called the Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows, is located on Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California. One of the world's best-known hotels, it is closely associated with Hollywood film stars, rock stars, and ce ...

. The club closed annually for renovations, which in part fed frequent speculation that Sacco was selling or closing the business. The club's popularity peaked between 2005 and 2007 before closing in 2009 under the guise of renovations. It was never directly announced that Bungalow 8 was permanently closed. The brand was purchased in 2012 by LDV Hospitality and plans to reopen in another location were set into motion. LDV filed for a liquor license as a

gastropub A gastropub or gastro pub is a pub that serves food of high quality, with a nearly equal emphasis on eating and drinking. The term was coined in the 1990s in the United Kingdom. History The term ''gastropub'' (derived from gastronomy) was coi ...

rather than as a club or lounge and were careful to keep the name Bungalow 8 under wraps, as Sacco had problems with neighborhood complaints at the previous location. When the Community Board learned the new addition to the neighborhood was indeed Bungalow 8, they pushed back, leading to their liquor license being temporarily frozen. After back-and-forth between LDV and the Community Board, LDV opened under a different name, No. 8, having agreed not to hire Sacco as a consultant, publicist, contractor, or employee. Despite this, Sacco hosted a number of exclusive parties, informally under the Bungalow 8 banner, and several Community Board members saw her working on-site nightly. Since the business still called itself a gastropub, LDV was able to circumvent neighborhood expectations for nightclubs and lounges. No. 8 again faced pushback due to community concerns about insufficient security for the number of guests and about garbage left out overnight. Despite this, No. 8 remained open until 2016.

London

Sacco opened a second location in London's

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

area at the St Martins Lane Hotel in 2007. Unlike its New York counterpart, this club was designed to be members-only. It lost its license in 2011 and closed.

Amsterdam

Bungalow 8 opened in Amsterdam in 2009 in the nightlife-heavy

area. The new location was designed by Winka Dubbeldam. It closed in 2013.

Sydney

Bungalow 8 opened in Sydney in 2003. Located at the edge of a wharf in Sydney Harbour the interior of Bungalow 8 was designed as a 'pacific' taverna. Conceived as a sea of yellow light reflecting off a black split bamboo texture the interior space mediates the intensity of the Australian sunlight by day and becomes a magical painting by night with a dance floor that attracts the best movers and shakers in the region.

Pop-ups

Sacco held a number of Bungalow 8 pop-ups at festivals including the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...

starting in 2010, the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

, the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

, and the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

. In 2013, Beulah London and Bungalow 8 collaborated on a pop-up at the Belgraves Hotel on Chesham Place ahead of

London Fashion Week London Fashion Week (LFW) is a clothing trade show that takes place in London, England, twice a year, in June and September. Showcasing over 250 designers to a global audience of influential media and retailers, it is one of the 'Big Four' fash ...

. The

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

Art Basel Art Basel is a for-profit, privately owned and managed, international art fair staged annually in Basel (Switzerland), Miami Beach (US), Hong Kong and Paris. Art Basel provides a platform for galleries to show and sell their work to buyers, an ...

, and the

Oscars The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence i ...

have also been followed by Bungalow 8 events.

In popular culture

In the fourth season (2002) of ''

Sex and the City ''Sex and the City'' is an American romantic comedy, romantic comedy-drama television series created by Darren Star for HBO, based on Sex and the City (newspaper column), the newspaper column and 1996 book by Candace Bushnell. It premiered in th ...

'', Carrie refers to Bungalow 8 as a "completely pretentious, members-only, tiny, crowded club that you need a key to get into." The same year, P. Diddy's Coast 2 Coast remix of "

Welcome to Atlanta "Welcome to Atlanta" is a song by American rapper Jermaine Dupri featuring Ludacris. It was released in 2001 as the second single from Dupri's 2001 album '' Instructions'', and appeared as a hidden track on Ludacris' second album, '' Word of Mouf ...

" includes the lyrics: "Sunday, we layin' low at the Halo, sippin' Cris and we straight/Monday, we go to Bungalow 8."

Lauren Weisberger Lauren Weisberger (born March 28, 1977) is an American writer. She is author of the 2003 bestseller '' The Devil Wears Prada'', a ''roman à clef'' of her experience as an assistant to '' Vogue'' editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. Weisberger worked a ...

' 2005 novel '' Everyone Worth Knowing'' is set primarily at Bungalow 8 in New York and the

pilot episode A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie) in United Kingdom and United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television netwo ...

of ''

Gossip Girl ''Gossip Girl'' is an American teen drama television series created and developed by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage and based on the series of novels of the same name by Cecily von Ziegesar. It follows a group of students on Manhattan's ...

'', Serena refers to dancing on the tables at Bungalow 8. In 2008, the film ''

August August is the eighth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. In the Southern Hemisphere, August is the seasonal equivalent of February in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Northern Hemisphere, August ...

'' shows the main character waking up at Bungalow 8 on

9/11 The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

and a fifth season episode of ''

The Office ''The Office'' is the title of several mockumentary sitcoms based on a British series originally created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant as '' The Office'' in 2001. The original series also starred Gervais as manager and primary charac ...

'' has

Pam Beesly Pamela Morgan Beesly Halpert ( born Beesly) is a fictional character on the U.S. television sitcom ''The Office'', played by Jenna Fischer. Her counterpart in the original UK series of ''The Office'' is Dawn Tinsley. Pam begins the series as th ...

joking about going to Bungalow 8 with

John Mayer John Clayton Mayer ( ; born October 16, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but he left for Atlanta in 1997 with fellow guitarist Clay Cook, with whom he formed the short-liv ...

. The nightclub Maisonette 9 in '' Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony'' was based on Bungalow 8. Sacco voiced Larissa Slalom, a radio guest and nightclub impresario heard on the in-game radio station WKTT.

References

{{coord, 40, 45, 02.8, N, 74, 00, 11.1, W , display=title Defunct nightclubs in New York (state) Defunct drinking establishments in Manhattan Nightclubs in Manhattan Nightclubs in London Defunct nightclubs in the United Kingdom Nightclubs in Europe 2001 establishments in New York City Chelsea, Manhattan