Downtown Valdosta basks in the GLO of new ultra lounge

by Dean Poling

Charles Wiggins wanted something different for Downtown Valdosta. He felt Valdosta was ready for a more sophisticated club, a more high-end night spot. He wanted a place reminiscent of the dark-club, pulsing-with-life atmosphere of Atlanta’s Limelight, of the clubs he found in New York and Las Vegas.

“It’s a trend I felt like Valdosta is ready for. I felt there was a market for this,” Wiggins says.

Wiggins’ something different is Glo Ultra Lounge.

Structurally, Glo is a dark synthesis of glass, brick, steel and concrete. A combination of thick steel-bead drapes and art by local artists Craig Hawkins and Richard Estes. It is the contrast of dark windows and dazzling dance lights. It is the long bar of cool concrete stretching almost the distance of the club and it is the heat of an intimate dance floor. Glo mixes something new for Valdosta with the historic architecture of Downtown Valdosta.

Glo elegantly fuses styles and tastes and eras in a club that seems an intoxicating mix of the public and the private.

“I saw this building and loved this building,” Wiggins says of Glo’s 115 N. Patterson St. location which formerly housed Sojourner’s.

Glo’s location is also only a short walk from his other Downtown Valdosta business, The Bistro, located on Ashley Street.

Since Glo opened in mid-April, Wiggins has enjoyed owning and operating both businesses. Many of the patrons who enjoy a dinner in The Bistro end the evening at Glo.

That’s the type of migration Wiggins hopes to see within Downtown Valdosta. Get people to Downtown Valdosta and then have options that will keep them downtown.

“Several of us here are trying to make Downtown Valdosta a destination place,” Wiggins says, referring to other downtown businesses.



THE LOCATION

Glo Ultra Lounge is located in Downtown Valdosta, 115 N. Patterson St. Phone: 247-1860.



THE LOOK

Johnny Cash understood that black has a fashionable power. Black is always in style, and Glo is fitted strongly in basic black from black walls to black fittings to a black ceiling. It combines this basic black with the deep reds of a bare-brick wall behind the bar, the pinstripe gray of the long concrete bar where patrons may eat sushi or sip a martini, the crisper grays of the turbine-circled steel shading the suspended lamps. Silhouettes behind smoked glass. The weight of steel-bead drapes in doorways and along windows. The erotic appeal of Richard Estes’ sketches and the impact of Craig Hawkins’ nude canvas. A pattern of shadows fuses these diverse elements together for an intriguing atmosphere.



THE DRESS

Don’t expect to visit Glo Ultra Lounge wearing flip-flops and cut-offs, but you don’t have to be decked out in Armani either. Owner Charles Wiggins wants a club with a degree of casual sophistication. There is a dress code. Men should wear collar shirts. Typically no jeans. No flip-flops. No shorts for men. No hats. No do-rags. “A sense of style is all we prefer to ask of our guests,” the Glo Web site notes.



THE MENU

Martinis and other drinks are available from the bar. Glo has an extensive wine list of individual bottles for a range of tastes and expenses. Glo also offers bottle service allowing customers to call in advance with wine requests. Glo offers a sushi bar that promises to remain open until the doors close at 2 a.m. The sushi menu is extensive in its choices. Glo also offers sashimi, another Japanese delicacy of raw fish. The essential difference between sushi and sashimi? Sushi is raw fish on top of or wrapped in rice; sashimi is raw fish. Glo has a sushi chef to prepare these delicacies.



THE DANCE FLOOR

Glo offers dancing on its intimate dance floor. DJs spin music from the 1970s, ’80s, ’90s, hip-hop, club via Motion Dive Tokyo software. Four plasma-screen televisions flash images keeping the beat with the music. Additional computer software operates the extensive light show from a frame of lights suspended above the dance floor.



THE VIP LOUNGE

With advanced reservations and at an additional cost, Glo offers an upper-floor VIP Lounge. The VIP Lounge offers a level of privacy for personal or business parties while also offering a view of the entire club. A doorman is specifically assigned to the VIP Lounge allowing only the VIP guests up and down the staircase to the lounge. Reservations for the lounge were running about two weeks in advance at the time of this interview.



THE GLO HOURS

Glo Ultra Lounge is open 6 p.m.-2 a.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays.



THE GLO WEB SITE

www.gloultralounge.com

Text Only