nly one thing's for sure at Park Lane, the latest drinking den to hit the club district: It's going to be a long, unpredictable evening. With a big-budget design and overhead designer lighting that reduces humans to playthings of destiny, Park Lane's reach is daringly sophisticated.

With the outgoing clubs Fez Batik, Joe and The Joker, and several incoming high-end condo projects on their way, this two-block stretch has been a closely-watched area. Picking up on the subtle transformation, a group of industry veterans moved in quickly with their pompously labeled "Park Lane," on Pearl Street.

Haughty name aside, the group has firmly planted their upper class flag right in the heart of club land. Nestled between Piccadilly Circus and Grace O’Malley’s (not exactly Upper East Side), the challenge here will be to entice the discerning crowds on king west to make their way back east. Admittedly this isn’t an easy task, which is why the new lounge has been billed, albeit by the owners, as the first club in Toronto to offer 5-star service. Owners, management and staff will all work with one goal in mind: customer satisfaction. All club openings tend to boast this, but owners and staff are claiming, in no uncertain terms, that service is key, to likely sweetly profitable results..

Aesthetically, the new place is one part dance club and three parts bottle service lounge, a concept that often works, yet sometimes screams identity crisis. The alley entrance of Park Lane reads high-end, with monogrammed iron gates, manned by GQ doormen to ensure crowds are kept at a manageable level.