pend more than a million bucks on what was a former car dealership and you too can have a spot capable of luring the highly desirable King West masses. Indeed, the scaffolding has come down and the heavily anticipated Spice Route opens to the masses tonight. The new Ian Schrager–esque restaurant has been generating much buzz, as this is the latest big-budget effort from Nick Di Donato (Liberty Group) and Charles Khabouth (INK).

The two club kings, who have earned their impressive stripes, surprised the local masses last year by teaming up in order to produce the Tattoo Rock Parlour. With Tattoo, the layout and design was in the hands of Khabouth (Guvernment, Ultra Supper Club and Dragonfly), who cleverly spun out a big-budget, graffiti-drenched residual squalor.

With Spice Route, the design is all Liberty Group. Or more specifically, creative director Nadia Di Donato primed the space into what is destined to be a perennial favourite. When the partners took over the space - which was previously the short-lived Touch Lounge (originally, the building was a Mitsubishi dealership) - in 2007, they quickly went to work turning the 8,000sq space into their definition of a Buddha bar-esque restaurant.

Di Donato knew what it would take to bring the large, square space to life. Her vision was to set all inhibitions aside and outfit the space in pure Japanese, Chinese, Thai and Indian regalia. Fast forward a year, and oversized antique doors now welcome you into a huge, dark and earthy space, tricked out with its bamboo flooring and Douglas MacRae wallpaper (gorgeous photography? Look closer – these are handcrafted paintings).