- Most new clubs open with carefully engineered fanfare, but Schimanski, the latest arrival to Brooklyn's crowded club scene, chose a quieter plan. Instead of the usual PR and social media blitz, the venue announced its existence on flyers and posters around the borough, then waited for word of mouth to spread. Even the name, spun from a character from an '80s German crime show, takes effort to remember, let alone spell in a Google search.
There's good reason for this cautious approach: Schimanski took over the Williamsburg address of the club formerly known as Verboten, which was seized by the state of New York earlier this year for non-payment of taxes, prompting its owners to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Then came the news that Eddie Dean, former owner of the now-closed Pacha NYC, had bought the lease for $1.2 million. Schimanski is the result of that purchase, but there was nothing Pacha-like in its marketing plan.
Schimanski's first point of difference from the previous tenant is the programming. While there's some crossover in sound, the club's November bookings deviate from Verboten's tech house-heavy lineups. One weekend features Henning Baer and Umfang; another promises the enticing triple-bill of Veronica Vasicka, Delta Funktionen and Volvox. Meanwhile, the flyer and website design is more reminiscent of a hipster fashion brand or nu-disco label than a gritty nightclub. That might seem like a superficial detail, but it's indicative of the kind of cool Schimanski wants to be.
The room I walked into last Saturday, during the club's opening weekend, looked a lot like Verboten. The basic layout is unchanged, with a wood dance floor, a raised seating area flanking the central DJ booth, and a wraparound video screen. Verboten's giant disco ball is gone, leaving the space feeling deliberately unadorned. (A fiberglass "Disco Shark," familiar to dancers in Coachella's Yuma Tent, hangs above the bar.) The only significant change is a powerful new Alpha Dynacord soundsystem. It was pretty clear straight away what Schimanski was going for: a dark, no-frills space where the music is the main event.
Arriving at 12:30 AM, I was surprised to discover I'd missed Morgan Geist, who took the warm-up slot. Let's Play House ringleader Jacques Renault had the floor, mixing fluidly between warm house records like Mood Hut's "Better," which sounded suitably punchy and enveloping on the new system. Numbers swelled when the night's main draw, Tiger & Woods, stepped up just after 1 AM. Locking straight into a groove with their new one "RockMeLoveMe," the Italian duo's hybrid live-DJ set stayed buoyant for more than two hours. The one-two punch of Armando's Trax classic "Downfall" into Delphi's 2016 stomper "Blue Tuesday" typified the uninhibited fun in their selections. By the time Renault took over again for the final stretch, reaching for feel-good records like Class Action's "Weekend," there were fewer than 100 people dancing.
It'll be interesting to see how Schimanski grows from its opening weekend. Anyone expecting a visibly different club from Verboten will be disappointed, but it remains a functional space with all the essentials in place. Its distinguishing feature is likely to be its programming, although the Let's Play House showcase revealed a possible weak spot. Despite a relatively early closing time of 4 AM, the dance floor was only busy during the peak of Tiger & Woods's set. With competition fierce in Brooklyn right now, it remains to be seen whether future dates can keep the place packed until the final track.
Photo credit /
C Squared Photography for SchimanskiNYC.com