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One fall night about 30 eager club-goers stood in line to get into the one new, most talked about venue. They started to get shivers not from the cold, but from the bouncer who stood before them demanding, “I only want girls to come into the club now, no guys!”

That bouncer was allegedly told by Cornwall’s own Peter Gatien owner of CiRCA to hand pick the girls out of the line and to no longer let in any more guys.

I remember being told on my media tour two years ago CiRCA explicitly wanted to not be about segregation.

CirCA has got to be the one venue which goes down in history as the longest venue to publicly get off the ground.

The good thing about this venue is the marketing strategy and PR team behind it. You see what other venue have you ever known of which didn’t open for two years, yet remained in the public’s eye and mind? They kept their logo out there for the city to see, they kept themselves in the news and begged everyone to talk and wonder when they were going to open.

Peter Gatien is the reason for this accomplishment. Money, a criminal history, owning some of the best venues in history in New York City (The Limelight, Palladium Club (USA) and Tunnel) having had a movie made about one of his club kid creations, Michael Alig (“Party Monster”) and produced the 1993 film "A Bronx Tale" which starred Robert de Niro It’s only natural the eager minds would occupy themselves with this venue and the man behind it.

I went to CiRCA and it was later described to me as being, “like a museum, once you go through it you’re done.”

CiRCA is a four-story, 55,000 square foot state-of-the-art space. It caters to art, music, entertainment, and fashion.

The good – it consists of different interesting rooms each with its own theme with full service bars.

The bad – Too much going on at once, too expensive and I found the sound system needed tweaking. And I found it to be the typical back in the 80's club vibe of cocaine and alcohol.

I believe CiRCA’s intention is to target the corporate world and to book its various spaces for their functions. For it’s club nights I speculate it will attract the wanna-be ‘club kids, 905 clubbers, the suburbanites wanting to go to a venue they have heard of and figure it’s the place to go, and the tourists as it appears to be a tourist attraction.

I believe there will not be too many 416ers, Queen Street West folks, the gay sector and the real hardcore House, Techno heads or the over all electronic music fans. CiRCA is a destination venue.

The Entrance - features two entrances and an indoor cueing area with display art cases for events to showcase products, photos or other promotional items.

Main Floor –accommodates up to 1,000 people and The Grand Stage is 25 feet deep.

The Washroom Bar – I knew this would be the most popular bar for the only reason of getting to drink in a bathroom! As weird as that sounds.

The décor is inspired by the clinical feel of a hospital or morgue. Upon entering the washrooms themselves I saw enclosed glass shower stalls with a girls in bikinis wearing see-through raincoats, holding umbrellas and wearing sunglasses dancing and smiling at me as I walked by.

It’s a unisex washroom, which I don’t mind. There weren’t line-ups, but I will say it was pretty dirty and wet.

DJ Booth and DJ V.I.P. – is above the main dancefloor, with three different turntable arrangements offering DJs the choice to play what they want; CDs and/or vinyl. This to me is one unique asset CiRCA offers. Behind the booth is the DJ V.I.P. area for the DJ and his or her entourage, groupies, hanger-ons or paid guests.

Sensacell Bar - has interactive, touch-sensitive surfaces. Designed to react to touch, and movement, this bar’s patented Sensacell surface lights up when an object makes contact with it.

Skyy Vodka Room - Skyy sponsors this room and has since I shot four episodes of “electronica" back in 2007. That’s quite the sponsor, I don’t know of any other sponsor who would hold out that long. This room for me was the best looking room for its simplicity & ‘60s feel to it with colours of blue and white. And yes it serves Skyy Vodka. And has a Skyy Cinema Lounge (a film screening room with a 16” screen).

Kidrobot® Room - created by Paul Bodnitz. Here you can purchase exclusive toys such as the “10” Silver Bondage Labbit” and the “3” Peter Gatien Dunny.”

For the non-club CiRCA nights there is the upcoming Penthouse Suite, yes CiRCA will have a penthouse suite on its fourth floor complete with; kitchen, dining room, living room, bedroom and bathroom, overlooking the club.

The other bars within CiRCA include; Fathom 22 Bar, the V.I.P. Cube which is almost embarrassing due to its size and what one will pay for this. It sits 10 and is all glass overlooking the entire venue, and The Ballroom will mostly be used for top 40 club nights and for corporate events.

CiRCA Recordings – Due in December 2007 is a full production recording studio which will be open full-time. A record studio can only mean a new record label maybe?

Kid Robot Room

CiRCA will serve the corporate world with the nightclub trying to be what was when Gatien was hand-picking people out of a line-up and discriminating right on John Street? It worked back in the days of Studio 54 because well ‘the scene’ was different. Sadly, now people are likely to get blasted for doing this.

As for the guys who aren’t allowed in due to their sex can always head down to Hooters where the beer is cheaper, the girls good-looking and their hard-earned money will be accepted.