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I found this article a couple of days ago:
Earlier this year, Back Door Bamby took a vacation and forgot to come back. The 10-years-running Monday-night party was the last of its kind on South Beach, a holdout from the days when freaks of all stripe — gay, straight, and in between — still partied together. This past spring, promoter Carmel Ophir told us the bad-ass bitch was on vacation, and both he and Bamby dropped out of the spotlight. A little more of the Beach's meager remaining spark and color instantly disappeared.
But while Ophir stayed off the radar, astute observers of the nightlife landscape might have noticed a few rumblings around the space formerly occupied by I/O, on 14th Street near North Miami Avenue. And now he's ready to go public. With partner Ronny Mayo (owner of Blue and Lost Weekend locally, and Respectable Street Café in West Palm Beach, among several other venues), Ophir has bought the spot. They've completely gutted it and revamped everything from the toilets on up to the sound system. And instead of turning it into yet another ho-hum posh palace, it's envisioned as a down-to-earth spot where everyone can party side by side, from aging Bamby acolytes to sweaty indie kids to maybe even a post-theater crowd from the nearby Carnival Center. The name? Um ... the Vagabond.
"Okay, to the layman, that's a fucking bum," Ophir says on a recent evening, charging around the still-raw main room of the venue, describing its future features in his trademark dizzying, go-for-it, motivational-speech cadence. "But you know what it really means is a wanderer by choice. It's kind of a reference to Bob Dylan — the original vagabond poet. And then Keith Richards, the vagabond rocker. And of course you can't forget 'these vagabond shoes' — Sinatra!"
With that sort of eclectic, gypsylike vibe in mind, he and Mayo are planning the space as three distinctive environments, each with a markedly different atmosphere. The entry room is a chilled-out bar area, with a small DJ booth but plenty of seating and an organic, earthy vibe. Ophir is designing it himself, down to the poured-concrete bar. So he's found vendors for a concrete bar? "Well, sure, like you go to Home Depot and mix it up." Grassroots indeed.
The main event is in the adjacent room, spruced up acoustically with a cushioned dance floor meant to sustain revelers' knees just a little longer. The main addition here is yet another bar, nonexistent in the old I/O, as well as a retro-futuristic look (think Barbarella). And to further express the anything-might-happen idea, the old permanent stage has been replaced by a flexible setup that can accommodate everything from star DJs to small live acts. And as in its previous incarnation, the back patio will remain a bohemian outdoor lounge, with mellow sounds and a fire pit.
The planned musical program is as eclectic as the crowd Ophir envisions: old-school hip-hop and classics nights, hipster dance nights, and more than a few mod-garage psychedelic freakouts. What he won't do, he says, is start a Saturday night that would drain crowds from Circa Saturdays or Poplife, whose promoters' followers all overlap.
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2007-1...-s-underground/
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