OCEAN DRIVE MAGAZINE
THE MAN MINDING MYNT

Owner Romain Zago's fiber-cool nightspot already has fabulous crowd, but a redesign and a new attitude have it poised to reclaim its place as Miami's hottest club

His entire security team, he says, is fully certified in Brazilian jujitsu-the official hand-to-hand combat system of the American military and many law-enforcement agencies nationwide (see graciemiami.com for further info). "That means nobody will get punched, even if they start trouble, so there's no violence, confusion or fear in the club ever."

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If there's a club on the Beach synonymous with exclusivity, it's Mynt. During its seven-year reign the definitive uber-lounge on the 1900 block of Collins has earned a reputation for the tightest door policy and most fabulous crowd in the 305. Naturally, some towering egos have been crushed along the way.

"Of course, not everybody gets in," says new owner Romain Zago, who along with two silent partners bought the club last year and has since totally renovated the venue-and its reputation. "The Mynt crowd is chic and sophisticated. It's a very VIP, educated and good-looking crowd, and that reflects the image we try to promote. So, yes, the door policy has to be selective."

As the club's former VIP director, Zago worked tirelessly to build the venue's international reputation for wild nights, wanton hedonism and wicked-looking women. The list of celebrities he has walked through the club would fill a dozen Rolodexes, but serial offenders include Ricky Martin, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Gabrielle Union, Mickey Rourke, P. Diddy, Jennifer Lopez, Gisele Bundchen, Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx. Add to these the seemingly endless hordes of models, male and female, and the A-list DJs and their crews, and you get an idea of why Mynt's velvet rope has always been the highest hurdle in Miami Beach nightlife. Unfortunately, fabulous can sometimes flip over into fatuous, and there was a moment under previous ownership when the line got blurred, tarnishing Mynt's blue-chip status for the first time.

"That's all in the past," says Zago, who has just overseen a major renovation of the club's interior and is busy restoring its reputation as the ultimate high-end, luxury-service nightspot. "It's true, a certain former owner developed a reputation for being arrogant. But it's a completely different team now, and our mantra is, 'The Customer Is the Star.' We never forget that without the paying customer, nobody has a job and that goes for the entire team, from bus boys to managers."

Zago's upbeat, no-nonsense attitude is certainly infectious. A French-born, Brazilian-raised former model-he's buff, 6'2", speaks five languages fluently, and dates "the world's sexiest swimwear model" Joanna Krupa-Zago has a high-octane mix of charisma, looks, humor and crackling energy. Even his deep, throaty voice and Brazilian accent add to his magnetic presence. But the most important quality, he insists, is humility. "If you think you're too important to serve people and make sure they're happy, then you don't belong in this business."

Zago claims that Mynt is the first and only high-end club to stay open for seven years on Miami Beach and still maintain its A-list status, and he'll gladly explain why. "We're not like a lot of people who are looking to build up their club for two, three years, then sell out," he says. "We're here forever. That's the way we think. And thinking that way makes you pay attention to detail." - This attention has seen Zago hand-pick a team that he likens to a family, including right-hand man and VIP director Oliver Jay. A 14-year veteran of the Beach (and like Zago, a Frenchman), Jay has worked his way through a veritable history of nightlife in 33139, starting with the opening of Jimmy'z and later at Tantra, Nikki Beach and Pearl. Returning from a vacation in France he bumped into his compatriot Zago on the plane; they got talking, Zago offered him a position, and he accepted. "Why?" asks Jay, 35. "Because I listened to what he said, and it was the first time with a boss that we're on the same page. We're both into looking after people first, being kind to people, making them happy. All the people who work here, there's no ego drama. It's actually a pleasure coming to work at Mynt."

Zago is equally full of praise for Jay, and also enthusiastic about his resident DJ, Julian Ingrosso. "I consider him a genius," he says of the 22-year-old Italian wonder kid, "and I'm not the only one: Every_ club on the Beach has offered him a job, but he's still here."
One of the reasons, surely, is Mynt's brand-new sound and lighting systems, with the DJ booth the focus of the room and the DJ himself the epicenter of the action. So it's little wonder that, for every club promoter trying to steal Ingrosso away, there's a DJ calling Zago to offer his talents, desperate to quit his own gig and spin on Mynt's decks.
A large part of the $1,059,000 bill for the renovation went into the club's new lighting equipment. "It's far and away the most advanced system in Miami," says Michael Meacham of iDesign, who designed, custom-programmed and installed the state-of-the-art technology. "It provides a vast, dynamic range of lighting effects, from subtle pastel tones to thumping primary colors."

The centerpiece is the wall of Traxon tiles flanking, and running behind, the DJ booth in an H-shape. At rest these look like mirrored panels, but at the flick of a switch they shimmer with color and abstract shapes. "The idea," Meacham says, "was to have full control over all of the possible lighting elements inside a fully interactive framework. There's a camera in the ceiling we can train on somebody if, say, it's their birthday. And then we can put their face up on the Traxon tiles or through the video-projector screens on both walls.

There are so many different things you can do on this system, the potential is almost limitless." To put it into perspective, Meacham explains that nightclub lighting is controlled in "universes" of 512 channels, each channel carrying information about an individual light-for example, pan, tilt, color, pattern, filter, shutter or strobe. "A big club might have two 'universes' of this kind," he says. "Mynt has 26. It's mind-boggling. The parameters are virtually limitless."

If Zago takes great pride in his staff and the newly refurbished club (such as the microfiber-suede banquettes built specifically so people can dance on them, and padded walls with flashing LED lights), he's even prouder of the club's security, which he claims is second to none.

"We don't want fights and hardly ever get one," he says. "We're the only club with three off- duty cops on the door every night, so if there is a problem, it can be handled very quickly and efficiently. But basically, we don't let trouble start, so we screen out any gangs or heavy-looking guys. People know they'll get a safe environment here."

His entire security team, he says, is fully certified in Brazilian jujitsu-the official hand-to-hand combat system of the American military and many law-enforcement agencies nationwide (see graciemiami.com for further info). "That means nobody will get punched, even if they start trouble, so there's no violence, confusion or fear in the club ever."

Zago's outlook was shaped by his "business idol and mentor," John Casablancas, the man who founded Elite Model Management before selling it, who is widely credited with inventing the supermodel phenomenon in the early '90s.

"I was his assistant producer on Elite events for many years,' Zago says. "He taught me if you want to succeed you have to do it the hard way, learning the business from the bottom up. So I've worked every job there is in a club, from coat check to owner. I've cleared tables, been a barman, I've hosted, been general manager and now owner. I've traveled to five continents, been in hundreds of clubs, and I try to focus everything I've learned into Mynt. I call it polishing the diamond.