‘This is me’: How Nick Russian mastered the art of creating good times
He created two of the city’s most famous nightclubs — Eve and Bar Bambi — and Nick Russian has recounted the exact moment he knew his calling was to become an after-dark king.
Fiona Byrne
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Few understand the after-dark pulse of Melbourne like Nick Russian.
Having created two of the city’s most famous nightclubs, Eve and Bar Bambi, Russian has mastered the art of creating good times, luxe venues, social desirability and bringing together cool crowds.
“When people walk in, you want the venue to be beautiful, the person who greets them at the door is so pleasant and makes them feel special from that first instant, and then you have different moments throughout the night that surprise and keep the entertainment coming,” Russian said.
He is a passionate advocate for the power and further potential of the city.
“It is a mini New York, but in a Melbourne way,” he said.
Russian’s career as a curator of Melbourne’s hottest nightspots started by chance.
“You hear it so often, but I kind of fell into it,” Russian, 45, said.
“I was 15 when I started working at the Middle Park Hotel on Canterbury Rd. It was a friend of my parent’s who owned the place. My brother was working there picking up glasses as a busboy. They were short of staff one night, so Daniel said ‘I will call my brother.’
“It was school holidays and I started working there picking up glasses, mopping up the spew, cleaning out the ashtrays, and I loved it. It opened my eyes to this whole other world. I was in an over aged venue and it was sort of the who’s who place at the time.
“I said ‘this is me’.”
From that ground level start, Russian never looked back and has gone on to become Melbourne’s king of clubs, first with the legendary Eve nightclub in South Melbourne and now with the CBD’s hugely popular Bar Bambi — a magnet for the “in” crowd and visiting A-list celebrities such as Gordon Ramsay and Drake.
From the moment it opened in ACDC Lane in November 2021, part restaurant, part nightclub, Bar Bambi brought a fresh, unique and undeniably cool element of after-dark entertainment to Melbourne.
Beginning back at the Middle Park Hotel, Russian learnt what a good venue was and connected with many of the venue’s regulars who were at the time rising through the ranks of Melbourne’s celebrity set.
Modelling and being a highly talented young footballer helped expand Russian’s social network. He was a model on The Price Is Right and even dabbled in reality TV, appearing on Temptation Island (“I was a pioneer of bad reality TV”) which was an early offering in the genre from Channel 7.
When he started working as a promoter at nightclubs in the mid ’90s, Russian was able to bring the various groups — football, sport, modelling, fashion, media, and the socially switched on — together.
“I started putting all of these people into the one venue and it all gelled; the models liked the footballers, they liked the social people and it just worked really, really well and over time you just sort of refined your product for that audience of people,” he said.
“From promoting and running nights I started my own events business and off the back of that, bought into a venue, sold out of a venue, bought into a venue, sold out of a venue, and then I was involved with Boutique (iconic Prahran nightclub of the early 2000s) with Razzle (Darren Thornburgh).
“When I parted with him, I went my own way with Eve.
“Eve was the first one (nightclub) that I went into as the principal.”
Eve opened in 2006 and over the next decade was Melbourne’s undisputed hot spot. Usain Bolt, Serena Williams and Britney Spears partied there as did local stars like Jennifer Hawkins, Shane Warne and endless footy high flyers.
It was there that Russian met his wife, wildly successful social media fashion marketer and collaborator, Rozalia. They wed in 2012 and are one of Melbourne’s most stylish power couples.
“We were lucky and when I say we, I mean me and my brother,” Russian said.
“We worked hard, we worked very hard, we had some great success and at the end of it all the luck was that we were able to sell our business (Eve) back to the landlord who had plans to knock over the building, which he has now done,” Russian said.
“I was such a young kid when I look back, and you think you know everything at the time, but you don’t and I still don’t.
“I learnt so much and off the back of having Eve we started Adam, the little side bar round the corner, then started Together Events. We had the venue sitting there during the day so we started a hospitality training business and then off the back of that we started a recruitment business. A lot of different businesses did flow off the back of that one cornerstone and we have been really lucky with the success we have had over time.”
Come 2016 however, it was time after 10 years to close that chapter and create something new.
“I was 27 when we started Eve and I was 37 when we walked out of the doors,” he said.
“I had really noticed a change in consumer behaviour over that decade. I felt as though the old model of a nightclub, it just was not a thing anymore.
“There needed to be an element of food and I thought we needed to do something a bit different.
“I researched what was going on around the world and saw in the States they were talking about this ‘club-staurant’ movement which was people going out for dinner but there is a DJ playing at the venue and there is a bit of a vibe there.
“If you want to go there and have a bit of dinner with a cool vibe and a few drinks you can or if you want to go there for dinner and a good vibe and then end up dancing on the table, you can also do that.
“There were a couple of key places in the States that were doing that well and thought ‘this is where I believe the future of our Melbourne nightlife is, that is the direction we are heading in’.”
Covid delayed the launch of Bar Bambi, but when the bold new take on Melbourne nightlife, the CBD’s first “club-staurant”, opened in November 2021 the city was ready to party.
Signature elements are everywhere at the venue from the famous vodka pasta, the cheeky catchphrases on the drink coasters and menu hinting at the potential of the night ahead, the famous Bar Bambi neon sign, and the mirrors in the bathrooms being consciously designed and positioned for the perfect reflected iPhone selfie. They are ready made social media moments.
Observing, listening and being present in the venue are the keys to success for Russian.
“I am here all the time,” he said.
“I am hearing and seeing what people are liking and what they are not liking. If you are around it all the time you absorb it.
“You have to always listen, you have to always get honest feedback and you have to adapt.
“The hospitality market is so much more dynamic these days than it was many years ago because of social media. People are seeing and getting inspiration from so many other outlets so you need to be dynamic and always evolve. If you don’t evolve you die.
“You always need to be tapping into that next generation of consumer. You are trying to bring people together and make them all feel comfortable.”
In 2020 with the Bar Bambi project delayed because of the Covid lockdown, Russian ran for Lord Mayor of Melbourne, pulling a highly respectable 10 per cent of first preference votes.
“Melbourne is something I am passionate about, I have grown up here my whole life, I love the city and I am invested in the city and I thought ‘if you want to have any say at all, get in the arena and give it a crack’,” he said.
“It was a good learning curve.”
He has not ruled out another run at public office.
“Never say never, but at the moment in terms of my time, it is so consumed with this business (Bambi), our other business, my wife’s business and our kids. It would be very difficult to fit in that extra responsibility at this time in my life.”
Family is Russian’s driving force and his priority. He and Rozalia have two children, Willow, 11, and Kingston, 8.
“The whole reason you work so much is to try and provide your family with a good life, but really, all your kids want to do is be with you,” Russian said.
“Early days there was a lot of sacrifice, working ridiculous hours and not getting to see them, but these last couple of years, I have definitely balanced things out where I still work ridiculous hours, however I have dinner with them every night of the week, (and) I drop them off at school in the morning.
“The challenging thing is leaving here at 3am Saturday morning and my son having basketball at 8.30am and then having your daughter’s basketball game and then after that there will be a kid’s birthday. It is a juggle, but it is worth it.”
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