After a few false starts, Kings Cross looks to finally have its mojo back with a new wave of hospitality destinations attracting a fresh set of diners. Reborn celebrity bar Pelicano prepares to serve its first customers next week in the former site of Hugos Lounge, while further down Bayswater Road, Don’s Katsu will fry its first batch of pork on Friday.

Lockout laws ravaged the area a decade ago with high-profile closures. Hugos Lounge became the poster child and then commercial casualty of the now-retracted legislation. Hugos’ outspoken owner, David Evans, cited a drop in trade of 60 per cent before it closed in 2015. Andrew Becher, a restaurateur with a stable of hatted inner-east restaurants including Parlar at Potts Point and Surry Hills’ Armorica, carefully bided time before moving on the site.

Buoyed by initiatives to remove red tape for late-night operators, Becher will next week open Pelicano’s first stage: a restaurant, terrace and cocktail bar, followed a fortnight later by its nightclub.

It’s a plucky gamble to try to recapture the magic of an era in which Hugos Lounge was named Australia’s best nightclub multiple times, but Becher points to other green shoots in the area. Icebergs restaurateur Maurice Terzini is involved at a new “supper and a show” concept on Bayswater Road, Mirage KX, and bar-eatery Arms Length opened on Kellett Street in August, after relocating from Surry Hills.

“I remember people telling me I was mad opening on Darlinghurst Road,” says Brandon Martignago, the owner of Dulcie’s, a cool artisan drinking parlour that took up residence six years ago in a former strip-club. “It was pretty dire,” he says of trading conditions at the time.

What followed was an influx of innovative venues, including David and Amy Spanton’s Piccolo Bar and the recently opened The Hook on Bayswater Road, as well as Penny’s Hotel at Potts Point.

In November, Dulcie’s and 30 local venues will join forces for the Light Up the Cross campaign, which will celebrate the area’s return as an after-dark playground with a series of events and $12 drinks.

Part of the initiative is bright, luminous cocktails. “It’s a nod to the area’s neon [signs], and who doesn’t love a blue cocktail,” Martignago says.

The famous Kings Cross strip has taken on a more gentrified air in recent times, with the infamous Bourbon & Beefsteak and the historic Les Girls nightclub being redeveloped into a $65 million upmarket hotel and apartment complex.

Martignago says Kings Cross was always a precinct, not a suburb, so its tentacles and spirit spread beyond the formal boundaries of the postcode. Which helps explain why venues tend to include Kings Cross in their name or location, even if they’re technically outside the area.

One such example is rustic-chic restaurant Farmhouse Kings Cross, at the Rushcutters Bay end of Bayswater Road. Farmhouse owner Mike Mu Sung has been one of the quiet achievers in the area, trading through some of its toughest times and building a stable over the past decade of diminutive venues, which include Euro-style cafe Ken’s Continental and Bones Ramen.

The group’s latest venture, Don’s Katsu, opens on Friday at 59 Bayswater Road. “It was something [chef] Jake Riwaka has always wanted to try, it’ll serve katsu sets [rice, pickles and pork katsu] for around $30.”

The venue will initially be a one-month pop-up for walk-ins only. If Don’s works, they’ll consider a longer tenure. Mu Sung remembers empty streets during his early years in the area, but is buoyed by the return of visitors. “I think we’ve seen the worst,” he says.