Plywood Update: AsiaSF Hollywood

Last year, Skip Young told us all about bringing AsiaSF to Hollywood, a restaurant and nightclub taking over the former China Club space at 1600 Argyle. The owners were hoping for a fall '07 debut, then pushed to Februrary 2008, and now, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, it will probably happen sometime this fall. The Chron supplies a few new details: The architect is John Lum, who designed the original location, the two-floor space (bigger than the one in SF) will have a long Chinese red runway, big dance floor, and a 72-foot-tall dragon tail statue with LED lights at the entrance. And then we have the Ladies of AsiaSF, the "gender illusionist" servers and performers.

In addition to singing sultry ballads and high-energy numbers, they also are charged with selling signature cocktails to guests in their sections. Sometimes, however, patrons ask questions about things not on the menu. Comments range from compliments about appearance - body, hair and makeup - to very personal issues, such as whether a Lady has had sexual reassignment surgery, said one Lady, whose performance name is Ginger. She said she uses the questions as an opportunity to educate guests about transgender people.

And because this is Hollywood, Young and partner Larry Hasbarger are negotiating to bring AsiaSF Hollywood to the small screen. The reality series would document "the lives of 22 male-to-female transgender people as they master complex choreography, learn to move like biologically born women and fight through often painful transitions." Certainly not The Hills now is it.
· EXCLUSIVE: AsiaSF Coming to Hollywood [~ELA~]
· AsiaSF gender-bending club goes Hollywood [Chron]

AsiaSF image from aldask, Flickr