A decade ago, the lines would snake for hours. Girls with platinum hair and push-up bras. Guys in white loafers and muscle shirts. You could hear the bass thumping, even from outside. It was Saturday night on Richmond St. and the clubs were bumping.

But yesterday’s club district has today fallen into eerie late-night calm, with huge rowdy clubs replaced by condos, clothing stores and, at best, smaller supper clubs.

“What is different now is that there are less venues and there are definitely less large venues,” says Denise Benson, author of Then & Now: Toronto Nightlife History.

The mega-club used to be a staple of Toronto’s nightlife scene: sprawling venues, often with capacities of well over 1,000, each more or less indistinguishable from the next, and all blaring Top 40 tunes into the early hours. They were mostly located in the Entertainment District, along Richmond and Adelaide Sts. east and west of Spadina Ave.

“The closing of a number of venues in the early to mid-2000s, to me, signals a serious change that we haven’t entirely recovered from,” Benson, a DJ and music journalist, says. The death of these venues — epitomized by spaces like Turbo, System Soundbar and the outlying Guvernment — was multi-faceted.

Clubs had initially moved into the once-desolate area in the early 1990s because of its large vacant warehouses, cheap rents, and proximity to hotels, the subway and Queen St. The heyday lasted until the early 2000s, with dozens of clubs operating in the area.

But by 2005 or so, things had begun to turn around. Stricter zoning laws made it more difficult for the clubs to operate. Rents skyrocketed. Lucrative condo projects began to move in. When Circa — the city’s last true mega-club — opened in 2007, the peak had long passed. “For Lease” signs and condo billboards already hovered over former hot spots, like System Soundbar and Turbo. Circa was shuttered in 2010.

Today, the one-size-fits-all Top 40 mega-club is more or less dead in Toronto. To experience that kind of relic from the past, you have to travel to new venues in Vaughan, like Avenue Nightclub and Ivy Social Club. Or visit the massive yet troubled Muzik Nightclub on the Exhibition grounds.

“There’s a constant flux in terms of nightlife, in terms of where venues are, in terms of what sizes they are and so on,” Benson says. A driving force behind that flux is gentrification.

“Artists move in, venues move in, music moves in, restaurants move in, people flock to the areas for social experiences, then they want to live there and then they don’t want it to be as loud — it’s just played out time and time again.”

As millennials grew into the clubbing scene, popular tastes and interests also began to change. Today’s clubgoers, Benson says, are craving more exclusive, tailored and intimate experiences. Things like Tinder also made the nightclub pickup a relic of the past: instead of spending the night prowling around a massive dance floor, you can have a date lined up before leaving home. An intimate space thus becomes paramount. With apps like Spotify, you also don’t need to head out to groove to the latest dance tunes. But for those with Top 40 tastes and itchy feet, there are still downtown venues offering the club experience.

With the old club district mostly dismantled, the downtown scene has migrated slightly southwest, in and around King and Spadina. Smaller supper clubs and pubs with dance floors dominate, as do more scene-specific venues with distinct flavours and themes. That’s partially due to tastes, but also due to zoning bylaws and the unavailability of large spaces to rent.

“It’s an area that’s happening,” Benson says. “And it’s an area that’s packed with people with a lot of spare cash.”

Meet the entourage

The Organizer

Name: Rob Loschiavo

Work: Conversationalist at The Conversation Agency marketing/advertising firm

Party Motto: Live your life in the moment; you’re never too old or too young for some fun.

The Fashionista

Name: Jay Strut

Work: Brand strategist and blogger at www.jaystrut.com

Party Motto: Let’s have a Kiki!

The Pro Planner

Name: Lia Macri, a.k.a. Miss Lia

Work: Event planner

Party Motto: If you have space to dance, then dance hard!

The Scene Queen

Name: Tran Pham

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Work: Founder of SceneQueen.ca event staffing

Party Motto: Enjoy the moment!

Toronto’s big box nightclubs may be a thing of the past, but that doesn’t mean the clubbing scene is dead. With four club-loving professionals as tour guides, our uninitiated reporter followed the party to three King West-area nightspots.

The Addisons Residence

Music: Eclectic

Vibe: Sophisticatedly loose

Capacity: 500

Jay Strut, who introduces himself as the “unofficial queen of King St.,” wastes no time. Within seconds of arriving at The Addisons, he’s ordering round after round of tequila shots. “You said you wanted an authentic experience!” he laughs.

With no dress code, The Addisons attracts a diverse clientele. Besuited bankers with salt and pepper hair mingle with university-age dudes in shorts and button-down plaid. The women wear everything from denim to cocktail dresses. But the atmosphere is sophisticated.

“Everyone is welcome at The Addisons; it doesn’t matter who you are,” Rob Loschiavo says. It’s his favourite place to start, and end, the night.

Occupying a space on Wellington St. that once housed C Lounge, Addisons is designed to be a non-stop house party. There’s an immaculate kitchen area with a long stool-lined counter, a living room with armchairs and board games, and even a game room with vintage arcade titles, foosball and stick hockey tables. Each of the three rooms has its own bar. With no booths, patrons are encouraged to mingle.

In the kitchen, a DJ spins an eclectic mix of oldies, hip-hop, top 40 and rock. Lia Macri, who’s here for the first time, loves the music and the house party vibe. “But the foosball table is just throwing me off,” she frowns.

Wildflower

Music: Hip hop

Vibe: Urban exclusive

Capacity: 215

It’s a short stroll down Wellington to Wildflower, a nightclub in the basement depths of the happening Thompson Hotel. There’s a long line snaking out the entrance when we arrive shortly before midnight, but as veterans of the scene our crew is immediately waved in by the door staff.

Several flights of graffiti-adorned stairs bring us to the tiny, dark venue, which has artificial flowers dangling from the ceiling’s fluorescent light tubes. Booths line the mirrored walls and bottle service comes with flickering sparklers. The vibe is hip urban casual: black shirts and ball caps dominate. A DJ spins a set that leans heavily on edgy hip-hop.

“For me, it’s the underground spot all the cool kids go to,” Rob says.

Jay wrangles drinks from someone he knows at a booth. Wherever he turns, he seems to recognize someone.

“This does not work for me,” Lia, always the skeptic, says. “It’s small, it’s loud, it’s too young.”

“For a mainstream nightclub, it’s a little bit edgier,” Tran Pham pipes up. “It’s definitely a destination for people in the know.”

The Everleigh

Music: Top 40

Vibe: Wild Canadiana

Capacity: 500

Tran gets us waved past the long line. Inside, the place is bumping, with Top 40 tunes blaring as people dance and grind under purple strobe lights. With its antique furniture, hardwoods, exposed bricks, a flock of wooden geese dangling from the rafters and the odd Muskoka chair, the Canadiana-themed King St. venue might look like a bar but definitely feels like a club. It’s one of the largest venues in the new King West club area.

Tran hops into a booth where they’re pouring glasses of vodka and Red Bull.

“It’s a club that doesn’t discriminate,” she says. You can see that with suits, denim, cocktail dresses and summer shorts all on display. Tran thinks that the place might be a bit too inclusive, though.

“I think it kind of derails the purpose of being out at a hot spot; you want to go to a place that’s a little more exclusive,” she says.

If people aren’t dancing, they’re eyeing their smartphones. I keep getting asked why I have a pad of paper.

“A reporter?” one guy says. “I’ve got a story for you.” He points to his date. “I’m going to murder this girl tonight!”

She laughs. I grimace.

It seems like Lia likes the place, though — she completely disappears into the dance floor melee.