An abandoned roller rink in Mid-City which was once an important center of L.A.’s hip hop scene, is coming back to life as an updated nightlife hotspot.
World on Wheels served as a broadcast center in the early days of radio station KDAY and was known as a safe space for people from the community to gather, particularly kids and teens. Snoop Dogg himself even gave a loving shout out to the place in his nostalgic song "The Way Life Used to Be" (Snoop was such a public fan of World on Wheels that rumors floated around that he might buy the place himself, but nothing was ever confirmed), and the Dilated Peoples made the rink the topic of their track "World on Wheels."
The new owner, Tommy Karas, came to prominence managing mega-clubs in Las Vegas, Miami, New York and Chicago before moving to L.A. with the hopes of opening a less-flashy kind of place. "If you don’t have $3,000 to get a table, you’re a nobody," Karas told L.A. Weekly about the overblown bottle-service culture he had observed at other nightclubs. When he found out the World of Wheels property might be on the market, it all came together for him.
Getting the place ready to return to the spotlight was not an easy task. The building was nearly destroyed in the 1992 riots and, though it was eventually rebuilt, the following years were not kind to the building. By the time Karas saw it, it had been sitting vacant, with walls nearly caving in.
But Karas got a lot of encouragement to push the project forward, including from some pretty famous folks. Even rapper Nipsey Hustle got Karas on the phone for a pep talk about the importance of bringing World on Wheels back online, and then ended up joining the team as a sort of informal consultant and community liaison for the project.
When it opens this summer, the place will have a chic, modern look, but a few old-school touches will remain, including the original vintage DJ booth, which will now host local and touring DJ talent. A liquor license application for the spot has yet to be approved for the property but is in the works, and a dining area and lounge will give tired skaters a place to kick up their heels.
World on Wheels Roller Rink is located at 4645 Venice Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90019. It is expected to re-open in June or July 2017, but an exact date has not yet been confirmed.
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