Darryl Gibson has worked at some of the most important hospitality spaces of the last thirty years — The Standard, Chateau Marmont, Faena, and Bungalow 8. He was there when hotels evolved from places to sleep into cultural destinations. Now as Senior Advisor at Cohere and partner at Grotto Baths Miami, he's helping shape the next generation of hospitality, one that lives at the edge of wellness.
We sat down with Darryl to learn about his trajectory and the way his work has shaped his outlook as an advisor in the hospitality space.
The Standard LA and the Chateau Marmont Era
"When I moved to Los Angeles, I took a job working for André Balazs at The Standard. That was the first time I worked in a hotel, which presented a whole layer of operations I'd never had to think about. But André was really good at making the public spaces feel like not hotels. They were like nightclubs, to be honest."
"All of the spaces in the hotel became stages for me to play around in. The staff were all so creative. And if you had an idea, you could raise your hand. Everyone kind of felt like they could program the hotel."
"At Chateau Marmont, André wanted Bar Marmont to feel connected to the hotel. With the Chateau's prestige, I saw an opportunity on the music side. We attracted regulars like Prince and hosted Janelle Monáe. We also ran Giorgio's, LA's hottest party where middle-aged crowds danced to disco—I even danced with Mick Jagger there."
"At Chateau Marmont, André wanted Bar Marmont to feel connected to the hotel. With the Chateau's prestige, I saw an opportunity on the music side. We attracted regulars like Prince and hosted Janelle Monáe. We also ran Giorgio's, LA's hottest party where middle-aged crowds danced to disco—I even danced with Mick Jagger there."
—Darryl Gibson
"When HR asked me, "What is your title?" I said, "I don't know—Director of Culture?" Because it was just a cultural thing. I saw it that way. I believe I might have been the first, because there wasn't a role for that on a P&L or on a budget."
The Amy Sacco Years: Building Bungalow 8
"When I moved to New York in the mid-90s to pursue acting I was going to clubs like Limelight and Tunnel, and I was completely enthralled by all the pomp and circumstance around getting into these nightclubs—the fashion, the music, all different walks of life showing up. I thought, "I want to be on the other side of that rope." Not just inside the club, but on the other side looking out."
"Amy Sacco gave me my big break. Everyone called Amy "the queen of New York City nightlife." There were all these comparisons to Steve Rubell and Studio 54 because she had the best of the best of fashion, music, publishing, art, entertainment—everyone flooding her places."
"With Bungalow 8, Amy didn't bend on her vision for it. She'd sent out these cards to members—they looked like hotel keys—which basically meant no matter what, you're coming in with your two or three people."
"With Bungalow 8, Amy didn't bend on her vision for it. She'd sent out these cards to members—they looked like hotel keys—which basically meant no matter what, you're coming in with your two or three people."
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"Inside, people felt really comfortable. You'd have Nicole Kidman next to a skater from Brooklyn in the same room, because once in, everybody was just a human being. Everybody was interesting. A lot of people that met at Bungalow went on to get married or start businesses together. All kinds of wild, magical things happened there."
"Working my way through downtown bars and restaurants, I learned something crucial. The owners, managers, bartenders, waiters—everybody was really responsible for making the whole thing a success. It was really about people coming to see us. That's where I learned the importance of taking ownership, even though you're not the owner."
Opening Faena in Miami and Shaping The Standard Miami
"I moved to Miami to work with Alan Faena on the Miami property. He is a visionary, I was excited by his passion and vision and uncompromising determination. All the collaborators too—Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin—all these wildly creative people working on a hospitality project. Hotel openings are hard, that was my third one. There are so many moving pieces. But in the end, when you open the doors and start to see it come alive, it's so rewarding. Faena was doing so many things so differently than everybody else."
"I then returned to The Standard, this time in Miami. The attitude was that everything needed to be fun and cheeky. The hammam parties that happened—to think that you could build a spa and still encourage people to be really free in all kinds of ways but not have it go off the rails, I thought that was always the magic of the place."
How His Work Has Influenced Grotto Miami
"His dream project was a bathhouse. With Cohere, my latest project where I'm also a partner is Grotto Baths in Wynwood. We didn't set out to build a spa, but a bathhouse more akin to the thermal baths of Ancient Rome. What excites me about this project is that we're bringing back something that's been lost in modern wellness culture. Most spas today are about isolating yourself, staying quiet, optimizing your individual experience. But historically, bathing was social — it was where communities actually connected."
"Everything I've learned about what makes a space successful is in this project. The mix of people is key, we're building a membership community that already has artists, athletes, people in wellness and hospitality, small business owners. I learned a long time ago that the room only comes alive when the right people are in it together. The music is the same story, we're going to program the space with local DJs and give them the opportunity to play the music from their collections that isn't made for nightclubs. At Chateau Marmont I coined the title Director of Culture because the culture was the main driver. At Grotto it still is."
"Everything I've learned about what makes a space work is in this project. The mix of people matters, we're building a membership community that already has artists, athletes, people in wellness and hospitality, small business owners. I learned a long time ago that the room only comes alive when the right people are in it together. "
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"There are no spas in our moodboard. We pulled from Brazilian Bossa Nova album covers, obscure 70s magazines, and the Venetian modernist architect, Carlo Scarpa. We worked with artist Emmett Moore, who is a Miami-native, to design the entrance wall. South Florida-based artist Papou is painting a large scale work for our lobby. We wanted people who live here to feel like this place was made for them. Because it was."
Shaping What's Next at Cohere
"At Cohere, I bring all of that experience to hotel and wellness projects as Senior Advisor. My network—this mycelium spanning cities and continents—helps me find the right person to do something for a project I'm working on. What's great about that is being able to share this knowledge with the next generation of operators and programming directors—giving them the foundation while they push things forward in their own way."
