Its owners best describe Stardust as a lounge that caters to all five senses. 

Guests are greeted by the work of interior designer Angie Gonzalez-Hager—a hallway that looks something out of Hollywood afterparties with black, marble-like floor tiling, a ceiling full of disco balls, and a corridor of mirrors. 

Further into the club, velvet-lined interiors, custom furniture, and a star-studded ceiling transport guests to some vibrant nightspot somewhere in Manhattan. 

The management of Stardust is not afraid to swim against the tide, especially since what they’re aiming for is sophistication, elegance, and global appeal.

“If you would pick up Stardust and drop it here in New York City, it would not miss a beat,” says Michael Chung, an ex-Goldman Sachs banker and one of the owners now based in New York.

Chung and Peter Hager, another owner, were high school buddies from International School Manila, who spun for a mobile DJ group called Nouveaux in the late ’80s. They are also partners with Andre Kahn, general manager of Trans Radio Broadcasting Corporation back when it was the owner and operator of then-99.5 RT, a trailblazer and the authoritative source of new and edgy American pop music in the ’70s and ’80s. 

Other partners include multi-awarded actor Alden Richards, iconic DJ Angelo de Dios, and Louie Ysmael or Louie Y, a legend in the Manila nightlife scene and the brains behind famous clubs like Euphoria and Stargazer and, more recently, Revel and XYLO.

“The seeds of Stardust germinated in 2019 halfway around the world in South America with a fortuitous meeting with David Vukovich, one of the owners of Traction,” recounts Hager. “In 2020, I got a hold of some Traction speakers and discovered how incredible they sounded. From there, the inspiration was born to open a lounge bar to showcase Traction’s speakers and raise the level of nightlife entertainment in Makati by delivering an immersive high-quality audio experience that allowed people to socialize without shouting.” 

The result, needless to say, is Stardust, a modern plush venue paying homage to the nostalgic days of disco and the second British music invasion, through an uncompromising sound system.

“My whole life has been music but when I hear the same song in Stardust, it’s like I’m hearing it for the first time,” says Kahn. “You hear little things in the cut that you have not heard with poorer quality speakers.”

Chung explains that he and Hager, as well as De Dios and resident Stardust DJ Arnel Genterone, go through hundreds of vinyl records sourced from around the world in an exhaustive process of pinning down the “Stardust sound.” 

There probably isn’t any single, definitive answer to that question. A night at Stardust, after all, is different every night.