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On a balmy June evening in Bushwick, I laced up my skates and joined a sea of bodies gliding across the maple wood floor at Brooklyn’s newest skating rink, Xanadu Roller Arts.
The sprawling 16,000-square-foot space, designed to double as a concert venue and nightclub for up to 1,200 people, would officially open its doors the next day. But tonight, at this pre-opening party, seasoned pros and wobbly newcomers alike were already falling into orbit around Xanadu’s disco ball—all of us glistening from sweat and sequins as we christened what is now the city’s first new wooden rink in over a decade.
This same dance would repeat night after night in the coming days, like a ritual. Yet the journey to get here was anything but routine.
Xanadu was founded by Varun Kataria, a local business owner who’s already made his mark on the neighborhood with the Turk’s Inn and the Sultan Room just down the block. While he’s no stranger to Bushwick nightlife, Kataria didn’t even know how to skate when the idea of opening a roller rink occurred to him in late 2022.
“I came in as an outsider,” he admits to me somewhat sheepishly as we walked the space days earlier. Kataria has since secured his own set of eights, and now speaks about skating with the same feverish devotion as the regulars. But at first, all he had to show for his passion was a quick sketch of the rink’s layout on a legal pad that he still has in his possession today.
As luck would have it, his neighbor—who ran a steel fabrication shop in the space we now know as Xanadu—decided to retire. Someone else was interested in leasing the space, so Kataria had to act fast. “Once I heard that, it put this panic inside me,” he says. “I knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to find a space like this half a block from my other business.”
Within weeks, Kataria signed the lease and Xanadu’s journey to touchdown commenced at warp speed. Construction began in March 2023, and it wasn’t long before whispers about the space began to trickle throughout the local NYC skate community.
For many of us, word of a new rink in Brooklyn sparked a mix of suspicion and cautious optimism. We’d gotten used to making the most of the city’s bleak skating landscape, one marked by a series of closures over the last two decades—from Staten Island’s RollerJam earlier this year, to the Bronx’s Skate Key, Brooklyn’s Empire Rollerdrome, and the iconic Roxy in Chelsea in the late 2000s. Since then, we’ve seen enough temporary pop-up spots roll in, cash out, and roll away to last a lifetime.
“I’m tired of seeing rinks come here and profit off of a community they say they care about and then just leave us,” Arrí, a 26-year-old skater, shares with me before we laced up at the rink. Having a more permanent rink, she says, “changes everything.”
After years of relying on makeshift solutions and long commutes to rinks—like Branch Brook in New Jersey, and United Skates on Long Island—the prospect of a dedicated, year-round skating space in the heart of the city is something all skaters want to believe in. “It feels like a space that could really be here for us and here to stay,” says Janette, a 37-year-old skater living in Harlem.
“It feels like a space that could really be here for us and here to stay.”
Many skaters, like Genesis from the Bronx, are already feeling “grateful” to no longer have to rely on carpooling for a night out on wheels. Karen, a member of the local skate crew The Liberty Girls, is looking forward to hopefully saving some money after spending “thousands” on transportation between skating events and her home, also in the Bronx.
For Ariel, another member of The Liberty Girls, Xanadu represents more than just convenience. “This is a place where you can be whoever you want to be without any judgment,” the 27-year-old explains. “That’s so important because it allows me to just skate and not think about outside factors.”
This sense of freedom is crucial in a community as diverse as NYC’s skaters. We’re a kaleidoscope of ages, races, genders, sexualities, and economic backgrounds, all united by our love of rolling. But the history of roller skating in America hasn’t always been so inclusive.
Black skaters have always been at the heart of the sport’s evolution—from civil rights protests at the rink, to birthing entire musical movements at the DJ booth—yet they’ve faced persistent discrimination throughout the years. Rinks often used thinly veiled tactics, like themed “soul” nights, to segregate Black patrons. As Elijah, a 30-year-old skater living in Brooklyn, points out, “Some rinks are still doing that today. So it’s completely valid for Black skaters to question—will we feel safe and welcomed here?”
It’s a history and concern that Xanadu’s founder takes seriously. “We have a lot of division right now in our lives,” Kataria acknowledges. “This is not a space for that. This is a space for unity.” He’s committed to creating an environment where everyone feels welcome. “We’ve had Black folks in their 70s who skated at Empire for 40 years and young queer kids coming in from House of Yes,” he says. “They wouldn’t usually hang out in rooms together. But here, everybody makes sense with each other.”
“…here, everybody makes sense with each other.”
Opportunities for connection can be found in just about every aspect of Xanadu’s design. From the moment you step through the doors, you’re greeted by a giant black-and-white photo of a group of young Black skaters taken over 40 years ago at Empire, a model for the energy in the room today. A rinkside bar, serving drinks with names like Skaterade and Purple Rain, opens up to direct sightlines of all the action on the wood. And in the bathroom, a surprise DJ spins a soundtrack for patrons to dance to as they wash their hands, a cheeky setup Kataria calls, “Club Flush.”
Kataria is proud of his funky design but values Xanadu’s “social architecture” the most. “It’s about the memories, the connections, and what we do for society,” he says. “If we’re blessed to have a long life here, think about the generational impact we’ll have on the people that can grow up in this space.”
His vision hits close to home for people like Karen, who skated for the first time as a child. “I would not have been a roller skater if it wasn’t for my first couple of times skating at Skate Key in the Bronx as a kid, and that was because they provided free field trip opportunities,” she explains.
Experiences like these have inspired many members of the skate community to pay it forward, with some of us organizing our own fundraisers and volunteering for causes close to us. Now, there’s hope that Xanadu will build on these grassroots efforts.
“I would love it if Xanadu did events and fundraising for causes like breast cancer, for domestic abuse victims, or children in foster homes,” Genesis offers as an example, suggesting that local skaters could also volunteer at these events.
“We’re not going to let this rink go away from us.”
Kataria already seems to be on the same wavelength when it comes to giving back to the community. When I arrived for my tour of the rink, he was in the middle of a phone call with the mayor’s office to discuss skating sessions for students at local schools. And his plans don’t stop there. His team is working on ways to make Xanadu more accessible with a membership plan to reduce costs, along with securing paid gigs for talented skaters to perform at private events. “It’s all about creating forward motion and opportunities,” Kataria says.
One such opportunity already materialized for Melody, who, along with the rest of the Liberty Girls, hosted Xanadu’s grand opening Pride night event. It’s exactly the kind of platform the Bronx native hopes to see more of in the future, with Xanadu “creating more jobs, highlighting amazing people in our community, and giving them the flowers that they deserve.”
As skaters from all corners of the city converge on this new rink, it’s becoming clear that Xanadu isn’t just here to fill a void—it’s creating a whole new world of possibilities for NYC skaters. “We can leave a legacy,” Ariel muses. “We’re not going to let this rink go away from us. Xanadu is here to stay.”