From a decrepit squat in a darkened corner of Sydney's famously gritty Kings Cross comes Favela - a gorgeously sophisticated bar restaurant and club in the city's increasingly stylish late-night dining and dancing precinct.

Before the club's owners Dean Dinov and James Moses bough the site and poured $3 million into its redevelopment the disused building was the quintessential seedy side of Kings Cross. By adopting the Brazilian word for slum the club's name at once refers to the place's insalubrious past while evoking the creative energy of the teeming cosmopolitan metropolis that is Rio De Janero with its famous carnival glamorous nightspots and reputation for decadence.