I Want my Luxury Brand in a Bottle; Damnit!
I have written about this recession and what I think it means for the hospitality, nightclub design and nightlife industry as a whole. I have seen many trends, ups and downs in the economy and general malaise in the nightclub business. We have become a country of need versus want. What you may WANT is an exclusive experience with bottle service, limos, babes and boys in toy land complete with sparklers and $750 bottles of Tattinger whilst you compete with the Panerai wristed competitors at the next table. Simply, what you really NEED is a drink at a bar, with interesting people, a dude with a Timex and to be equally entertained. (writer embelishment about the Timex) The environment is decidedly less refined thou equally alluring. With regards to entertainment and nightlife selection the value of a dollar is the value of a dollar no matter what people say. The numbers don’t lie; This is a value driven economey and with that said, you have to be just a little different and just a little more fearless. People are choosing again and choosing wisely. Down and dirty is cool. Lowbrow is the new high brow. Luxury branding is drawing on the blue collar mystic. Sans cigarros, the Marlboro man is “that guy”. Polished nails, designer squared and daily showers are so………….well, yesterday. Maybe not the showers but you get the point. The a joining piece from the New York Times so articulately describes the value driven society we have become and how this has trickled down to our choices of haute yet hot, hospitality. Text below from the Times writer: ALLEN SALKIN
“We’re in a period where a snotty attitude is not helping people feel better about them,” he added.
Super fancy is out. Revenues are down 20 to 40 percent in the last year at those throbbing Manhattan nightclubs that flourished by catering to Wall Street guys who casually swiped their credit cards for four figures, club owners said. Many once-hopping clubs, like Lotus, Mansion and Room Service, have closed or are being remodeled.
At Marquee, the West Chelsea club and gossip-page fixture, revenues are down 22 percent so far this year compared with last, said Noah Tepperberg, one of the owners.
“Three or four years ago it seemed like every bar in New York had a rope and some imposing looking guy,” said David Rabin, an owner of Lotus and the president of the New York Nightlife Association.
Now, he said, haughtiness is as stylish as a balloon payment.
Club owners are searching for a new nightlife formula, something that jibes with the culture’s low-key mood and yet shakes free whatever is left of the city’s disposable income.
“People are still looking for what is the right approach here going forward,” Mr. Rabin said. “There is a lot of uncertainty.”
Ideas differ, but the owners agree on one thing: the word “club” has about as much cultural relevance as the Macarena. The turn of the millennium saw the rise of bottle service and the $18 cocktail at glittery spots like Marquee, Tenjune and Bungalow 8, which attracted celebrities and models, and then charged regular folks a fortune to rub elbows, and sometimes knees, with them.
Now, said, Mark Caldwell, author of “New York Night: The Mystique and Its History,” the city seems to have passed into one of its in-between eras, too much money and glitz having poisoned whatever youthful edginess club culture once had. Now, some want to be friendly and inclusive. In Chinatown, Santos Party House, an 8,000 square foot dance club that opened last year, has few tables, $10 cocktails, and a no exclusionary door policy. The point of the dance club seems to be dancing. At Avenue, it’s not only the word club that’s forbidden. Don’t use the term “bottle service,” either — even though bottles, starting around $350 each, are served in silver buckets accompanied by a variety of mixers in glass pitchers, a practice that has been known for years as bottle service.
Backlash to bottle service anyone?