Andrew Goldberg has waited tables at Town, Chef Geoffrey Zakarian’s flashy Manhattan restaurant, but when it comes to making tips, he says he’s only now got the best gig in town.
Mokai Miami
The 29-year-old Goldberg is a “host” at one of the hottest nightclubs in the city, Marquee, where a 20% gratuity is automatically added to every “bottle service” tab.
And where said tabs–for patrons who reserve a table in advance then shell out hundreds for marked-up bottles of booze, often adhering to a multiple-bottle minimum rule–can easily run between $1,000 to $10,000.
At your local spirits shop, a bottle of premium Grey Goose vodka sells for around $40. But at Marquee that same bottle with all the cocktail fixings (fruit juices and soda water, for example,) will set you back $375 before tax and tip. And even that won’t get you a table for which a two-bottle minimum is typically required, says Goldberg. Like most clubs, Marquee has a “three- to four-guest maximum” per bottle.
“At Marquee, [where the least expensive bottle you can buy is $325] you’re talking about a $650 minimum. That’s $130 in tips alone just for the privilege of sitting down,” says Goldberg, who notes that gratuities are generally pooled.
“Add the up-sell of high-energy drinks and Red Bull or the popular $13 shots of Patron,” he says, “and the tips can go through the roof.”
He works hard for the money: As host, it’s Goldberg’s job to bring veeps into the club and to make sure they’re extremely well taken care of once they sit down. That can mean anything from making sure the lemon twist is fresh, to assuring “the flow” of attractive women is steady and compelling at bottle service tables.
Pricey Pours
We polled everyone from nightlife bloggers to online “brokers” who help regular Joes get VIP booths in posh clubs, to find out who has the most expensive bottle service in the country. There may be some hot spots that don’t advertise their bottle service or keep costs under wraps.
To keep a level playing field, we compared the cost of a bottle of Grey Goose at each to see which liquid lairs would make the list (most bottle-service dollars are spent on vodka and Champagne).
Predictably, the most expensive were in Las Vegas ( Blush, $475), New York ( Gansevoort Spa & Lounge, $350), Miami ( Mokai, $340) and Los Angeles ( Le Deux, $425). In Middle America, where the trend has now migrated with a vengeance, bottle service, which allows customers to pour their own drinks, is still a relative bargain. At Gelo Ultra Lounge, a hot spot in Indianapolis, Grey Goose runs only $200.
But very few customers stop at just one. Marquee’s Goldberg says late in the night, when intoxication runs high, the bottle buying “becomes contagious” and he sometimes has to step in to prevent good customers from making costly mistakes.
“I won’t tell someone to stop drinking because that could be embarrassing,” he says, “but I do steer them toward a bottle of Moet, for example, over a Don Perignon.” Adds Goldberg: “The client is usually grateful when he gets the credit card statement.”
It’s this bottle fever, and the multi-bottle minimums that certain clubs impose on weekends, that had New York City officials threatening to crack down on bottle service earlier this year, arguing that it encourages bulk drinking.
It’s also what made Elizabeth Peterson decide not to provide bottle service at her sexy new lounge/bar, Bordello, in downtown Los Angeles.
“With bottle service, it’s hard to control whether or not people are being over served, and I didn’t want my service staff to have to deal with that,” says Peterson.
It certainly has made it tougher to compete with clubs like The Edison and Le Deux , which do offer the service, she says.
Bottle Backlash?
But a recent poll, done in conjunction with Zagat Survey’s Guide to LA Nightlife, found there was a certain backlash against bottle service among clubgoers who say it has turned dance clubs into elitist dens.
Mynt Miami
Michael Gogel, promotions manager at Manhattan’s famous Lotus, (where Grey Goose runs $340 a bottle) says bottle service has lost some of its cachet in New York “now that anyone with a credit card can order it.”
But it’s still all the rage in Miami where nightlife/gossip columnist for The Miami Herald, Lesley Abravenel, says “bottle service has become a cottage industry.”
”People are blowing their paychecks just so they can feel like a ‘VIP,’ if just for one night,” she says. “I’ll never forget going out one night with a high roller, who insisted on being front and center, on the most exclusive VIP couch in the house. He paid $1,000 for a $40 bottle of Veuve Clicquot … He had the time of his life while I just left shaking my head.”
But people are paying for much more than just that bottle of vodka or Champagne says Sean Christie, who manages the popular Blush nightclub at Wynn Las Vegas.
“You’re paying for prime real estate, for a desirable spot that everyone else wants,” he says, “It’s like going to Yankee Stadium and sitting behind the dugout.”
Christie says bottle service drives more than half of any club’s profits, if not more. In Vegas, the insane amounts of money bottle service generates is driving “a whole new category of top-tier nightclubs,” each more lavish than the next.
The venues have to distinguish themselves because bottle service itself is pretty basic. At Blush, customers can have unfinished bottles kept for them for up to a week.
And while many clubs in Vegas light sparklers when someone orders a very expensive bottle, at Blush, they stop the dance music and play the theme song from a movie like Rocky or Mission Impossible.
A pricey perk for sure.
