Monday, March 28, 2016

Bottle Service....wtf

Saturday night, David and I joined a friend of his at a night club for his birthday.

We waited outside of the hotel for a half hour in the cold to go up to the club.  The bouncer told us that our friend might not be able to get in because he was wearing Timberland boots.

As we approached the gatekeepers, I kept them talking to distract them from looking too closely at what our friend was wearing.

We got in the door only to wait another 20 minutes for the elevator.  When we got upstairs to the club, there were only about 100 people there.  I really am not sure why we waited outside except that they wanted the perception to be that the club was exclusive.  The cover was $20/person if you didn't have a ticket.  We got upstairs and ordered four drinks.  $68 later plus a tip, we walked up to the upstairs "club" where the "dancing" was supposed to take place.  It was a very narrow roof top club.

Surrounding the outside of the two rooms were large L shaped sofas with a little coffee table in the middle that had a stack of glasses, bucket of ice, and carafes of juices and soda.  These are for "bottle service."  If you want to sit down at any point in the evening, you have to buy a bottle of liquor or champagne.  That in essence rents you this sofa area for the evening.  The cheapest bottle of liquor was a really bad bottle of vodka.  In the store, the bottle would cost you approximately $20.  In this club, where we already paid a high cover, the same bottle runs you $250.  You then get to sit on that sofa and mix the vodka with the mixers at the table that are provided.  I guess if you figure out how many shots are in a bottle and you have a bunch of friends, that at $15/drink it's probably worth it to buy the bottle.  If a shot is 1 ounce and the bottle is a liter which includes 33 ounces, you do get your money's worth.

There were four of us.  We weren't about to buy a bottle of liquor for $250.  In fact, just buying the four drinks for David and friends, and the two more rounds for the two of us cost me $130.  Rochester definitely is much cheaper.

On top of that, at the bars at the dance floor, they said they didn't do cocktails, only mixed drinks.  I asked the difference, only to be met with some major attitude.  Apparently, a mixed drink has one shot of liquor and one mixer.  Cocktails have more than one mixer or shot.  The bar tender was so rude, that I ended up waiting in line at another bar to get my drinks.  She wasn't going to get my business or my tip.  You'd think that if you were paying that much for drinks, you would get better service.

I don't remember seeing bottle service at Rochester except for on rare occasion at some clubs.  In the city, it's a regular thing.  For me, I think I'm getting to old to stay up until 3:30 a.m. at a club to dance.  This place didn't even have a dance floor, so it sucked anyway.  I'd also rather have people at my place for drinks anyway.  Cheaper, more fun, and the bartender is always pleasant (me or David).


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