Is Prime the end of NYC’s bottle service? No.

Is Prime the end of NYC’s bottle service? No.

18 September, 2008 | 2.43AM

• Written by: Christen Reutens
• Filed under: Music News:

This Saturday, Prime nightclub at 511 West 28th St in New York will reopen as a “high energy dance club” and an announcement this morning is claiming that the new Prime represents the end of bottle service in NYC.

That sounds exciting. But then we read between the lines, and realised that Prime is far from creating “a new and novel approach” to nightlife in the city, and they haven’t gone nearly far enough.

The club firstly admitted its guilt, which we thought was quite honourable.

“Quo, then Myst and finally Prime were one of the most successful ‘bottle’ venues in NYC,” they said. 

“We took full advantage of that era. But now, that era is over and it’s time for a new model.

“For the past few, maybe even ten years, NYC clubs have come to treat the customer as the enemy.

“Aggressive door staff push customers around. They are made to wait hours to try and get in and if they are lucky for the ‘privilege’ of buying six bottles of Grey Goose to get in. Bottles that are then served with an attitude, by a detached bottle hostess.”

It’s great to see that they’ve now realised how much damage the bottle service culture has had on the city, and the country’s nightlife.

Then Prime reveals its new attitude and its new goal of “creating pleasure for the customer and making the party a fun party.”

But don’t break out the dancing shoes and burn the loafers just yet.

“Bottle minimums will be replaced with ‘real estate minimums’, where each table (piece of real estate) will be for sale for a certain amount of money; whether for bottles of Grey Goose or bottles of water,” said Prime, of its new door policy.

“Prospective customers will be allowed to combine larger groups of friends to purchase a comfortable section of real estate for their group. Example: 15 girls could now go in on an $800 dollar table and spend $50 each to drink and have their section all night.”

Well hang on a sec, that’s not the end of bottle service.

All Prime has done has shift where customers pay - rather than fork out for extortionate bottles of alcohol, they now pay for tables at daylight-robbery prices.

“The days of catering to the ass**** who is willing to buy six bottles at the expense of the nice guy who wants to pay cover,” is far from over, as Prime claim.

“The hassle and bottle rat race at the door” has just been replaced by something very similar - a real estate rat race.

Prime then further cements its misdirected door policy with “If someone looks good enough to get in and comes with the right attitude, they will get in without bottles.”

A door policy that is based on looks is just as bad as a door policy that is based on the depth of pockets belonging to douche bags.

In the end, Prime said “We feel this is a new and novel approach that will work extremely well.”

Well here’s a new and novel approach for Prime, why not crush the pay-to-be-a-VIP culture for good and just concentrate on filling their club with decent DJs who play good music?

JE Englebert, the co-owner of Prime used to promote Tunnel and Twilo in the early 1990s so there is some hope.

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