NYTimes Article on 1 Oak; Inventor of Bottle Service Tries to Make Amends

If you're a regular visitor you've probably read some of my rants about how I think bottle service is responsible for the overall decline of the club scene, because it's essentially made the whole point of the scene to be about who has the most money. Fork over $300 for a bottle of Stoli and you get to sit down and are treated like royalty; for the rest of us, tough luck. I don't think much of clubs that are about the cash shake-down, nor do I have any desire to rub elbows with people who think they're better than me because they make more money.

In today's NYTimes there's an article about a new lounge called 1 Oak that I know I'd never be able to get into, and the team behind it, which includes Jeffrey Jah, one of the guys responsible for instituting bottle service. Here is an interesting excerpt regarding what they think of this service now:

What they all agree on is a policy of velvet egalitarianism at the door. People will have to earn their way past the ropes with an appealing personal style or disposition, Mr. Jah said, not a promise to pay for bottle service, as is the norm in many places.

“A class system is being instituted, and I don’t like it,” he said one autumn afternoon wearing a yellow T-shirt with the slogan “I’ve Got a Black Belt ... in Keepin’ it Real” and sipping ice tea in his meatpacking district restaurant, the Inn LW12.

Mr. Jah helped popularize bottle service in the early 1990s, but he said the practice began as a way to keep people at tables from having to cross a packed dance floor on the way to the bar. It was not intended, he said, to be a golden ticket into a tony lounge.

Mr. Sartiano lamented that in the days of Spy Bar, for instance, if someone approached you, “you knew they were cool because they got in.” No more.

So while 1 Oak will offer bottle service, “first you need to get in,” Mr. Sartiano said. “Then you need to be cool enough to get a table. Then you can get bottles. Somewhere it got switched.”

Now, of course, this is their way of separating the "real" celebs from the new money hedge-fund managers, so it's just as elitist as bottle service in its own way. But it caught my eye because it seems that, in some small way, these guys are acknowledging how this practice has become detrimental to creating a good vibe in the club. I doubt that bottle service will go away, it makes way too much money for the clubs for that, but it would be nice to see some of our local dumps, like Le Duplex, realize that bottle service doesn't make for a better club experience, it just makes for a dumpy club full of louts with too much money.

Event Review: Workout at Le Duplex

It's always a good sign when you start off your evening thinking "Oh, hey, I'll go have a drink and check this out, and then get myself home for a decent bedtime since I have to work tomorrow" and then find yourself walking home very toasty after having closed out the party. Such was my experience of Workout at Le Duplex, hosted by the kids behind Luxxury, Johnatron and Baron von Luxxury, where the boyfriend and I kept thinking, hey, this is cool, let's have another drink and see what happens.

What happened was a fun set of dirty electro disco from the Baron hisself, some strange 80s mixes from Pozibelle (including one of ABCs "How to be a Millionaire" that inspired my first ever DJ anxiety dream, flipping through my records looking for this track as the previous DJ's record spun down to its final groove, the crowd all waiting for me to lay down the next one), and an awesome awesome set of knarzy electrotechno grooves from Brooklyn's Devin Dirt (including his great remix of Luxxury's "Rock and Roll is Evil"). Devin is at it again tonight at Lights Down Low, and the Luxxury boys will be playing a live set, so go go go check it out, I cannot possibly think of a better way to spend your Friday night. Workout is a monthly on the fourth Thursday, and though turnout was low last night (maybe twenty people on the dancefloor at the height of the night) owing, I think, to the holiday AND Michael Mayer at Mezzanine, this feels to me like the kind of scene where you're going to get to see people that you'll be hearing a lot about later. And did I mention that there are cupcakes?

As for Le Duplex, it was Le Suck. I remember when this space used to be a gay leather bar called The Loading Dock (I even spent some time suspended from the ceiling during one memorable evening), and aside from tarting the place up with a red and white color scheme, some cheap-ass lights for the dance area, and a stripper pole, not much has been done to improve the space. The sound system was truly terrible for this kind of music, two EAW speakers that handle only highs and mids up on the ceiling and a subwoofer that was CUT OFF. Really, no bass at all. Plus, $6 for well drinks and $7 for Stoli and tonic is outrageous. We had a drink earlier in the evening at Wish, the home of handbag house (and a crowd that creeps me out), and it was a buck cheaper than Le Duplex, which is much, much lower on the club evolutionary scale. And then, they flipped the lights up at 1.15, after Barbeau had been DJing for what seemed like twenty minutes. Indifferent and surly staff, expensive drinks, lousy sound, and they don't even have the decency to let the party run its course. Here's hoping Le Duplex gets rid of its lousy attitude and upscale pretensions ($170 dollar bottle service on other nights to sit in cheezy upholstered booths) and realizes that it's really just a hole-in-the-wall club in a desolate part of the Mission.

Upcoming Event: Stimulus, Friday May 11

Spring seems to be bringing up interesting new club nights like little mushrooms. Here's a Friday night party conveniently located on Mission Street just a few blocks from my pad that holds the promise of some interesting musical diversion with some DJs from Space Cowboys and Get Freaky, among others:

STIMULUS: Excursions into Electrotech
Our first time out was more fun than a ball of hamsters. So much fun, in fact, that, going against the advice of our therapists, priests, rabbis, and caddies, we're once again gathering a select assortment of DJs to present their personal flavor of electrotech. The second Friday of May, Stimulus-Response Productions presents:

Featuring (in alphabetical order):
Erik Hz (FreeDumb Force Recordings / BABB - SF)
Evinrude (Stimulus / Space Cowboys / NetAmp - SF)
Jocelyn (Get Freaky - SF)
Kinesis (Stimulus - Santa Cruz)
Raydeus (Pronoia - SF)
- and coming to us from Seattle:
Swank (United House Front / C89.5FM - Seattle)

10pm - 4am
Le Duplex, 1525 Mission St., SF
$5 before 11pm, $10 after; 21+
Call 1-888-650-6660 for more info.