Bottle service is the sale of
liquor
Liquor (or a spirit) is an alcoholic drink produced by distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar, that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. Other terms for liquor include: spirit drink, distilled beverage or h ...
by the bottle in mostly North American
lounges and nightclub
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gen ...
s.
The purchase of bottle service typically includes a
reserved table for the
patron
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...
's party and
mixers of the patron's choice. Bottle service can include the service of a
VIP host, who will ensure that patrons have sufficient mixers and will often make drinks using the patrons' liquor bottle and mixers. The purchase of bottle service sometimes results in
cover charge
Cover or covers may refer to:
Packaging
* Another name for a lid
* Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package
* Album cover, the front of the packaging
* Book cover or magazine cover
** Book design
** Back cover copy, part of c ...
being waived for the purchaser's party and often allows patrons to bypass entrance lines. The gratuity is also often added automatically but portions of that go to security, porters, back of the house staff in addition to the VIP host who serves the patron.
The cost of a bottle at such a lounge or club is usually significantly
marked up, often by 1,000 percent or more, and can account for a significant portion of an establishment's revenue.
History
Early forms of bottle service existed in World War II era
Japan,
where unfinished bottles would be stored. In its modern form, an early example was in 1988 at the Paris nightclub Les Bains Douches, bottle service was introduced to deal with an excess of customer demand.
An early, inexpensive form of bottle service ($90, compared with $6 drinks) was established at the
Tunnel
A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...
in New York City in 1993 (by Jeffrey Jah and Mark Baker). The modern form of bottle service was pioneered in 1995 by Michael Ault at Spy Bar and in 1996, Chaos ($175 for a bottle of
Stolichnaya vodka),
with the goal of creating a "barrier to entry", rather than of increasing liquor sales.
The concept later spread to other American cities, notably
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
and
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
in the early 2000s.
Criticism
The cost of bottle service and the central position provided to purchasers of bottle service has led some critics to complain that bottle service is turning night clubs into
elitist
Elitism is the belief or notion that individuals who form an elite—a select group of people perceived as having an intrinsic quality, high intellect, wealth, power, notability, special skills, or experience—are more likely to be construc ...
dens.
Preferential treatment for purchasers of bottle service may include stopping the regular dance music when an especially expensive bottle is purchased and, instead, playing a theme song, or removing patrons from a table to make way for another patron and their party that purchased bottle service.
See also
*
Conspicuous consumption
References
{{Reflist
Nightlife
Drinking culture