The purchase of bottle service typically includes a reserved table for the patron's party and mixers of the patron's choice. Bottle service can include the service of a VIP host and cocktail waitresses colloquially known as bottle girls, 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 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, and 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.[1]
History
Early forms of bottle service existed in World War II era Japan,[2] 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.[2] In 1992, an early form was established at The Gate in Los Angeles by its managing partner, Edward Baquero.[citation needed] Baquero took inspiration from his time as Director of Operations at Stringfellows in Beverly Hills in 1990, specifically from its "Champagne room".[citation needed] He innovated this into the modern form of bottle service,[citation needed] designing a custom lazy Susan platform for tables with a carved-out ice bucket, tongs, mixers, and crystal ramekins for lemons and limes.[citation needed] This created a "bottle only" VIP Gallery space, where guests were required to purchase bottle service for spirits to book a table.[citation needed] The Los Angeles Times did note the club had a "roped-off area called the Gallery" that sold "magnums of Dom Perignon" for "$310".[3] The modern form of bottle service was pioneered in 1995 by Michael Ault at Spy Bar in New York and in 1996, Chaos ($175 for a bottle of Stolichnaya vodka),[4] 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.[5]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
