No Room at Boom Boom for Promoters

Word comes to me that despite rumors offering every A-list promoter/owner in town the undeniably delicious Boom Boom Room at the Standard Hotel, that hotelier André Balazs and his crew will handle it in-house. A source tells me they were planning to close until mid-October now that Fashion Week is over. That date has been moved up to September 29. As for who is going to run the place, "Kamil Parchomienko will handle the room." My insider says "Kamil used to live in Miami and LA ... he's worked for Andre for like 13 years. They want to do two seatings, 4-9 for small plates and 10-2/3 for late night. Super high-end Rainbow Room/Rose Bar/Windows on the World style $18-25 drinks and DP by the glass. They're still working on the menu. They've got 4 managers, but no promoters. They're going to rely heavily on Andre, the brand, and the space to keep it busy. $18-25 drinks will eventually wear people down, but the room is pretty nice."

The bottle service era brought a new type of owner to clubland. The big boys on the block were Noah Tepperberg and Jason Strauss, with Marquee being the best joint in town for this sort of thing. Partnered with restaurant mogul Mark Packer, Marquee was the premiere club of its day and is still going strong. The success of Noah and Jason’s club. combined with their marketing company, Strategic Group, and their big Vegas move (with Mark and Rich Wolf) at Tao and Lavo created a strange sense of optimism among club promoter types. Noah and Jason’s rise from club promoters at places like Eugene’s, and with me at Life and Spa, told a generation of a personality club types that they too could become millionaire owners. Most don’t have a clue what it really takes.

Column after column, blog after blog lamented the rise of the bottle era, which was seen as squashing the more creative club world that preceded it. Bottles increased the gross considerably, but netting out a profit seemed elusive to many, or at least at the cost of all creativity. The clubs seemed boring. The sale of a bottle to a frat boy and his pals, or the comp bottle to the model promoter and his gaggle of girls, was a straight-up real estate deal. For club designers, squeezing as many tables as possible into a place became a major priority. Dance floors were reduced to conga lines. I and many others complained about the new owners. Most were business types with personalities not far removed from their bottle-buying clientele. Steve Rubell, Rudolf, Arthur Weinstein, and Peter Gatien—the flamboyant creatures of the night that owned and operated in the era before—had all moved on or up to a different unreality. All were businessmen, but all liked the spice of it and would have seriously hated letting some of the bottle buyers that became the new VIPs buy their way into their joints. Increased rents, skyrocketing insurance rates, ballooning DJ fees, more regulation, and larger legal fees and fines—all pressures of the new club world—have lessened the mayhem and of course the fun.

The city squeezed the clubs dry. Owners spent a great deal of time fighting to stay open as police raids and court appearances became routine. We all looked enviously at Las Vegas, where the city embraced its restaurant/club culture and every casino had to lure the best brands to make their own brand glow. Now the new boutique hotels popping up all over town are being branded as much by the clubs/restaurants/bars they hold as for their slick lobbies and rooms. Promoters are scrambling to find a room with an inspiring view and lots of guest rooms to feed their party. One of the other developments of the bottle era was the loss of the promoter who could actually bring in lots of people. These “numbers promoters” had either disappeared, or the ones that were left attracted crowds that were less than desirable. Hip hotels bring in lots of well-dressed and well-funded guests that fill the joints without the dreaded overpriced, bottle-gorging promoters.

The hotels for now will enjoy a grace period, as NYPD raids are far less frequent; the hotel industry comes with a different set of lobbyists, lawyers, and powerful friends. They are often part of a chain and their business appeal is considered stellar compared to the sleazy world of nightlife. Clubland doesn’t need a “district”—a redzone or strip like West 27th street or the Meatpacking District anymore. Clubs will live on the roofs and lobbies of hotels. How long before these stand-alone joints near desired real estate get booted as the city sees hotels with pre-engineered soundproofing and international status as the way to deal with “the nightclub problem”? In 10 years, will most or all new nightlife construction be in the hotels?

The new hotelier is a worldly figure. Owning a boutique hotel requires more savvy than the world of clubs has seen since Steve Rubell died and his partner, Ian Schrager, devoted his creative and business skills to ... hotels. Ian invented this game, and he has always been the best at it, but he isn’t the newest right now—and all things being equal, new usually wins. According my sources, he’s two years away from another New York project. The new club owners are going to come from the top down, and rising through the ranks will be more difficult.

Photo: Patrick McMullan