Bottle Service (Corona, Empire, London: real estate, apartments, foreclosed)

[afdinatl]

Bottle Service: The Worst Thing That Ever Happened to Hollywood Clubbing | L.A. Weekly

Do you agree with this article or not? The same can be said with a few other cities across the country

[Charles22]

The article was not particularly well written or informative enough to make waves. Clubs are businesses and will charge whatever they can get away with. People are surprised by this?

I'm sure there are less expensive clubs that one could frequent, if that was your lifestyle.

[909er]

What a ridiculously silly article, and concept all together. Why on earth, would anyone go to a club, that sells booze, and bring booze? Is that not oxymoronic? I wouldn't go to places like that to begin with, and that just reinforces it even more. Not to mention my drinks of choice are Bud Light, Hangar 24, and Corona. The places I go are way cooler than Hollywood anyway (been there done that), and the people are not pretentious. Nor is "parking" or "fashion" an issue.

Lake Alice Trading Company Saloon & Eatery

The Hideaway Cafe

[afdinatl]

Originally Posted by Charles22

The article was not particularly well written or informative enough to make waves. Clubs are businesses and will charge whatever they can get away with. People are surprised by this?

I'm sure there are less expensive clubs that one could frequent, if that was your lifestyle.

No. This is really more of a generation thing. My generation in the 90s knew how to party. I think whoever wrote the article should branch out to other parts of LA if they don't want the bottle service crowd

[jm1982]

This article doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Honestly I'm not in touch with the L.A club scene of today, but wasn't the height of bottle service more back in the day when rents and real estate were cheaper?
I'm wondering if this writer is speaking from experience of L.A in the 90s versus or early 2000s or going off stories she heard from other people.

A city like L.A or NYC or Miami or international big cosmopolitan cities (London, Hong Kong,etc) are always going to have the bottle service type clubs.

I would be willing to bet (and I'd win) that there are far far more establishments that aren't bottle service places in L.A.

It costs a TON of money to operate a open, design and lease a club that is going to be bottle service 'worthy' .
Here is an example of a club space in Hollywood for lease.
It can be yours for the sum of just $38,000 a month!
1718 vine r - Cityfeet.com
Super high lease rates, employees, utilities, insurance, business license fees, security, etc etc
This is why these clubs need to charge high fees.

Also the clubs can charge huge premiums for the bottles because you are not buying the bottle..you are really renting out real estate for the night and paying for the 'experience' ...whether that experience is worth it or not is relative. If someone wants to spend their money on bottle service...as long as they aren't doing anything bad or illegal to get the money what's wrong with that? Everybody spends money on different things. If someone spends money on bottle service and has an amazing night I don't think that's a bad thing. Of course they will dress up to go to the clubs as they aren't going to be allowed in with shorts and flip flops..Seems pretty obvious.

Also I keep reading this LA WEEKLY articles and other L.A based blogs or publications that bemoan the awful gentrification of L.A
There are huge swaths of L.A that are ungentrified without a hipster or bottle service club in sight. My own neighborhood ..it doesn't even have ONE single Starbucks! I know..unheard of right?
There's plenty of land to gentrify in much of North Hollywood, Pacoima, Panorama City , South L.A

I'm sure this writer is a hypocrite and cries about the awful gentrification and the longtime business being pushed out..but probably frequents those trendy businesses on a regular basis.

Also all these writers talking about "those poor people being PUSHED out of their apartments" don't seem to realize that in L.A there is something called rent control and if building was built before 1978..which is a ton of buildings in L.A then they can't just be pushed out.
If they are told to leave they receive BIG payouts , sometimes in the tens of thousand dollar range.
I wonder if the author of the article realizes that..I doubt it!

[munchitup]

Originally Posted by 909er

What a ridiculously silly article, and concept all together. Why on earth, would anyone go to a club, that sells booze, and bring booze? Is that not oxymoronic?

Do you not know what bottle service is? You don't bring the alcohol yourself, the club sells you a marked up bottle of something and you can sit at the fancy cushioned seats and sometimes they even have girls that work there come and sit in your booth to make you feel like a little less of a *******.

And besides, why is it a silly article if they are agreeing with you? I am not positive you actually know how to read...

Anyways, bottle service is stupid, it's for suckers that are looking for an excuse to part with their money. And you are right, those clubs are stupid and they attract a very trashy clientele (probably most of them are from trash-heaps like the Inland Empire and southern Ventura County).

I agree with JM, I feel like bottle service is less of a thing now, there are a lot less 30k millionaires than there used to be (I guess they are 20k millionaires now).

Originally Posted by 909er

I wouldn't go to places like that to begin with, and that just reinforces it even more. Not to mention my drinks of choice are Bud Light, Hangar 24, and Corona. The places I go are way cooler than Hollywood anyway (been there done that), and the people are not pretentious. Nor is "parking" or "fashion" an issue.

Lake Alice Trading Company Saloon & Eatery

The Hideaway Cafe

Yeah I'd probably rather go to your hillbilly bars too. I love me a good dive bar.

I lived in Hollywood for 3 years and I never once went into one of those clubs, though walking around the neighborhood at 2 AM half in the bag looking for a food truck provides some pretty excellent people watching opportunities.

[909er]

I was thinking corkage, my bad.

And glad we agree on dive bars

[munchitup]

Originally Posted by jm1982

Also all these writers talking about "those poor people being PUSHED out of their apartments" don't seem to realize that in L.A there is something called rent control and if building was built before 1978..which is a ton of buildings in L.A then they can't just be pushed out.
If they are told to leave they receive BIG payouts , sometimes in the tens of thousand dollar range.
I wonder if the author of the article realizes that..I doubt it!

Not to get into too much into an off-topic discussion, but people are entitled to payouts - that does not mean that they usually get what they deserve or are entitled too.

Believe it or not, many rental companies (especially those trying to push out rent-control tenants) are very deceptive about this process and typically offer a move-out settlement way below what the tenants are actually entitled to. Once they take it, it is usually too late to go back and recoup the difference.

Taking it way off topic, but this is something my wife did one summer on the East Coast. It was the height of the financial crisis so there were a ton of foreclosed multi family buildings and the banks were evicting the tenants (who did nothing wrong but rent from a foreclosed landlord) and tricking them into taking much lower move-out settlements or none at all. Although in general banks (especially at that time) are about 100 times more evil and manipulative than your run-of-the-mill apartment management company.

[munchitup]

Originally Posted by 909er

I was thinking corkage, my bad.

And glad we agree on dive bars

I can get behind a reasonable corkage fee at a nice restaurant.

A bar? That seems silly.

[jm1982]

I'm sure there are landlords that would offer a lower settlement , I agree they are entitled to it to because that's the law.
This is the thing with the law though unless you can afford a good attorney you can get screwed sadly .
I agree it sucks what happened with people that rented from a landlord that got foreclosed and got screwed because of it in any way.

There are so many laws and the average person doesn't realize what rights they might have .
On the other hand for those that get the full $10k payout or whatever it is , it doesn't seem fair to say they were " kicked out of their homes " a lot of times these people were paying way below market rent for years or decades .