Slide Into Luxe
I went to Slide this evening for one of the many opening parties they're hosting. The decor is magnificent. The actual bar is a glowing tortoise shell color, backed by iron bars with orange glass orbs between them like jellyfish hovering in view. The room is ringed with bottle-service booths facing inward. The booths are separated from each other and each decorated with different large fabric in colors and patterns like burgundy and dark blue, red diamonds, and gold. The DJ booth is two turntables inside a modified (white, I think) baby grand piano. The booths on the far side of the room have long, rectangular TV screens partially blocked by curtains behind them, which on the night I was there, were showing a video of peoples' feet while sitting on a park bench. It was interesting without being cheesy.
The elephant in the room is that there is no there there. (How's that for a mixed metaphor?) All the room faces inward toward the bar. There is only one patch of room that isn't sitting or bar space. Is it the dancefloor? If so, it would hold only a few dozen people. More than likely, that is just the area in which people who haven't paid for the bottle service booths are allowed to stand.
For several years, the nightclub design scheme (though this is most definitely an ultra-lounge) has been to create an environment where everyone must purchase a bottle service table to get a good seat. It goes so far that in nightclubs such as Suite 181, 95% of all seating in the club is off-limits unless you reserve it (minimum $250 for four people). This brings clubs a lot of money, because clubs are all about status and in the new millennium status is not about being hidden away in a back VIP room but clearly visible (but not accessible) in a VIP booth.
So from an economic standpoint it makes sense. Nightclub industry magazines are all about maximizing bottle service and many design companies specialize in just that. But here we have a situation where it's a bar in which you pay to sit down. (We went at 8PM and every table was marked "reserved" yet there wasn't a single person sitting at a table. There are no bar stools.)
There was no drink menu. I guess when you have everyone ordering bottle service you don't need one. The way bottle service works is that they bring you the bottle (of vodka, whisky, gin, etc.) and a range of glasses and mixers so that you may pour your own drinks. So unless you're a bartender yourself and they're bringing over bitters and simple sugar, you are paying a lot more for worse drinks that you have to make yourself. But hey, you look great.
This lounge will survive provided there are enough people who want to pay for bottle service (and there definitely are), and that it is always full. It needs a scene to make it the destination it's designed for.
I knew within three minutes of being in this bar that it was beautifully done and will probably be wonderfully successful and I would probably never come here again. There is nothing wrong with it, yet I also feel no incentive to return because it's not my scene. It's well done, but it's not done for people like me. I wish them the best of luck.
The elephant in the room is that there is no there there. (How's that for a mixed metaphor?) All the room faces inward toward the bar. There is only one patch of room that isn't sitting or bar space. Is it the dancefloor? If so, it would hold only a few dozen people. More than likely, that is just the area in which people who haven't paid for the bottle service booths are allowed to stand.
For several years, the nightclub design scheme (though this is most definitely an ultra-lounge) has been to create an environment where everyone must purchase a bottle service table to get a good seat. It goes so far that in nightclubs such as Suite 181, 95% of all seating in the club is off-limits unless you reserve it (minimum $250 for four people). This brings clubs a lot of money, because clubs are all about status and in the new millennium status is not about being hidden away in a back VIP room but clearly visible (but not accessible) in a VIP booth.
So from an economic standpoint it makes sense. Nightclub industry magazines are all about maximizing bottle service and many design companies specialize in just that. But here we have a situation where it's a bar in which you pay to sit down. (We went at 8PM and every table was marked "reserved" yet there wasn't a single person sitting at a table. There are no bar stools.)
There was no drink menu. I guess when you have everyone ordering bottle service you don't need one. The way bottle service works is that they bring you the bottle (of vodka, whisky, gin, etc.) and a range of glasses and mixers so that you may pour your own drinks. So unless you're a bartender yourself and they're bringing over bitters and simple sugar, you are paying a lot more for worse drinks that you have to make yourself. But hey, you look great.
This lounge will survive provided there are enough people who want to pay for bottle service (and there definitely are), and that it is always full. It needs a scene to make it the destination it's designed for.
I knew within three minutes of being in this bar that it was beautifully done and will probably be wonderfully successful and I would probably never come here again. There is nothing wrong with it, yet I also feel no incentive to return because it's not my scene. It's well done, but it's not done for people like me. I wish them the best of luck.
2 Comments:
Their website is a disaster. All I wanted to know is the address and to look at a menu. No can do. I gather they're doing a speakeasy them just like Bourbon & Branch?
Yes, speakeasy theme, but the similarities end there. (The space was also a former speakeasy.) This is real high-end with a focus on bottle service and VIP. B&B is about cocktails, not the scene. Slide is all about the scene.
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