Bottle service is the sale of
liquor
Liquor ( , sometimes hard liquor), spirits, distilled spirits, or spiritous liquor are alcoholic drinks produced by the distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar that have already gone through ethanol fermentation, alcoholic ferm ...
by the bottle, mostly in North American
lounges and
nightclub
A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a Bar (establishment), bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighti ...
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, art patronage refers to the support that princes, popes, and other wealthy and influential people ...
's party and
mixers of the patron's choice. Bottle service can include the service of a
VIP host and
cocktail waitress
A cocktail waitress, colloquially known as a bottle girl, is a female server who brings alcoholic drinks to patrons of drinking establishments such as bars, cocktail lounges, casinos, comedy clubs, jazz clubs, cabarets, and other live music ven ...
es 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
A cover charge is an entrance fee sometimes charged at bars, nightclubs, or restaurants. The ''American Heritage Dictionary'' defines it as a "fixed amount added to the bill at a nightclub or restaurant for entertainment or service." In restaura ...
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.
History
Early forms of bottle service existed in World War II era
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
,
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 or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two portals common at each end, though there may be access and ve ...
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 in New York 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 is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
and
Las Vegas
Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...
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 notion that individuals who form an elite — a select group with desirable qualities such as intellect, wealth, power, physical attractiveness, notability, special skills, experience, lineage — are more likely to be construct ...
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
In sociology and in economics, the term conspicuous consumption describes and explains the consumer practice of buying and using goods of a higher quality, price, or in greater quantity than practical. In 1899, the sociologist Thorstein Veblen c ...
References
External links
* {{Commons category-inline
Nightlife
Drinking culture