Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Vessel charging $500 per table; new age of excess

I almost forgot to post my front page story from Friday's Business Times:

A spate of new bars are riding the second dot-com wave, targeting conspicuous consumers with new fees and rules.

My lead example is Vessel, already open many nights as part of its "soft opening" and set to formally open Feb. 22. Vessel is on Campton Place, across from the hotel and next door to Alfred's steakhouse.

The bar cost $1 million - $5 million to build but is hoping to swiftly recoup that from consumers, charging nighttime rates of $500 for a full, 12-person table and $250 for a half table. That's just to sit down, not including bottle service or other drinks.

I also mention the Ambassador, opened in January and reserving booths for people spending hundreds of dollars on bottle service, and of course Bourbon and Branch, where you need a reservation in advance and have a time limit on your visit.

Finally, there's "Mister," a forthcoming Financial District barbershop-and-bar, which targets affluent young financial services types and offers memberships at the "player," "hitter" and "mogul" level.

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3 Comments:

Sam said...

nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

February 09, 2007 4:11 PM  
Ryan said...

It's 1999 all over again ...

I should note that Vessel is "free" to sit at the bar, if you can get one, and get in the door, and afford the drink ...

And Ambassador has, he told me, lots of places other than booths to sit, though I have no idea what that's like. There is a line out the door though.

February 09, 2007 4:15 PM  
Sam said...

I may as well move back to London

February 10, 2007 10:21 AM  

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