THERE ARE TOO MANY SMALL CLUBS!!!!!!
(or lounges as they are now called)
Every No Vision - No Idea - No Clue - Khaki Klad - Urban Professional - With His Weight In Dot Com Dollars has opened up some sort of East Village Lounge or restaurant. It must seem too good to be true. Get a couple of investers together (no problem), put in a quarter of a million $ each (peanuts), sit back, get high, get laid and get rich. Well if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. The problem is they ALL had the same idea and the result... a glut of stupid souless empty nothing bars. The only thing they offer is some sort of DJ (and I use that term VERY loosely). Every one has about 10 people at the bar (or sofa) -but there are thousands of them in the East Village alone. No one place has enough people for the party to take off. They are free (because they offer nothing) and that makes it hard for promoters who do offer something (like a show or dancers) to charge 5 or 10 bucks to pay the talent. I have nothing against small bars/lounges. There are (have been) alot of really great ones. (Wonder Bar, Cake, Starlight, Dick's, Boiler Room, The Bar, The Cock, Phoenix, Slipper Room to name a few) but they all offer something. Even if it's just a cozy vibe. Sometimes I go into a lounge and I can hear calculators in the backroom trying to figure out how they are doing on their investment. That is the only thing that matters to them. And it shows. I hope they all go belly up. The ones that remain will rule.
Good luck to The Mile High Club, Star Tartare, Marion's, Slipper Room... ANYONE who is trying to do something real. The odds are against you.