Making Sin City Blush
August 10, 2007 | 9:44
am
If you are in Vegas, you have seen the advertising; and if you are out of
town, you have read the coverage: Britney Spears is hosting the opening of LAX
on August 31 at Luxor. So, I was surprised to learn that LAX isn't the only
major new Vegas nightclub opening August 31. The Wynn, has decided to open its
latest, Blush, that same night. The timing seems a curious choice to me. I
assume that the industry will be totally focused on the ever increasing
Britney drama and therefore LAX's grand opening. As a result, Blush's grand
opening will probably get a lot less attention than a new nightclub at Wynn
would usually generate. On the other hand, nothing happens accidentally with
nightclub openings. So, I reached out to managing partner Sean Christie to
find out about Blush and the competitive weekend timing of the club's opening.
Christie knows how to open a club in Vegas. The first time I
met him, Christie was a managing partner for the Light Group and was intimately
involved in overseeing the very successful opening of Jet at the Mirage. Christie gets a lot of credit for grasping the local nightclub
scene as well as for being a pioneer in its development. So, I was
very interested in his decision to coincide the opening of Blush on the
night of Bitney/LAX.
Usually, the best that can be said interviewing nightclub executives is that they make casino executives sound like men of blunt candor. But in this case, Christie was extremely candid and straightforward, not only in assessing the Vegas scene and his hopes for Blush, but also on more touchy issues like celebrity appearance fees:
Usually, the best that can be said interviewing nightclub executives is that they make casino executives sound like men of blunt candor. But in this case, Christie was extremely candid and straightforward, not only in assessing the Vegas scene and his hopes for Blush, but also on more touchy issues like celebrity appearance fees:
RIchard Abowitz: Please, give me the short pitch for the overall concept of
Blush and then I will ask a couple questions.
Sean Christie: Okay, the basic pitch is that we are doing Vegas' first
boutique nightclub. It is 4,500 square feet with an indoor and outdoor
component. The best way to think about it is that it is bigger than Tabu
(MGM) but smaller than Light (Bellagio). But Tabu is an ultra lounge and Light
is a nightclub. What we are doing is concentrating on a very heavy staff to
customer ratio. We are hanging our coat on service, and personal attention to
customers. We are doing things like every table has a purse drawer. In addition,
we have a locker system because in Vegas people often have valuables in their
pockets that could be cash or chips. But the reason I thought of it is that so
many customers from out of the country need their passports to get into a club
and then they are so nervous about losing it. This way they can store their
passports and not have to check their pockets every 5 minutes. There will be an
obsessive attention to detail.
Q: Has it been hard to establish a nightclub scene in Wynn?
A: I was at Lure from March 1 until we closed July 7. Tryst is doing
massive business. When we changed the product around at Lure we saw an immediate
turn around in a very short period of time where we tripled the amount of people
and income in a very short period of time. So, there is a booming nightclub
scene.
Q: So, that justifies this further investment of making Lure into Blush?
A: That's right. I think initially what happened was I got the deal with
the hotel where they were like, 'Here's Lure, let's see what you can do with
it.' Then because I was able to turn it around so quickly the opportunity to do
this new venue came to me pretty quickly as well.
Q: This is the question that inspired me to want to get in touch with you.
I know Labor Day weekend is busy. But there is kind of an 800 pound gorilla in
the room. Did that impact your plans?
A: Of course. Everyone in this town knows what they are doing. It is not a
concern because they are two totally different places. To tell you the truth we
are already totally booked for our opening weekend: Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
We only have 30 tables and the team of hosts and promoters that I assembled has
a good enough reputation and Wynn has a good enough reputation to make people
want to see people what is going on the place.
Q: So, you don't see your opening as either piggybacking on LAX or
competing against LAX?
A: I think anyone who opens a nightclub in town is competing. But we are a
boutique nightclub at Wynn and they are a bigger nightclub at Luxor. I think
those two things lend themselves to being different.
Q: Will you be paying celebrities to host?
A: We don't pay them. I don't have the budget to. We are small. But
fortunately because Wynn is a five star resort, a lot of celebrities want to
stay there. So, we are able to capture them by being in the same hotel, and we
are able to capture them because during the past six years I've been in the
business in Vegas we've developed a lot of personal relationships.
Q: So, you have no intention of cutting big checks to Lindsay Lohan,
Britney Spears or Paris Hilton?
A: If I had the budget, and I was in a different hotel, and I had a massive
nightclub in town I would definitely entertain those ideas, because if it can
work in the business plan, why not? It seems everyone in town is doing that. But
I don't have the budget, and I don't think with this particular club in this
hotel that is something I need to do in order to do the business I want
to do.
Q: When will be your industry night?
A: We are going after Tuesday night and going against Pure for our industry
night. We don't have a big enough place to put a dent in their crowd. But we are
trying to get the A list of the local crowd on Tuesdays.
I gotta say, Blush sure sounds like an ideal place to go, and from the way it sounds, I feel as if it is a positive to open without any celebrity endorsement. Personally, to see a nightclub open with Britney Spears or Paris Hilton turns me away from that club, because those people represent everything I dislike about celebrities. Blush sounds like a place that will make you feel like a celebrity.
Posted by: Derek Lipkin | August 12, 2007 at 12:56 AM
wow, this all sounds really boring.
Posted by: smogguy | August 12, 2007 at 07:20 AM