Scientists say that if we could look deep enough into the cosmos we would witness the genesis of the universe. Sounds simple enough. Recently, the Weekly asked eight nightlife icons (with over a century spent working in nightlife, combined!) to delve into Vegas’ nightclub past, comment on the celebrity-worship of today and make some predictions about our future.
Click here to listen to an excerpt from Xania Woodman's interview with Frankie
Frankie Anobile
Don’t call it a comeback
You can’t call it a comeback if the guy never went anywhere. After 30 consecutive years in the nightlife industry (29 of them in Vegas) it’s high time Frankie Anobile took his place among the ranks of the nightlife elite. After all, he is part of the bedrock on which this castle was built. A man worth listening to—though you can’t quite help it, he’s so magnetic and animated—Frankie has been an observant witness and a steadfast participant in the genesis and growth of the nightlife industry in Las Vegas since 1978.
Offered a one-year scholarship to Juilliard (for drums), he turned it down to prevent his father from hitting up the whole family for the funds to put him through the remaining two-year program. His twin talents of “bombing,” or adorning New York City subway trains with graffiti, and spinning records had been born out of a childhood in Canarsie, Brooklyn, where Frankie borrowed turntables and played his first gig at a Long Island club called Escape. When the headlining band failed to show one night, the future Legendary DJ Frankie of NYC (then just 16!) was created. He still goes by that name when he spins.
When Frankie’s father retired, he moved Frankie, his brother, Michael (four years his senior), and his mother to Las Vegas. He never attended school here, going immediately to work at Paul Anka’s Jubilation. He was DJing there only one month when his boss found out he had just turned 17. Using Michael’s ID (and growing a pencil-thin moustache), Frankie worked his way through small bars and hot spots, none of which still exist (along the way he met a young server named Mike Milner; the two would later go on to save a somewhat floundering young nightclub called Studio 54 at the MGM Grand).
When his newly formed company City Entertainment (now True Nightlife) started throwing a Sunday party at Tramps and a Monday party at the Shark Club in 1988, he did something a little unorthodox: He charged a cover. Just $5, but at the time, Frankie says, aside from live music venues, “no [mainstream] club, disco or bar was charging cover.” Soon, other venues were booking with Frankie, needing him and his promoter’s license to pull it off. But when a boycott of the rave scene resulted in the temporary loss of that precious license, Frankie hit an all-time low.
A chance glance at the MGM one night resulted in a proposal for a party in the old theme park on the property. In the document he faxed over and over again for three hours, it was called Block Party, but when it opened as Fahrenheit 98 in 1997, Frankie was just thankful it opened. He prayed for 1,800 people to show up for the outdoor party after a drizzly day; 3,600 people showed. With the exception of a somewhat humorous incident in which he was fired and rehired for mouthing off—he does have a somewhat loud personality—Frankie has worked for the MGM ever since.
Today, he balances his position as program director for Studio 54 and Tabu with a new gig as creative nightlife director with Station Casinos. He has once again collaborated with old friend Mike Milner as True Nightlife to bring Sway Ultralounge to the Las Vegas Hilton this winter. In his 30-year career, Frankie is known for a number of Vegas nightlife firsts. Aside from bringing the cover charge to mainstream venues, Frankie did live broadcasts, two-by-four DJ performances with DJ ROB and—truly ahead of his time—even proposed a pool party at the MGM called Café Soleil in 1999. “It didn’t work, but everything I proposed, from topless bathing and everything they laughed at, happened about four or five years later.”
The pool party trend, Frankie surmises, will continue to flourish, especially in the mainstream market. Because of the great shift from club kids to mainstream partiers (the bachelors and bachelorettes), Frankie would now classify after-hours as a fad, something without staying power that is destined to come and go. “After-hours used to be because of the music, and people couldn’t get enough of it ... But now, though, the after-hours are playing house music to stay in line, people just aren’t digging it as much anymore. They’re not jumping around as crazy, they’re not staying as long, and people are fighting against the grain right now. It’s almost a trend that became a fad.”
Rather than change the party (or the music) to suit the clientele, Frankie’s business model is to slowly educate the clientele about the party. “In the old days, people were uncomfortable to go to gentlemen’s clubs, and clubs had a little bit of that mystique, as well ... The mainstream people were spectators, but then, a month later, they became participators. A week later, they got closer to the dance floor. A week later, they actually danced. Two weeks later, they came in with a new outfit. Before you knew, they were saying, ‘Could you play that Paul Oakendyke?’ Were they wrong? Of course, they were wrong.” But, he notes, they were still coming!
The mainstream clubs have trained their audiences, too, just not quite in the way Frankie would like. “I think it’s a little out of control, but at this point the audience has been trained by all your competition. I think the competition did a great favor for every other club. People come up to the club and say, ‘Yeah, I want a table. I want a bottle, so, uh, how many bottles do I gotta buy?’”
As for who brought bottle service to Vegas, Frankie recalls, “It was Stevie D [Davidovici] at the Rio ... I said I knew they did that in New York and Europe, but I didn’t know we could do that here. I think Light was the one that exposed it to the point where it became a Vegas phenomenon and everyone jumped on it.” He credits Pure with drastically changing the way business is done in Vegas and for setting off the second big nightlife explosion. “My style of business was the old standard, and I gotta give [Steve] credit for changing the standard—that’s a big move to be strong enough to change the standard—but I don’t agree with the change.
“The change now is more of a party for mainstreamers. It’s not a club atmosphere for club-goers. The music isn’t club music—it’s radio music. I just think that everything changed now because of the new standard.” Frankie is critical of mainstream parties where the music isn’t the absolute focus. “A club used to be dark, black walls because the décor wasn’t really part of it. It was about the people and the sound and the music.”
On the other hand, “It’s a broader audience now, and it’s probably bigger dollars because of it. It’s less exclusive, and it’s more accessible. It was a very smart move when it comes down to business, but to me it was a damaging move when it came down to the actual nightclub scene. And that’s why my company’s True Nightlife—because I try to stay true to what nightlife is supposed to be.”
Pessimistic though he sounds on the subject of mainstream nightlife—to him, a homogenized blend of pop-music fans—Frankie is actually wildly optimistic that nightlife as he knows it will come back from the brink, and Downtown Las Vegas just may be a start of the rebirth. “Downtown is something that I see bubbling that is going to be the new hip, cool scene. I don’t know if Downtown is where it’s going to happen, but Downtown is where it’s going to cultivate. I believe that Downtown is where the cool people that used to come to clubs up here—like the Utopia type crowds—just all the eclectic people ...
“My biggest gripe is that the business is a business now, instead of a party that generates funds. I believe where there’s a great party, great dollars will always follow it, but to idolize the dollars too heavily ... I don’t think you end up with the right crowd.” Frankie Anobile is definitely the right crowd; we would definitely hang out with him. He’s true nightlife.
GINO LOPINTO
Afterhours powerhouse
Every time he tried to get out, they pulled him back in. Seriously. No matter how many times Empire Ballroom managing partner Gino Lopinto has contemplated a career change—real estate, marketing, at one point he even owned a vitamin company—he’s been drawn back into the nightlife industry for one reason and one reason only: The locals.
A local himself since the age of 7 and one of a Brat Pack of then-up-and-comers during the late ’80s and throughout the ’90s—along with Pure Management Group’s Steve Davidovici, N9NE Group’s Michael Fuller, Harrah’s’ Pauly Freeman and promoter Tony Verdugo—Gino has had the opportunity to build (and occasionally had to bury) some pretty legendary parties. Entering the industry in ’87 as a valet at his godfather Gianni Russo’s joint, State Street, he worked his way up to general manager within two years and went on to open his own club, Metropolis (later SRO, now 702). Frequented by local celebrities as well as the likes of John Travolta, Sylvester Stallone and Steven Tyler, Metropolis was something of an early ultralounge, boasting a pool table, a fireplace, a shark tank and a newfangled thing called a dress code. But it was to be a short-lived phenomenon; Club Rio’s 1995 opening crushed his business.
It is Gino’s willingness to adapt that has afforded him career longevity. Flying under the radar, he says, has been one of his best tactics. That and putting his staff and the locals first. “People love to work for me. The porter, the general manager, I treat ’em the same. You never know who someone is. The homeless guy on the corner? The next day he hits Megabucks and he’s your boss! You never know.”
After a stint with the even shorter-lived Roxbury (formerly Metz, later Epicenter/Utopia, today Empire Ballroom; it both opened and closed in December 1995!), Gino says he took friend Aaron Britt’s suggestion that he check out San Diego’s rave scene. What resulted was the legendary Utopia party at Epicenter (the location eventually becoming synonymous with the party) in 1996. Gino moved around, from the Drink (later Ice) to the Spearmint Rhino (where he solidified his reputation as an afterhours god) and Glo at the Hop (only the sign remains on East Trop). Gino is a nightlife “lifer,” and he knows it. “It wasn’t even until the Pures and the Lights opened up that I realized this is it, for life. I didn’t know it could be done on this level. I’ll admit it.”
Today, Gino is still championing both afterhours and house music at Empire while using his company Vegas Alliance to create the Vegas Music Experience (coming in October to the Palms), and to bring Vibrate Radio to the airwaves on KLUC 98.5-FM every Friday and Saturday night from 2-5 a.m. Unfortunately, Vegas Alliance will celebrate Utopia’s 12th anniversary on Presidents Day weekend in February without one of its founding members; Aaron Britt was killed in a car crash in Miami in 1997.
In the not-too-distant future, Gino predicts, the money spent to open Vegas’ pleasure palaces will skyrocket: “You’re gonna see $40-, $50-, $60-million clubs soon.” And that’s what is foremost on Gino’s mind: the future. “My next move will be with a [nightlife] group,” he predicts, “whether I’m the head of it or a part of it.”
Gino knows the Vegas market and isn’t afraid to make bold predictions about what is destined to become the next It thing. Will there be topless clubs in casinos? “Yes, absolutely. I said the same thing when someone asked me if there would ever be a nightclub in a casino back in 1990. There’s a Hooters casino, there’s a Playboy sign on the side of the Palms, and we have topless pools everywhere! I give it 24 months—by 2009.” He also believes that increasing bottle prices might soon attract the attention of the government: “I’m sure there’s gonna be some regulation down the road.”
For now, Gino is candid when giving credit where credit is due. Some clubs just do it right. “It’s all about the people who operate them. Tao is the No. 1 club in the world hands down. Pure, everything they touch, they’re unbeatable. Light Group, they’re on the cutting edge. They’ll probably be the first to have the boutique hotel that everyone is looking for. The Palms and N9NE Group, they’re probably the hippest property in town.”
And while he can recognize the newcomers to the game—“Yeah, there’s some new apples out there ...”—Gino is banking that legends like him and his contemporaries will hold onto control of the industry. “We were all in it when there was no money in it. I don’t know anyone who is successful out there now who didn’t come out of this industry. Maybe for partying and hanging out, we’re old. But one thing we have in common—we all have the passion for it.” True, time may mellow one’s hard-partying ways, but for now it seems that Vegas’ afterhours power is still going full steam ahead.
MICHAEL MORTON
Legendary quality
“My dad was somebody who was put on this planet to work. He loved to work. I spent a lot of time with him in the office—in the Playboy hotels—just hanging out with him.” Michael Morton may have been born into three generations of food and beverage royalty, but he’s been determined to build his own empire. Michael’s grandfather owned a restaurant in the South Side of Chicago; his father, Arnold “A.J.” Morton (later executive vice president of Playboy Enterprises and renowned restaurateur), started busing tables at 15. Michael’s own first job was disposing of the bar’s empty bottles at Arnie’s, one of his father’s restaurants.
After attending the hotel & restaurant management school at the University of Denver, Michael returned to Chicago to open Morton’s Steakhouses around the U.S., but the arrangement was short-lived. “My dad was a very tough guy to work for.”
Not wanting to take over his father’s namesake restaurant, Arnie’s, Michael left the company when he was 25. ”I needed to go develop my own identity. He was very supportive, though, when I decided to do it. It’s very challenging—fathers and sons working together. But he was supportive.” He recalls learning a number of lessons from his father, many of which he still uses today. “Our business is 90 percent common sense and 10 percent a good eye. I call it the 90/10 rule, which I talk about a lot.”
Michael’s first solo project, Voodoo, dropped him right into Chicago’s nightlife scene. His next project, Drink & Eat Too! (or the Drink) enjoyed a successful 10-year reign in Chicago before brother Peter Morton showed him a plot of land on the corner of Vegas’ Harmon and Koval Avenues that he wasn’t going to use for his next Hard Rock Café project. Instead of the Drink Los Angeles, Michael opened the Drink Las Vegas (later, Ice) in 1995.
The Drink caught the eye of an ambitious young hotelier, George Maloof, also of a high-profile family. “He was at the Fiesta at the time, and I got a phone call from a mutual friend who said, ‘George is working on a new hotel. Would you be interested in doing the nightclubs?’” Rain in the Desert (or Rain), Ghostbar and N9NE Steakhouse (the original Ghostbar and Nine Steakhouse opened in Chicago in 2000) make up Michael and George’s first collaboration and opened with the hotel in November 2001.
The second Morton/Maloof collaboration planned only to put Moon nightclub and Nove Italiano in the Palms’ new Fantasy Tower, but with mutual friend Christy Hefner, daughter of publishing magnate Hugh Hefner, looking to establish a Playboy Club in Las Vegas, well, the answer was simple—change the plan. “It’s always an evolution. Whenever you do a venue, whatever the original intent is, there’s a lot of change and evolution.” This also gave Michael a way to honor the memory of his father, who passed away in 2005; A.J.’s picture hangs in the Playboy Club.
Even with four nightlife hot spots and the Palms Pool & Bungalows, restaurants continue to be the backbone of Michael’s business. “In this crazy world that we live in—meaning these nightlife venues—your food is your stability. It’s the rock of the business. And I think that often goes a little bit unnoticed by some.”
One wonders if that crazy world will soon reach a point where the town can no longer sustain the glut of new nightclub. “I think it’s already started. There are some places right now that aren’t doing the numbers that they think they should be doing. I think they’re dud firecrackers.” Michael agrees with other icons who allot a nightclub about five good years. “My dad always told me, ‘It’s not what you gross, it’s what you net.’ Nightclubs don’t last forever. We all know that. The contrarian in me right now is saying the appearance of the invincibility of it all is a warning sign.
There’re only so many customers. And sure, the customer base does grow, but it does not grow as fast as the overall capacity of nightclubs.”
And who are the customers these days? “Anytime in Las Vegas, you’re going to get rich people. And we get people who are unbelievably wealthy, whether they’re in their 30s, 40s or 50s. What’s really surprising is to find people who are really young, spending that much money. You did not see that years ago.” Still, that’s no excuse for extortion. “There are some places out here that are abusing customers, saying, ‘Table for four, get three bottles.’ To me, that’s just greedy.” But not everybody is using that business model. “There’s an awful lot of good,” says Michael, citing Tryst as an example of a good business model. “Look at their billboards. They don’t do 52,000 promotions with bikini-clad girls.”
Michael would much rather see legitimate trends rule rather than the fad of substance-free weekly parties, trends aimed at a smarter customer base, like hiring talented DJs. “They impact your experience more than anything.” Bottle service, he adds with some caution, is a trend that will evolve but will not be going away. “I remember when I first came out, and I said to myself, ‘Is this going to be here in five years?’ Fads go away, but trends evolve.”
CHAD PALLAS
It’s all in the timing
When the Hard Rock’s Baby’s Nightclub was preparing to close (it finally did in February 2004), then-director of nightclub operations Chad Pallas found himself in a pickle. A clubless club manager in a city as dynamic as Vegas must either quickly create a new niche for himself or risk having to look for a new gig. Chad was mulling this over on a day trip to Lake Mead.
At that time in Vegas, there were few options for anyone wishing to spend a day by the water—drive waaaaay out to the lake or sneak into a hotel pool, a common practice. All around he saw girls “much too pretty” to not be prancing around a hotel pool in their barely-theres. It occurred to him that a daytime pool party, like those he’d seen at Miami’s Nikki Beach, could have a whopping eight hours of operating time in Vegas. With most clubs only open 11 p.m.-4 a.m. and with the ability to sell water, drinks, food and other amenities, this meant big bucks for the plucky casino willing to promote such a crazy notion. Chad remembers, “I knew I had something.”
Fortunately, a 21-year-old Harry Morton, son of then-Hard Rock Hotel owner Peter Morton, was very keen to see those ladies, their bikinis and that party. “He just got it.” Chad had but to show Harry a chic, illustrated proposal to get the go-ahead.
What happened next is Vegas nightlife history, an evolutionary shift so strong the results are still being felt four years later at the start of each summer season.
Billboards began appearing to let all of Vegas know that “Meetings begin May 2.” Chad admits he did initially have to field some confused calls from people seeking treatment for their substance-abuse issues, but by the end of May, there was no question that Rehab was going to be monster. To help tame this beast, Chad enlisted Jack Lafleur, whom he had just met at a Playboy lingerie party (yes, Jack was modeling men’s boxers at the time). “He was as comfortable in his underwear as I am in a suit.” With Jack on board, the Rehab pool party launched, and Sundays quickly became the third-highest occupancy night of the week. Even Body English, which had thundered onto the scene over Memorial Day Weekend 2004, was feeling the positive ripple effect.
Annually, “Rehab is a several-million-dollar party,” Chad says, not wishing to put a number to that assertion. But he will say that the party, which initially brought in $15,000 each Sunday, now amasses more than 10 times that. Time was, says Chad, that an average nightclub lasted about five years. “But I think it’s cutting down to three, four.” That puts Vegas’ first successful daytime pool party, soon to be closing out its fourth summer season, into uncharted territory. When the Morgan Group purchased the Hard Rock this year, Rehab had its own deal point and was rolled into the sale.
Chad still marvels at the lessons learned in building Rehab. “We found a lot of things out. Your guard is down when you’re at Rehab; it’s a much more real setting. When you meet somebody you’re in a pair of swim trunks, they’re in a bikini. You’re meeting on kind of a more level playing field.” Those bikinis, a tongue-in-cheek attitude and an award-winning interactive website keep the event fresh and have even spurred an underground movement of costumed attendees and swim-suited wedding parties on Rehab’s shores.
As one who got his start in California’s 1992 rave scene, Chad (now director of special events for the entire property) has very strong feelings about the fads and trends dictating clubs’ actions today and would love to see the return of themes and the public having loyalty to a promoter. “When you followed the promoter and you expected a great party because the promoter’s name was on the line ... you were rewarded for it in the sense that the majority of the people were in theme, the party was off the chain, and the music was always great because the promoter tailored the night the way he wanted to.”
He can say for certain that the pool-party trend—one that he helped establish—will be ongoing. “There’s nobody looking at the books financially that can ignore this as a moneymaking opportunity.” But within this trend lies another, that being European or topless sunbathing, which Chad does not believe is absolutely necessary. “I think it has merit to it, but it has to be done the right way. I don’t think the male fantasy of who’s gonna be topless is who’s actually out there topless! [laughs] I like to leave a little to the imagination.”
Above all, Chad hopes that the unavoidable tidal wave of celebrity-hosted parties we are experiencing right now is a fad and not a trend. “It’s a very low-energy experience. I always think that the party should surpass the celebrities. I never enjoyed watching someone dance in their VIP booth while I’m down with the regular public.” When the Hard Rock does throw a celebrity-centric party, Chad tries to ensure that there is an interactive element such as a slide show of the celebrity’s childhood pictures. Anything to provide a more satisfying experience. “We don’t rely on celebrities at all. We cater to them in the sense that we would cater to any VIP paying a premium for a VIP area, but we really don’t do much more than that.” Only when celebrities are hosting some of the more gimmicky events will there be a contracted appearance, such as when Rehab raised money for Al Gore’s Save the Planet movement with an annual Thong-a-Thon. Keeping it real, keeping it light. “Things like that keep the party living on in infamy.”
VICTOR DRAI
If you build it (right)
they really will come
Confident. Cocky. Call him what you will, Victor Drai has the nightlife chops to cut down detractors and the serene smile to disarm critics, though there are few who can deny the dramatic elegance of Tryst, his partnership with Steve Wynn, or of his namesake afterhours club, Drai’s. Victor’s European upbringing seems to have imbued him with a directness that some might find startling. But Victor himself will say that initial discussions to open a club with Steve Wynn ended in a stalemate because the former Hollywood film producer was not getting the autonomy and freedom of expression he wanted. His earlier film career trained Victor to jump on a good opportunity—or to walk away when situations are not ideal.
Before there was Drai’s Las Vegas, there was Drai’s Los Angeles, and before that there was Victor Drai, producer, making such films as The Woman in Red, The Man With One Red Shoe and most notably, dark comedies Weekend at Bernie’s and its sequel. Victor concurrently opened Drai’s restaurant in LA, his Parisian upbringing shining through in the acclaimed French cuisine. A native of Casablanca, Morocco, young Victor demonstrated a fiercely independent, entrepreneurial spirit, at 16 owning an extermination service, later expanding into real estate and women’s apparel.
When he chose to build Drai’s Las Vegas at the Barbary Coast in 1997, “everyone thought I was crazy. There was a McDonald’s there before.” Having achieved some success flipping Drai’s LA into a nightclub on Mondays, Victor designed Drai’s Las Vegas with nightlife in mind. “We had blues in the lounge, and then I realized I couldn’t really do anything because the restaurant was so big then. I needed to do something after the restaurant, and the only option was an afterhours.” As icons Gino Lopinto and Frankie Anobile will attest, there were afterhours events in Vegas before Drai’s, but Victor makes a qualified claim: “Drai’s was the first after-hours to open here with class to it.”
Not shying away from that controversy or any other, Victor goes on to add, “I created bottle service. Drai’s was the first club with bottle service in this town.” To say that one person invented bottle service or even to claim that one club owner was the first to bring it to Vegas is ... touchy. Dig a little and you’ll find that bottle service has long existed in some form or another. But claiming that one has done bottle service “right” or perfected the art thereof, as many clubs do, is quite common. At the end of the day, the important thing is not who came first, but who does it best. Not surprisingly, Victor claims that as well.
To be sure, Victor is a design fanatic, his personal touch and style visible everywhere from the colors and textures to the lighting used in his venues. “Red, I think, is the sexiest color in a nightclub or for a restaurant. My kitchen is red in my house.” Also a complete lighting nut, Victor will shut off the lights at other people’s homes if they aren’t working for him. “I think lighting makes everything. It can make a bedroom, it can make a dining room, it can make a restaurant—everything. Very few people have an eye for lighting.” One thing you will not find at Tryst or Drai’s is a VIP room.
“I don’t believe in VIP rooms because I presume you walk into my place, and that’s VIP. I’m very cocky that way.
“In Vegas, the people being impressed is key. They come back. They’ll come back two, three times a year, or they’ll send some friends to come, or family. So treat them well.” So who impresses Victor? “Pure is f--king impressive. To spend that kind of money. That was bold.” Still, Victor is probably the purest example of a club owner moving away from celebrity-driven promotions. Proudly, he states that he never hires celebrities to host his club. His preferred business model concentrates on personal relationships and throwing an elegant, on-point party every night, not just on certain nights. Aiding Victor in bringing about his vision are managing directors Cy and Jesse Waits, who, through fastidious attention to detail and with the further assistance of a loyal staff, execute that business model.
Looking beyond his own two venues, and with a third on the way for Wynn’s Encore property, Victor is not afraid of competition. “I think the more clubs that exist, the better it is for the business. More people will want to come to clubs, and more people will want to come to my place because it will be the best place of all of them.” He is confident that like his two (soon to be three) venues, the Vegas club scene isn’t going anywhere anytime soon and that there’s no better place than a casino for a big club.
“If the MGM decides to open a club tomorrow, for them it costs $20 million or $100 million. Now if you want to open your own personal club, nobody will put in $100 million. They can’t afford it. They don’t have the money. I have the greatest partnership because they leave me alone, and we’re real partners. I care about the hotel. I want the hotel to be super-successful.
“The success is not so much what I’m looking for as much as the completion of it. The journey is more important, always, than the result.” By all accounts, and judging by that million-watt smile, Victor is enjoying his journey.
JASON STRAUSS and
NOAH TEPPERBERG
Building a dream team
We’ll just gloss over with a wink and a nod the fact that Jason Strauss and Noah Tepperberg were throwing parties before they were out of high school. These two precocious young Manhattanites were able to gather hundreds of kids at pool halls, event spaces and private homes. Sound like risky business? Consider this: Precocious is just a word used by people who don’t think ambition looks good on a teenager.
Noah preferred to think of it as a hobby. “Some people might call it popularity. Others might call it being very organized and connected. It kind of came naturally to us.”
It was a New Year’s Eve party at Mr. Fuji’s Tropicana (in New York City) during their freshmen year in college that started the two thinking about solidifying their business relationship. “We had about a thousand people,” Noah recalls. Since they were making $40 per head, it quickly occurred to both that this could make for a very lucrative side job. “While our friends were taking summer internships and traveling abroad when they were off from school, Jason and I were putting together events and trying to start our business.”
When the two graduated in 1997—Jason from Boston University and Noah from the University of Miami—they formed their first company, Strategic Event Management and Marketing, and later, Strategic Group, a marketing and corporate-event production company. Oozing with street cred, they threw parties all over Manhattan, but it was their first venue—temporary though it was—that tested their mettle.
Conscience Point opened in 1999 for the three-month Hamptons summer season, giving Jason and Noah a chance to dive into the operations side of the nightlife industry. “One of my favorite memories,” Jason recalls, “was we were running a little behind schedule on the construction, and I had to call, like, 19 of my best friends to hammer and saw and sand the bar and paint the bar ...” Conscience Point also allowed the pair to continue their promotions back in the city, preparing them for a future of multitasking on a multimillion-dollar level.
The opening of celebrity hot spot Suite 16 in 2001 brought the duo unexpected fame. “According to the newspaper, we owned it!” laughs Noah. “But the actual owner was Johnny Dorian. But we were the guys who were there every night handling the marketing, handling all the media, handling all the events.” It also put them on Tao New York owner Marc Packer’s radar. Just six weeks after Tao’s opening, Strategic Group was operating as the restaurant’s in-house marketing events firm. They would become even more intertwined with Marc when, on their own, Noah and Jason bought a garbage truck garage and brought him in as a partner/investor on the December 2003 opening of Marquee nightclub, still one of the tightest velvet ropes in New York.
Strategic Group signed on with Marc Packer and Richard Wolf and Lou Alban in 2004 as managing partners in Tao Las Vegas; after a long renovation, Tao (formerly Velvet Lounge at the WB Soundstage Restaurant) opened on September 26, 2005. Jason and Noah’s influence can be felt in the complex’s flow and layout. “The way the space is used and separated, it kind of transforms from function to function—that was definitely part of our vision,” says Noah.
Jason splits his time 80/20 between Vegas and New York, Noah the opposite. As the primary caretaker in Vegas, Jason empowers his upper management to execute their vision so as not to micromanage his staff of 750. “That’s the formula that’s worked for us.” Most nights, he can be spotted at the podium, like the club’s signature 20-foot Buddha, keeping a watchful eye on things. “For me, it all starts at the door.
It’s just my personality. I want to be involved with the customer from the minute they walk in.” Sometimes, Jason explains, that can mean having to educate the customer. “I think the prices will stay relative to whatever the market bears. If more clubs open, then maybe the price will change, but I think the price will be contingent on whatever the market bears. We’re educating the customer on everything they’re getting when we quote them on prices. So I think it’s just a matter of perspective.”
Unlike many of his fellow icons, Noah sees celebrity-driven events as a trend as opposed to a fad. He also views the indie-rock movement as a trend. “And you’ll see more nightclubs opening up their eyes to it and catering to that crowd,” Jason agrees, adding, “much like we’ve done with our [Vinyl] Wednesdays lounge nights.” But mash-up music? “Fad.”
While certainly not afraid to share their thoughts and opinions on all things club, both men would emphasize that Tao has a collaborative culture, representing the
contributions of many. Confucius say, this is the Tao of club.
FELIX RAPPAPORT
Luxor’s renaissance man
The Luxor is on the precipice of an entertainment renaissance, and there is no one more qualified than Luxor’s president and COO, Felix Rappaport, to be leading the charge. While he is not himself a nightclub owner, operator or even much of a club-goer, Felix has had his hand in plenty of nightlife-related projects throughout his more than 28 years in the hospitality industry, and that’s Nightlife Icon enough for us.
When Felix arrived in Las Vegas in 1991, he served as director of hotel operations at the Mirage and opened Treasure Island as the vice president of hotel operations. He subsequently worked for Station Casinos, the MGM Grand and New York-New York.
During his tenure at the latter, he really had his hands full, helping to bring Nine Fine Irishmen, Coyote Ugly and ESPN Zone to the property. In other words, he’s had plenty of nightlife experience. But Felix recognizes that the nightlife industry is highly specialized, and that while many may do it, some just do it better.
That’s how he feels about Pure Management Group, especially in the days leading up to the opening of three new PMG venues—LAX Nightclub, Noir Bar and Company restaurant. “I think Pure, with no disrespect to Tao or any of these other places, has just hit the ground running from Day 1.”
During his time at the Mirage, Felix watched as Steve Wynn’s hotel thrived while the images of other formerly hot properties from the 1970s, such as Caesars Palace, declined. When Pure nightclub opened on New Year’s Eve 2005, it brought Caesars into the 21st century as the largest nightclub Vegas had ever seen. “In today’s world, the nightclubs are often more than nightclubs. They are really what define a place in terms of the hipness factor. They’re really the kind of places that can almost single-handedly take a place from being boring and square to being hip and relevant again.
“I’ve seen how important a club can be. Look at the difference between La Bete and Tryst. La Bete, people critiqued; it wasn’t successful. And look how Tryst has redefined Steve Wynn’s place.”
In a three-phased, property-wide initiative, an estimated $300 million investment between Luxor and its joint venture partners will be spent on the property (a reported $35 million on LAX alone). But when you consider what the megaclub will likely send to the bottom line, the numbers are more than justified. Ra nightclub opened in January 1998 and enjoyed an enviable reign, but closed in July 2006 in decrepit condition. Empowered by MGM Mirage Chairman and CEO Terry Lanni, Felix and MGM Grand Resorts CEO John Redman ushered in the age of renaissance: Phase 1 began this March with Aurora bar and then Flight bar. These will be followed by LAX and Noir on August 31, Company American Bistro in October, and this fall/winter, Liquidity lounge, Cathouse ultralounge and more. Phase 2 will tackle the outdated, Egyptian-themed atrium and gallery areas, “de-theming only those venues where it really is almost like handcuffs”; Phase 3 will focus on the rooms.
Entertainment and nightlife changes were deployed first.
Felix makes no predictions about fads, trends or bottle service, preferring instead to entrust club-related matters to Steve Davidovici, Robert Frey and the rest of PMG. He makes this one prophecy: “There are a lot of places around the world where nightclubs are just a big old space—a warehouse. But I think this will be, from a well-executed design vision, maybe the coolest nightclub in the world—certainly the coolest nightclub in Vegas.” If enthusiasm and confidence count for anything, it is likely to be a self-fulfilling one.