Bottle service is the sale of liquor by the bottle in bars

Bar (establishment)

A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...

 and nightclub

Nightclub

A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...

s.

The purchase of bottle service typically includes a reserved table for the patron

Patrón

Patrón is a luxury brand of tequila produced in Mexico and sold in hand-blown, individually numbered bottles.Made entirely from Blue Agave "piñas" , Patrón comes in five varieties: Silver, Añejo, Reposado, Gran Patrón Platinum and Gran Patrón Burdeos. Patrón also sells a tequila-coffee blend known...

's party and mixers

Drink mixer

Drink mixers are the non-alcoholic ingredients in mixed drinks and cocktails. There are many reasons mixers are used. They change or enhance flavors or add new ones to a drink. Mixers dilute the drink, lowering the alcohol by volume in the drink. They may make the drink sweeter, more sour, or more...

 of the patron's choice. Bottle service can include the service of a VIP host, 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

Cover charge

At bars and nightclubs, or restaurants with live entertainment a flat fee for entry, sometimes known as a cover charge, is made, in addition to payment for food and drink...

 being waived for the purchaser's party, and often allows patrons to bypass entrance lines. The tip is also often included in the price.

The cost of a bottle at such a bar or club is usually marked up

Markup (business)

Markup is the difference between the cost of a good or service and its selling price. A markup is added on to the total cost incurred by the producer of a good or service in order to create a profit. The total cost reflects the total amount of both fixed and variable expenses to produce and...

 extremely, often by 2000% 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, 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 in 1993 (by Jeffrey Jah and Mark Baker). The modern form of bottle service was pioneered in 1995 by Michael Ault at Spy Bar and in 1996, Chaos ($175 for a bottle of Stolichnaya vodka), with the express goal of creating a "barrier to entry", rather than of increasing liquor sales.

The concept later spread to other American cities, notably Miami and Las Vegas

Las Vegas metropolitan area

The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...

 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 dens. Preferential treatment for purchasers of bottle service even includes stopping the regular dance music when an especially expensive bottle is purchased and instead playing an invigorating theme song chosen by the purchaser.