If you hadn’t heard, and some of you probably haven’t, a number of different restaurants/nightclubs/lounges have closed in Bellevue over this past month. I didn’t really pay it any mind, until someone took a shot at TPD when commenting on a Blog Post. This ignorance has prompted me to deliver one of my most opinionated and aggressive blogs ever. So, sit back and strap in, this time, I pull no punches.
So my friend “sushisnob” (our blog poster) do you want to fill your empty head with a few legitimate reasons as to why vertigo closed. Well, here you have them.
1. Location - You are at the bottom of an apartment building (okay 2nd floor) but still, you are by absolutely nothing, learn this, unless you have a built in following that has been loyal to you for years, you have a 2yr shelf life when located out of the central clubbing district. Unless of course you have something unique to offer, which, you didn’t.
2. Design - Your club resembles a bar bell. This would be absolutely fine if the bar was located in one of the open areas and the dance floor in the other. Unfortunately your bar is in the wrong spot, it completely ruins the flow. This is something that people will put up with for a period of time, but, fighting for a drink week in a week out makes your spot a little less desirable.
3. Creativity - With such a great bar staff, the management really should have done more. Guess what, everyone advertises in or with D List/The Weekly/The Stranger/Local Radio Stations. That takes no ingenuity what so ever. Just throw money at an advertising platform and hope the people come. News FLASH, you aren’t the only show in town, you have to set yourself apart. You got monotonous, it really sucks that such a great staff went to waste.
4. Demographic Selection - In the beginning your drew the support of the local Bellevue community, once they realized there was no special reason to go “off the reservation” your demographic became heavily European. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this demographic, except that it does not mesh with with other demo’s and, it’s not large enough to support more than 1 or 2 good nights on a weekly basis. You then moved to working with some of the more established promoters in the sound, like PURE, who were able to bring you some really spectacular events, however, the location and design of the building began to wear on their following, especially when the events went from monthly to weekly. Next up you went with the Urban crowd, initially, it was a grown up and respectful crowd from the likes of Marlon & Dru, but then, you went hood. Unfortunately, once you go hood, you don’t go back. It was all capped off by the last event that I saw heavily pushed, the Snoop Dogg after party. This just blows my mind, did the owners that took over the lease from Bill do ANY research at all, ANY !?!?! Who in their right mind would allow an event like that knowing how concerned the Bellevue police already are in regards to nightlife. Those going around bitching about the Bellevue Police need to learn who is in charge and need to not try and bring that type of event into the city, it will NEVER work.
Being a club owner myself I will be the first to tell you that losing a club isn’t always in your control, I’m learning this first hand right now, but, some things are. The bottom line is this, you can build the Taj Mahal, with the best of the best of everything, but, if you don’t work hard at what you do, it doesn’t matter one damn bit. Understand the market you want to go after, realize what it is that they expect when they come to an event. Make sure that you’re dialed ACROSS the board, and know, that you are going to have to make some concessions and you’re going to have to reinvest if you want to make things work over the long haul. It’s sad to see any place go, ugh..
So there you have it “sushisnob” the more likely reasons as to why Vertigo closed.