Here's a report of my experience at Blush on Tuesday, Dec 14 for everyone's enjoyment and education
I sent a PM to Mikey Tantalo a week beforehand with our relevant information, and asking if he could help us get a table. He replied back same day asking for some more details, which I answered, but then heard nothing back from him after that via PM.
So Tuesday arrives and I haven't got anything arranged. First I try to contact Mikey via blackberry PIN, but a few hours go by and I haven't heard back. I make a trip back to the site here and find Nadar Cheetney's number on the contact page. So I send Nadar a text, and he responds immediately. After a few back and forth, Nadar tells us that the 3 guys in my group are set up with a b1g1 deal, and will keep the table for the night. He says he will not be there this night, and we should ask for Sammy when we arrive. Awesome!
A little later, Mikey did reply to my PIN, and after I let him know we were set up through Nadal, he said no problem, and gave me all his contact info just in case we had any problems or needed anything.
We arrive at Blush about 10:30pm. There's maybe 10 people getting checked in at the desk, but no other line. I walk up to an open section of the rope and ask for Sammy, who comes right over. I introduce myself and let him know Nadal told me to look for him. He says of course, and directs me over to the check in desk. Another host (whose name I can't remember) gets our information, finds the reservation Nadal had made, and confirms the deal we arranged. He then walks us in to get our IDs checked, and hands us off to another host, Ryan. Ryan walks us to our table (which was a corner table right in the middle of the club - seemed like a great spot) and tells us he will be taking care of us all night, and to let him know if we needed anything.
With all these different hosts helping us, there's the (seemingly typical, based on my readings on the forums) confusion about who to take care of, and how much. After getting checked in and about to walk inside, I reach over quickly and thank Sammy for his help, and give him a $50. The host who checked us in got a $20, and Ryan gets a $50 when we get to the table. If Sammy had taken us all the way in, he would have got the full $100, but I felt splitting it between the people who helped us arrange the night, and the people who actually took care of us once we were there, was the best move.
Now that we're at our table, theres the initial rush of activity. Our waitress comes to introduce herself, as does our runner, and our security guy (Justin). It is at this point we have our first problem: our waitress tells us that even though we are buying a bottle of Grey Goose, the free bottle will only be Skyy. This had not come up with Nadar or anyone else; I thought it was a pretty safe assumption that the 'b1g1' terminology meant I would get a second bottle of whatever I paid for. I express a little pro forma disappointment, but everything else has gone so smooth, I don't want to make a big stink. We'll survive. Later when the bottles are being delivered, I ask whether I can pay the difference to upgrade the second bottle to GG. The waitress doesn't know, but goes to ask, and returns to tell me it would be about $200! She says they don't even usually sell Skyy, but thats how much less it would be than GG if it were on the menu. She and I are in total agreement that there's no way thats worth it, so I politely decline.
Ryan swings back around now that we're settled to check on us. He asks if we want him to bring any girls over, and we tell him to hold off for now, let us get the lay of the land and a few drinks flowing, and we'll reassess in 20/30 minutes. No problem, he says. It is also at this point I find a moment when our runner isn't busy to pull him aside, thank him for helping us, and giving him a $20. I do the same with Justin.
Everything is going well - we're inside, got a good table, drinks in front of us, the club is starting to fill up. After the discussed time frame goes by, Ryan reappears and asks if we're ready for girls. We give him the green light, and sit back for a bit. A fair amount of time goes by, and there's no sign of Ryan or any girls. We chat amongst ourselves, continue to scope out the room, but still no Ryan. Eventually, we start socializing on our own, and take care of the girls issue on our own without much trouble. Its not til maybe 2 hours later I run into Ryan while walking around the club, and ask him what happened to the girls. "Oh you want girls now?" he says. Even though there had been no confusion about this, I again say yes again (the more the merrier, after all). He replies that he'll bring some right over. Fine, I think. Except I never see Ryan again for the rest of the night.
In spite of this, the night goes as most of these nights tend to. We made friends, shared drinks, danced, etc etc all night long. There's only one occurrence that's worth mentioning here - at one point late in the night while returning from the restroom, I asked a gentleman in my path to excuse me so I could walk by. He instead decided to purposely step backwards into me. I then set aside my usually very polite nature and said "Get the fuck out of my way". Surprised for a moment, he moved, but then followed me and got in my face. His friends quickly grabbed him, as my friends stepped up around me, but this lasted only a moment before several security guys showed up, including Justin. After I explained what happened to him, he said no problem, spoke with the other security guys, who then told the impolite group that they needed to move away and not cause any more issues at the risk of getting thrown out.
One last point - when the bill came at the end of the night, I left a $100+ tip for our server and headed home. It was only the next day when I realized that a gratuity had already been included in the bill. This definitely was never explained or highlighted to me, and its kind of a pet peeve. Considering I always make sure to take care of people, I feel like I'm getting screwed.
So to summarize:
All in all, I'd definitely go back to Blush, and recommend it to anyone for a Tuesday night. Just make sure you're aware of the issues I mentioned above, and address it ahead of time.
I sent a PM to Mikey Tantalo a week beforehand with our relevant information, and asking if he could help us get a table. He replied back same day asking for some more details, which I answered, but then heard nothing back from him after that via PM.
So Tuesday arrives and I haven't got anything arranged. First I try to contact Mikey via blackberry PIN, but a few hours go by and I haven't heard back. I make a trip back to the site here and find Nadar Cheetney's number on the contact page. So I send Nadar a text, and he responds immediately. After a few back and forth, Nadar tells us that the 3 guys in my group are set up with a b1g1 deal, and will keep the table for the night. He says he will not be there this night, and we should ask for Sammy when we arrive. Awesome!
A little later, Mikey did reply to my PIN, and after I let him know we were set up through Nadal, he said no problem, and gave me all his contact info just in case we had any problems or needed anything.
We arrive at Blush about 10:30pm. There's maybe 10 people getting checked in at the desk, but no other line. I walk up to an open section of the rope and ask for Sammy, who comes right over. I introduce myself and let him know Nadal told me to look for him. He says of course, and directs me over to the check in desk. Another host (whose name I can't remember) gets our information, finds the reservation Nadal had made, and confirms the deal we arranged. He then walks us in to get our IDs checked, and hands us off to another host, Ryan. Ryan walks us to our table (which was a corner table right in the middle of the club - seemed like a great spot) and tells us he will be taking care of us all night, and to let him know if we needed anything.
With all these different hosts helping us, there's the (seemingly typical, based on my readings on the forums) confusion about who to take care of, and how much. After getting checked in and about to walk inside, I reach over quickly and thank Sammy for his help, and give him a $50. The host who checked us in got a $20, and Ryan gets a $50 when we get to the table. If Sammy had taken us all the way in, he would have got the full $100, but I felt splitting it between the people who helped us arrange the night, and the people who actually took care of us once we were there, was the best move.
Now that we're at our table, theres the initial rush of activity. Our waitress comes to introduce herself, as does our runner, and our security guy (Justin). It is at this point we have our first problem: our waitress tells us that even though we are buying a bottle of Grey Goose, the free bottle will only be Skyy. This had not come up with Nadar or anyone else; I thought it was a pretty safe assumption that the 'b1g1' terminology meant I would get a second bottle of whatever I paid for. I express a little pro forma disappointment, but everything else has gone so smooth, I don't want to make a big stink. We'll survive. Later when the bottles are being delivered, I ask whether I can pay the difference to upgrade the second bottle to GG. The waitress doesn't know, but goes to ask, and returns to tell me it would be about $200! She says they don't even usually sell Skyy, but thats how much less it would be than GG if it were on the menu. She and I are in total agreement that there's no way thats worth it, so I politely decline.
Ryan swings back around now that we're settled to check on us. He asks if we want him to bring any girls over, and we tell him to hold off for now, let us get the lay of the land and a few drinks flowing, and we'll reassess in 20/30 minutes. No problem, he says. It is also at this point I find a moment when our runner isn't busy to pull him aside, thank him for helping us, and giving him a $20. I do the same with Justin.
Everything is going well - we're inside, got a good table, drinks in front of us, the club is starting to fill up. After the discussed time frame goes by, Ryan reappears and asks if we're ready for girls. We give him the green light, and sit back for a bit. A fair amount of time goes by, and there's no sign of Ryan or any girls. We chat amongst ourselves, continue to scope out the room, but still no Ryan. Eventually, we start socializing on our own, and take care of the girls issue on our own without much trouble. Its not til maybe 2 hours later I run into Ryan while walking around the club, and ask him what happened to the girls. "Oh you want girls now?" he says. Even though there had been no confusion about this, I again say yes again (the more the merrier, after all). He replies that he'll bring some right over. Fine, I think. Except I never see Ryan again for the rest of the night.
In spite of this, the night goes as most of these nights tend to. We made friends, shared drinks, danced, etc etc all night long. There's only one occurrence that's worth mentioning here - at one point late in the night while returning from the restroom, I asked a gentleman in my path to excuse me so I could walk by. He instead decided to purposely step backwards into me. I then set aside my usually very polite nature and said "Get the fuck out of my way". Surprised for a moment, he moved, but then followed me and got in my face. His friends quickly grabbed him, as my friends stepped up around me, but this lasted only a moment before several security guys showed up, including Justin. After I explained what happened to him, he said no problem, spoke with the other security guys, who then told the impolite group that they needed to move away and not cause any more issues at the risk of getting thrown out.
One last point - when the bill came at the end of the night, I left a $100+ tip for our server and headed home. It was only the next day when I realized that a gratuity had already been included in the bill. This definitely was never explained or highlighted to me, and its kind of a pet peeve. Considering I always make sure to take care of people, I feel like I'm getting screwed.
So to summarize:
- Nadar was great. He was prompt in replying, answering questions, and taking care of our group. My only issue related to him was not knowing about getting Skyy as our second bottle; I assume that is something he knew, but if not, then disregard that
- Mikey Tantalo, though we had some delays in communication and never met at the club, seemed very solid as well. I don't doubt that had I not made contact with Nadar, Mikey would have taken care of us, or handled any issues we had
- Sammy was also great. Our interaction with him was limited to the introduction and him passing us off to the check-in area, but he was welcoming and made sure we were brought in swiftly. Same goes for the check-in host (whose name I don't remember)
- Ryan was a disappointment. Though he started off with a lot of promise, in the end he never came through with what he said he would do and was MIA all night long.
- Justin was great. He was never far from the table, and handled our one problem quickly and without much fuss.
All in all, I'd definitely go back to Blush, and recommend it to anyone for a Tuesday night. Just make sure you're aware of the issues I mentioned above, and address it ahead of time.
), it was my first time negotiating a b1g1-type deal. Getting Skyy wasn't a big problem, I just wasn't expecting it. And yes, the ladies got Skyy. Even if they asked for Grey Goose, it generally went something like "Oh darn I already poured it, oh well!"
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