Entertainment

What inspires someone to spend $1,000 on alcohol in a night?

For Cory Toombs, a Dallas hairdresser and self-described trust-fund kid, it's mostly convenience.

Purchasing bottle service, industry lingo for a rented table and a few pricey bottles of liquor, means he skips the bar lines. And he can invite pretty women on the dance floor to join his group.

"When it gets busy, it's really easy for us to sit down and enjoy ourselves," says Mr. Toombs, 26, who was hanging out recently at Dolce, a new downtown lounge. "Plus we like to do it a little big. We like to spend money."

Bottle service, a European import that trickled to both coasts before surfacing here, has transformed the local night-life scene. Every upscale club banks on it. Chic lounges plan their layouts around it.

For the night-life masses, it means you usually can't sit down in a nice club for free.

"You're paying for the experience," says Sam Sameni, who owns Wish Ultra Lounge, a bottle-service-driven club in Knox-Henderson. "You have this imaginary boundary between you and everyone else, and you have your own space."

Most Dallas clubs charge between $300 and $350 for bottle service, which includes one bottle of liquor, mixers and the table. Each table has its own cocktail waitress and sometimes a guard who stands watch.

Club owners say the practice is cost-efficient for customers, because premium cocktails cost anywhere from $8 to $12.

Adam Evers, who at 27 owns three medical companies, says he and his friend Tom Barber buy bottle service as much as they can at Dolce, Suite, Clear, Wish. When asked if women like it, Mr. Evers gives an "Are you kidding?" look.

"We're like Baskin and Robbins," he says. "We've got 31 flavors. Make sure you quote me on that."Why so pricey?

Tim McEneny, who owns Lift and Obar, says a one-liter bottle serves 22 drinks in the standard amount of 11/2 ounces of liquor per shot. If bought separately at the bar, that many drinks would cost at least $176, estimating each cocktail at $8. The extra goes toward the mixers, staff members and space to sit down, he says.

Dancers enjoy the music at Club Minc, which plans to add bottle service in the next two weeks.

"If you're buying a bottle of Grey Goose, and most places charge $9 or $10 per glass, you're looking at upwards of $200 or $220, what you'd get paying at the bar anyway," Mr. McEneny says. "The experience of what you're doing to sit down, that's an extra $100. ... And it gets all your mixers, two staff members ... if you break it down that way, it doesn't feel or sound as bad when you hear it."

Thanks, but no thanks

Not everyone who can afford bottle service buys it. Garret Kent, a 26-year-old MBA student in Fort Worth, says he prefers the open atmosphere of bars such as the Loon and Idle Rich. Mr. Kent used to be a sales rep for an energy company. "If you're doing it on a Saturday night in Dallas, that means you're also maybe cutting out some of your best friends, just because they can't afford it," he says. "I like being able to hang out with all the people I truly care about, no matter how much they make or what they do."

New places for bottle service

• Minc, a laid-back club in Exposition Park, starts bottle service in the next two weeks after six years in business. Owner Julie Campbell says she's simply responding to requests.

• Dragonfly at Hotel ZaZa started bottle service this month. Some of the tables sit on a frosted Plexiglas sheet over the pool.

• Industry Bar in Addison has what it calls blue-collar bottle service for $50: a choice of well liquors served with four plastic cups.