Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2001 | 8:17 a.m.
As the clock strikes midnight, the V Bar lounge at the Venetian is winding up.
A line has formed behind the velvet ropes at the entrance of the 6-week-old bar and snakes around the opaque glass wall that encapsulates the front of the lounge. The women with coifed 'dos and men in slacks and blazers who wait to get in peer through thin, clear-glass lines in the wall.
They all want to know what's inside.
Jesse London of San Diego was in town recently for the Consumer Electronics Show with her boyfriend, Justin Maclaurin.
"We were looking for a place to eat and this looked cool," she said. "There is a certain mystique to it with the frosted glass. You think, whats in there?"
After settling in on the big padded stools along the wooden bar, the pair found the club to be comfortable, subdued and worthy of people watching.
The room holds 210 people and fills up quickly around 11 p.m. most nights, hence the line outside. As people leave, the doorman raises the rope to let more well-dressed people in line into the cavernous club.
"It's a place to have appetizers and think about what we are going to do later," London said. "It's an appetizer for the evening."
Deep, white-leather couches line the main floor of the L-shaped bar. Tucked in the corner, close to the disc jockeys who mix the background music, are large booths where a party of people can sit comfortably and lounge in the orange glow emitting from the decor and light fixtures.
The mellow mood is more lounge than nightclub. There is no dance floor and no flashing lights. Instead, a steady techno beat falls from speakers around the room, and light from the Venetian's casino nearby is diffused through the opaque wall for a soft effect.
It's a cosmopolitan look, Ketil Hegg, a visitor from Norway, said. He was searching for a little of Las Vegas' club scene to complement his second business trip to the city. V Bar has an international feel to it, more substance than flash, he said, which is more than what he expected from the themed-casino atmosphere he had experienced.
"I wanted to see what was beyond the velvet ropes, what's inside," Hegg said. "I expected class, good atmosphere, good music and it's here. It's not like a regular club. It's curious."
That's just what the owners are aiming for at their new Las Vegas bar and lounge.
V Bar partners David Rabin and Will Regan, from New York, wanted a West-Coast version of their ultra-exclusive Lotus bar in Manhattan, where customers wait behind velvet ropes to get in to the 12,000-square-foot club and mingle with such regulars as George Clooney and Madonna.
However, unlike the large dance clubs such as Lotus, the MGM Grand's Studio 54 and Ra at the Luxor, Rabin said they wanted a casual-yet-upscale club, with music that doesn't thump and blare.
Rabin and Regan joined with Los Angeles club guru Brad Johnson, from the chic Sunset Room, to find a spot for a new, more mellow and grown-up lounge for the jet set.
"We'd looked at L.A. a million times," Rabin said. "We felt like Las Vegas was a city that was hospitable to nightlife. It never closes." (Even though V Bar does. It is open from 4 p.m.-4 a.m.)
The trio toured existing nightclubs in Las Vegas to see what was hot and, more specifically, what was not.
"We are not meant to be competing with rumjungle (Mandalay Bay) or C2K (Venetian) or Studio 54," Rabin said. "We are trying to appeal to a customer who wants a fun, sexy place. Not people looking for a high-energy techno (scene) all night, but a sexy place to meet someone for a date."
Though the place is open for business, V Bar's official grand opening has not been scheduled. Meanwhile a $50,000 light fixture is set to be installed next week, which will complete its design phase.
Rabin, Regan and Johnson designed V Bar to look expensive, but not intimidating. They have yet to decide on the design of the wait staff's uniforms, but have narrowed the choices to outfits by DKNY and Diesel clothing designers. In the meantime the bar staff wears basic black.
The savvy business partners didn't think it would be easy, but they are counting on their reputation and their instincts to make V Bar a very hot spot.
"It's hard to come (to Las Vegas) as outsiders and tell people that we are cool guys and you should come to our bar," Rabin said. "But I think that people in town will make up their own minds."
Richard Kline, publisher of the lifestyle magazine Surface, plans to host a cocktail reception at V Bar in February for friends and clients. He chose the V Bar, he said, because it reflects the image he wants the magazine to portray -- hip, hot and haute.
"It's the newest venue in Las Vegas and, with the exception of a handful of other spots, it's reminiscent of what is going on in major cities right now in terms of music, style, fashion," Kline said.
Akashia (she uses one name) is a consultant and general manager of V Bar. She was hired to train V Bar's wait staff and host VIP parties, with guests from executives to celebrities.
"We want it to be intimate, fun," she said.
The British-born Akashia came to V Bar through hot spots in New York. Akashia started out as a law student in Oxford, England, in the early 1990s and "fell into bartending," she said.
She eventually opened her own bar and became a consultant for such trendy clubs as NV in the Hamptons in New York and Chaos, in New York City, and most recently at Lotus. Her job is to bring to life the ideas Rabin, Regan and Johnson have put on paper.
"They wanted a chilled-out lounge scene, very warm and comfortable," Akashia said.
Part of that comfy feeling is the service, she said.
"I never say my girls serve anyone. They take care of people," Akashia said. "It's like how you would treat a guest in your home. Nothing is too much trouble."
Akashia regularly handles celebrities and large crowds of movers and shakers from the entertainment community.
"The thing with celebrities is that they want to be pampered or on the DL (down low)," she said, referring to stars who don't want to be recognized. "That's why they come to the V Bar."
No matter what happens on a particular night the staff is prepared to please -- and at V Bar, Akashia said, that could mean anything. The rock band No Doubt came in to the V Bar on a recent evening for a few drinks and some laughs.
"(Lead singer) Gwen Stefani, she was really quiet but the rest of the group was dancing on the tables," she said. "All I do is make sure they get what they want."
That sentiment, she said, is for anyone, well-known or otherwise, who waits in line behind the velvet ropes to experience the intimate setting of the V Bar.
By midnight the buzz from conversations nearly drowns out the music.
Doug Klapp from Phoenix came into the V Bar around 9 p.m. on a recent night to meet friends before going out to dance.
As the hours ticked away -- and his friends failed to show -- Klapp was content to sip his Guinness beer. He was not lacking for service -- the bartender was very attentive, he said. Meanwhile the line to get into the bar grew.
Friends or not, this was the place to be, he said.
"Nobody can see in and that makes everybody want to know what's in here, who's in here," Klapp said. He pointed to the shadows of onlookers behind the opaque glass wall as they tried to get a glimpse of what was happening inside.
"I'm in here," he said. "I like it that no one can see what you are doing, but you can see the line waiting to get in and feel sort of cool."
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