Columnist Jerry Fink: In clubs, MGM Grand has a full house

Friday, June 24, 2005 | 8:18 a.m.

The MGM Grand has hit the trifecta of nightclubs.

Studio 54. Teatro. Tabu.

The 6,000-square-foot Tabu opened in February 2003 and ignited the ultra-lounge craze -- chic saloons where the ultra-beautiful can socialize in ultra-elegant surroundings highlighted by DJ music.

Almost every casino now has one -- OPM at the Forum Shops in Caesars Palace, Plush at Ramparts, Tangerine at the Treasure Island, to name a few.

Teatro is billed as a Euro Bar.

"It's more of a hiding place," said Bill Milner, executive director of nightclubs for MGM. "It has a dance floor and some great visuals."

Candace Carrell, director of nightclubs, says you don't have to have a reservation to get into Teatro, but if you don't have one you might find it tough to get a seat.

"It's much smaller than the other clubs," she said. "We've kept it elegant and extremely sexy and romantic. It's a couples bar."

And then there is the granddaddy of mega nightclubs in Las Vegas, and arguably in the United States -- the 22,000-square-foot Studio 54: the club with a storied history that was founded in New York in 1977.

The original owners, indicted on tax evasion and other charges, closed the venue in 1980, but new owners opened it in '82 and kept it going until '86.

MGM bought the rights to Studio 54 (whose original location is now an off-Broadway theater, the Roundabout Theatre Company).

Surprisingly, fewer than 10 years ago Vegas was a desert when it came to great clubs for the younger crowds to cut loose.

There were after-hours clubs, such as Drai's, but for the most part, casinos were content with lounges (Cleopatra's Barge at Caesars; Casbar at the Sahara, among others) and with the bars stuck in the middle of the room where gamblers could have a drink while taking a break.

Then came Studio 54, Ra at the Luxor and Club Rio at the Rio.

"These three set the standards for nightclubs in the hotel environment as we know it today," Milner said. "We did things hotels didn't want to do before -- they just wanted to focus on gaming."

Milner said the transition was slow.

Tuesday night at Studio 54 is dubbed EDEN -- Erotically Delicious Entertainers Night (a night when locals get in free).

"Using the word 'erotic' was difficult nine years ago," Milner said. "It was a hard sell to use the word in our advertising -- this is an example of what it was like when we started; now, we see the word all over the place."

Since those days almost a decade ago, Milner says Vegas has become a great nightclub city -- "It is absolutely booming."

"We are becoming a nightclub destination," Milner said. "New York wants to bring their clubs to Las Vegas because they know this is the best place to bring a nightclub."

Unwilling to rest on its laurels, Studio 54 is undergoing some renovations -- three of the four bars have been redone, and the fourth, in the balcony VIP area, eventually will be changed.

A magnificent new entry will be constructed in the next few months.

"Every club needs change to stay new," Milner said.

There are theme nights, such as Doll House Thursdays, when artists paint the bodies of a couple of female dancers.

Once a month, for Open Forum, performers from Strip shows drop by and jam with the band Uberschall (which is made up of members of Blue Man Group). This month, starting at about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, guests will include Tim Alexander of Primus, Knucklehead Zoo, Stephane Boko, Mario D'Loe, Elvis Lederer, DJ Javier Alba, DJ Destro and other Las Vegas show personalities.

"We continue to do special events," Milner said. "With all the competition in the city, we need to continuously come up with special little things so that people will be curious and want to come check things out."

One of the more recent developments on the club scene is bottle service.

Guests at Studio 54 may buy a bottle of alcohol, starting at around $250. Drinks from the bottle are mixed at their table by their own personal server.

Tabs may run over $1,000 for the bottle service.

"It's about hosting your own parties inside the nightclub," Carrell said. "You are the host.

"You are paying for the bottle and the service, but mainly you are paying for the party area so you don't have to stand in line."

Milner said the bottle service craze started in Japan and made its way to Europe, New York and, finally, Vegas.

"It's standard throughout the industry, not just here in Las Vegas," he said.

The high prices don't frighten fans.

About 600,000 guests visit the club annually.

"And it's been steady for eight years," Milner said.

Studio 54 has been so successful that MGM is planning to license its name and export it to other countries.

"The first would be in Berlin, Germany," Milner said.

They also are looking at possible locations in London, Paris, Barcelona and Dubai.

The contract in Berlin is still being negotiated, but Milner says he's confident the club soon will open.

"Berlin is where the party, the rave scene began in the early '80s -- and they are still ready to party all the time," Carrell said. "It's a very nightclub-oriented city -- there was a huge change once the wall came down. Now it's exploding. They're trying to redo everything, Americanize everything.

"They're ready for the great nightclub experience."

Lounging around

Vocalist Teddy Davey performs at Maggiano's Little Italy inside Fashion Show mall from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.

Davey is an original cast member of "Tony and Tina's Wedding" at the Rio and a former gondolier at the Grand Canal Shoppes in The Venetian.

He recently performed in the Stardust's interactive musical dinner show, "Ba-Da-Bing."

Rampart's Addison's Lounge, in The Resort at Summerlin, will feature the dance band Touch of Silk from 8 p.m. to midnight tonight and Saturday. Next week Cornell Gunter's Coasters will perform.

The ever-popular Huck Daniels Revue will perform at Roxy's Lounge, inside Sam's Town, from 10:30 p.m. to 4 a.m. July 1-2, and 9:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. July 3.