Champagne brunch parties fill void for dayclub crowd in off-season

By Ron Sylvester

Saturday, April 7, 2012 | 2 a.m.

As pool parties open across Las Vegas, owners of Lavo and Tao nightclubs at the Palazzo are still celebrating their success from what happened in the off-season.

Building off what the company had done a year earlier in New York City, Lavo offered an indoor Champagne brunch every Saturday. The owners found the brunches attracted a daytime party crowd similar to who packed the pools, even if they were dressed quite differently.

“It really was a dramatic success,” said Jason Strauss, co-owner of the Tao Group. “We were building off what we found in New York, where Saturday brunch day parties have really become a part of the culture there.”

People told Strauss it wouldn’t work in Vegas, because of the competition from the casinos. But just as the pools have turned night life into day life, the Lavo brunch drew an average of 500 to 600 people each week from October through March. More than 2,000 bottles of Champagne and LAVO Rose wine were sold during “brunch season.”

Flowered designer dresses replaced the bikinis of the poolside and skin-tight black of the night.

“It became like a fashion show,” Strauss said. “The women were dressing up in their finest daytime wear.”

Crowds began gathering around 2 p.m. with DJs jamming progressively louder during the afternoon. The club started with windows and doors open to allow in the daylight, but the shades were pulled after 3 p.m.

“Then it took on a real nightclub atmosphere in the middle of the day,” Strauss said.

Strauss isn’t sure whether the Champagne brunches in the off-season will catch on as the pool parties have.

“We’re in a unique situation in that we have both nightclubs and restaurants, and you really need that marriage of both under one company to make this work,” he said.

Strauss is certain about one thing: Lavo will do it again next year. He even plans to open the second floor when the pools close this October.