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Who

If you're appalled by the bottle-service trend, direct your ire to David Sarner: The promoter and nightlife guru claims he pioneered the set-up at his clubs in the early 1990s. Now a certified nightlife geriatric (he's in his 40s), Sarner is still active on the scene as a co-owner of the clubs Pink Elephant and Cain.

Backstory

Sarner's resume reads like a comprehensive history of the city's nightlife scene, even if parts of it sound a bit suspicious. A native New Yorker, Sarner purports to have been a regular at the Mudd Club and CBGB's in the 1970s (when he would have been in his early teens) and supposedly got a job at the end of the decade as a doorboy at Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager's Studio 54. After a two and a half year stint at the legendary club, he worked the door at the Roxy, Limelight and Palladium, partnered in venues like the Surf Club, and worked as a freelance nightlife publicist. In 1995, he opened Spy Bar in SoHo, which was one of the most popular spots during the middle part of the decade, and later opened Chaos a few blocks away. In recent years, he's been a partner in Rehab, Pangaea, Pink Elephant, and Cain, and in 2006, he helped open Pink Elephant's Southampton outpost. His partners in his more recent ventures include Rocco Ancarola, David Cabo and David Graziano.

Of note

After decades in the business, Sarner is a clubland veteran, and he's intimately familiar with the tactics that keeps clubs filled and patrons' wallets open. He's credited with pushing bottle service in the mid-'90s at Chaos, which he says he initially set up as a way to make life easier for his waitresses who often had trouble passing through the club with a tray full of drinks. (It's since become standard practice, of course.) More recently, Sarner tried to push the concept even further: His "Spirit Tree" at Pink Elephant is a tableside bartender's station complete with multiple 50ml bottles of liquor, mixers, a recipe booklet, and a bartender's shaker.

Personal

Sarner married Renee Dominique in 2006. They live in the Village.