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Feel like drowning your recession sorrows? There are a whole lot of
San Diego nightspots practically lining up to buy the first round.

Commonly perceived as recession-proof – who doesn't want to knock one
back when times get tough? – many area nightclubs, bars and lounges are
seeing the same hefty sales declines that have plagued their more-staid
restaurant brethren in recent months.

Among those hardest hit are the nightspots that soared highest in
boom economic times, the swank nightclubs that offered $300 bottle
service and the trendy watering holes in ritzy boutique hotels.

Which means with a little logistic ingenuity, a resilient liver, and
a designated driver, it's possible on almost any day of the week to
hopscotch from La Jolla to downtown's Gaslamp Quarter, imbibing premium
cocktails or several draft beers and filling up on discounted appetizers
or free food buffets, for as little as $15.

For instance, at Hillcrest's glitzy Universal nightclub, which opened
in April as the recession was warming up, management is advertising a
“first drink on us” for customers who come to the club this month.

At downtown's exclusive Ivy Hotel, where a Grey Goose vodka martini
goes for about $15, the hotel's Quarter Kitchen bar began last month to
offer its first ever happy hour – dubbed the “Happier Hour” – complete
with the same martini for $5 most evenings between 5 and 9 p.m.

And at Clay's La Jolla, a penthouse lounge and restaurant with
panoramic ocean views, chef Clay Bordan began serving up an expanded
happy hour value menu last week, washed down with $4 well drinks or a $3
large draft beer.

“More people are checking out the happy hours because they are on a
budget,” said Brad Nemire, founder and publisher of San Diego's Happy
Hour magazine. “And there are a lot of cheap deals out there now, so
this is the time to explore places where before you might have flinched
at the prices.”

Indeed, some of the deals verge on “panic”
marketing, and in the end may damage brand images and help push weak
nightclub and bar operators into bankruptcy, some industry experts
caution.

“If I were to drink, this would be my paradise
right now,” said James Sinclair, principal of Onsite Consulting, a Los
Angeles firm that specializes in turnarounds for insolvent or troubled
nightclubs, bars and restaurants. “But one has to ask who is doing the
cost-benefit analysis, because at a certain point these operators are
giving everything away.

“Clubs are shooting from the hip with marketing
efforts, doing whatever they can to get people through the door, from $3
shots to free nightclub entry and champagne for groups of girls,”
Sinclair said. “A lot of people are being forced into emergency measures
for emergency times, which is the actual reason for eventual failure –
panic.”

For some nightspots, particularly those in areas that have relied
heavily on tourists and business travelers to belly up to the bar, happy
hours, coupons, two-for-one appetizers and other promotions are a way to
woo a new customer base – the locals.

Tourism is expected to drop precipitously in coming months, and
forecasts, which have been revised downward frequently, now peg the
decline in local hotel occupancy at at least 7 percent this year.

With that kind of drop in out-of-town dollars, downtown hotels, bars
and nightclubs are “getting very creative” in efforts to lure locals,
said Jimmy Parker, executive director of downtown's Gaslamp Quarter
Association.

“We're seeing spa specials to locals, staycation packages, and places
that never had happy hours are doing happy hours,” Parker said.

Last month, Maloney's Tavern, a workaday bar on Fifth Avenue, began
offering an all-day special called “The Bailout” – either a $2 draft or
a $2 shot.

“We thought customers should be able to order it anytime because
everyone is hurting all the time,” said Dan Long, general manager of
Maloney's.

To market its first-ever Happier Hour, the Ivy Hotel on F Street sent
mailers to residents of the downtown 92101 ZIP code, e-mailed its
customer list and placed banner ads on its Web site.

Jessica Cline, a spokeswoman for the Ivy Hotel, said the response has
been good.

“We've been able to reach a different clientele, locals who feel like
they can come to the hotel and the Quarter Kitchen bar and have an
upscale experience without breaking their wallets,” Cline said. “It gets
people to think of the Ivy in a more accessible way.”

Of course, not every bar and club needs to reinvent itself or launch
a new program to keep customers coming through the doors. Some
moderately priced nightspots are seeing little change in revenue, in
part because they've always offered value and have loyal working-class
customers with little or no stock portfolio to be beaten down in the
market.

Daniel Drayne, owner of The Field, an Irish pub on Fifth Street, said
revenue was up 7 percent last year over 2007 – the second best year
since the pub opened in 1998.

And Drayne doesn't credit the luck of the Irish.

“We've always been good value, we've always had specials, coupons,
happy hour, no cover to get through the door,” Drayne said. “It's the
fine dining places and the expensive clubs that have been hit hard.

“People want a place to go where they can slip in for a drink or two,
get an appetizer – without feeling like they have to stay all evening
because they spent a couple of hundred dollars for bottle service.”

Penni Crabtree: (619) 293-1237;

penni.crabtree@uniontrib.com

Penni
Crabtree: (619) 293-1237; (Contact)

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