The Underground: New nightclub
The Bulletin’s Frequency blog has what looks to be an exclusive first look at Bend’s newest nightclub, The Underground. With lots of details, and pictures. Some pulls:
A new nightclub is opening in Bend, in the spot (under the Spotted Mule on Third Street) that used to house Club 97, which has been closed for six or seven years, depending on who you ask.
…they’ve said goodbye to Club 97’s “cowboy bar” look, Costa said, repainting walls and generally sprucing the place up. The team did some remodeling work to create a VIP area that has its own bar, seating area and outdoor/smoking spot. VIPs will pay a fee (that hasn’t yet been determined, McCutcheon said) and that will give them cover-free entrance to the club, a separate door to avoid lines, early notice about concerts and early opportunities to buy tickets, McCutcheon said.
The Underground has four bars and 18,000 square feet, of which about 15,000 is accessible to the public. There’s also about 2,500 square feet of outdoor space that’s open to the public, including an outdoor bar that’s sheltered from the weather. Club 97’s capacity was in the “upper 800s,” McCutcheon said, but the new owners have done some things to try to push that closer to 1,000.
The club’s size makes it one of the largest in Oregon, and comparable in size to the Showbox in Seattle and the Knitting Factory in Boise, McCutcheon said.
They plan to open Friday night featuring "local funk-rockers El Dante" and hope to attract all genres of music, whatever people are willing to pay for.
No word on drinks and menu pricing, other than prices will be "extremely competitive." Although they’re talking to the local microbreweries so that’s a good sign.
Should be interesting to see how a Club 97 nightclub replacement does in Bend right now. Has anyone caught any advertising? Particularly if they’re opening Friday, I’d expect to have heard something before now.
meh i really think that is a bad location to open a club like this. i’m all for venues opening that allow for good shows to come through, but i think anything away from downtown, especially on 3rd street (and in this case a rougher part of 3rd) is a recipe for disaster.
there was a lot of talk about it on craigslist. i didn’t realize it was gonna open this soon. they talked about having a shuttle to get people to and from the place. sounds to me like it could be kind of interesting…
i’m glad its away from downtown. Let’s get the congestion away from there.
The shots are short, short, short! The atmosphere is nice and spread out but the bouncers are behind every table so you really don’t get the breathing room you deserve. Also getting a very bad reputation for over serving and inciting fights that end with the gorilla-like bouncers taking you out back where there are no cameras and beating the crap out of you like in some kind of mob movie. Approximately a month ago a twenty-one year old young lady(TWENTY-ONE!!) got over served and ended up running over one of bouncers and finally getting a DUII. It is the bartender’s responsibility to quit serving anybody showing signs of intoxication! Word of mouth says that the clubs management says to never cut any of their patrons off. They just serve whiskey/cokes with just coke and charge their customers $8.00. This club is bad for Bend and should get their License to serve Liquor REVOKED ASAP!!!!!
How much is the covercharge?
There is no cover charge anymore unless there is live music. The bands play for the cover. As for the drink prices, we don’t even charge $8.00 for high end call whiskey, and I know for a fact that we are at least $1.00 cheaper than downtown for the jager/red bulls. We charge $7.00 and Boondocks charges $8.00. We serve a LEGAL shot here. If you are getting more somewhere else, then they are over serving you.
Our bouncers are here for a reason. To prevent the club from getting the reputation that Club 97 had, and for the safety of the patrons. They absolutely do NOT beat anyone up anywhere! These people are DPSST licensed security, they would have all of their expensive licenses revoked were this type of thing happening. The young lady you spoke of, came here from Timbers where they very much over-serve on Thursdays, which is the night of this incident, with their $2.50 u-call-it shots. She was served ONE drink here before our bartender cut her off. And as far as management telling bartenders to over serve, that is ridiculous as well. It is just as much the bartenders license on the line for over serving as the establishments, and all of our bartenders are experienced professionals who do not want to lose their licenses for any reason. And you are welcome to question any of our security who nightly cut people’s wristbands off so they can no longer be served.
We are here strictly because we felt Bend needed an indoor venue for concerts that could hold large numbers of people instead of the downtown bars that can only hold 50 at a time, playing different types of music. We are not here with the purpose in mind of causing harm to anyone.
Our location may not be the greatest, but it is not that bad, another reason we have security, so our patrons feel safe. It is only 5 minutes from one end of Bend to the other, not like a large city where it takes 30 minutes to get from one place to another. We did not feel location was that big of an issue, and hopefully the rest of Bend will support this new business, because after all, we hired some locals that needed jobs!
what is the age range?? im 18 an wanna see the place but dont know what the age requirments are.