Latest Trendy Spot for Club Set Is Getting Old to the Neighbors

From the start, the Sunset Boulevard nightspot was known among regulars on the club circuit as the hottest in Los Angeles. Some say maybe too hot.

Madonna came opening night. So did George Michael. Since February, just about anyone whose name has been on a music video or movie marquee recently seems to have turned up at b.c., the trendy club at 7561 Sunset Blvd.

The owners, who included some of the same people responsible for M.K., a fashionable New York supper club, brought in a chef from another Manhattan restaurant. They installed a state-of-the-art sound system and waited for the New Hollywood clientele to flock in.

The club was an instant success. But in a city where the life expectancy of even the trendiest underground club is rarely more than brief, b.c.’s place at the pinnacle appears threatened after only seven weeks.

The Los Angeles Police Department has cited the club for operating a dance hall illegally, and has recommended that the Police Commission deny the owners’ request for a dance permit. Citing noise and traffic, angry neighbors say the club has turned their neighborhood into a “combat zone.” Their aim is to have it shut down.

“The day it opened, the owners sent us hand-delivered messages saying how they were going to do all these wonderful things to be a good neighbor, and that night all hell broke loose,” said Bohdan Zachary, whose home is half a block from the club. “Since then, we’ve spent our weekends living under siege.”

While the owners insist the dancing was legal, they have nonetheless suspended all dancing there. They say they will focus instead on obtaining a liquor license.

“We never really wanted to be a discotheque in the first place,” said Andre Balazs, a general partner. “It just sort of happened, and it became so popular so fast that things got out of control.”

Balazs and the other owners say they want to convert the popular establishment to a supper club featuring a jazz pianist and occasionally even avant-garde opera. “We think we can be even more hip by going that route,” Balazs said. “We’re looking for a slightly older, more sophisticated clientele.”

But he acknowledges that unless the club can patch things up with its neighbors, even their new plans may be in jeopardy, since the neighbors say they intend to try and persuade the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to deny the liquor license.

Hearing Not Set

A hearing on the matter has not been set.

“I think it’s going to be hard to operate a sophisticated supper club serving cranberry juice,” said Ron Bernstein, one of the residents opposed to the license. “If they have problems, they have only themselves to blame.”

He and others say that since b.c. opened, operating from Thursdays through Sundays, residents have been plagued by the sounds of late night loitering, sex acts, breaking bottles and cars speeding up and down their streets. And they are skeptical about the club’s new strategy.

Authorities cited b.c. on four occasions for allowing dancing without a permit. Last month, the Fire Department closed down the club and temporarily suspended its fire permit after citing it for overcrowding a second time.

In its report to the Police Commission, investigators said that on several occasions they were solicited by prostitutes outside the club. Officers said they witnessed patrons leave the premises to use cocaine “next to and within vehicles” parked nearby. They also said they observed patrons smuggling liquor inside, as well as discarding liquor bottles on people’s lawns.

While acknowledging that there have been problems, co-owner Bret Witke insists that neighbors have exaggerated the incidents.

“The whole thing (criticism) is coming from a few people who for some reason don’t want to let us dance,” said Witke, 27, who oversees the club’s daily operations.

The “b” in b.c. derives from his first name. The “c” is for his former partner, Chris Daggett, who died in January of what the Los Angeles County coroner’s office determined was a drug overdose.

Differing Accounts

Witke and Balazs insist that dancing at b.c. was legal, claiming that on each occasion it occurred while a private party was being held there.

But b.c.’s critics tell a different story, accusing the club of routinely charging $10 a person at the door for people who came to dance, as opposed to eating in the restaurant.

“I know a private party when I see one, and I know an admission charge when I see one, too,” said Kate Mitchell, who said she and her husband paid to dance at the club last month. “I don’t think the private party business holds and they know it.”

On a normally busy Saturday, disappointed party-goers left in droves after being told at the door that there would be no dancing until the club’s problems were straightened out.

Only people with dinner reservations were allowed inside.

However, patrons were few after 10 p.m., when previously the crowd would have only begun to assemble.

And toward midnight, only a few cars remained on a parking lot that is usually filled to overflowing.

“I can’t believe it,” said one woman, leading a party of four, upon being told the news. “We flew all the way from New York just to come here.”