RoofTop killed Vibe; the classic case of a "restaurant group" cannibalizing their own businesses. The Restaurant people will open a diner concept at this location.
Review 2/3/13
Before VIBE opened, there was much hope. The legendary O'Hara's had just closed, and there was a void in the neighborhood; the place where you could always stop in for some good live music was gone. I had my issues with O'Hara's; mostly the smoke. But it was the go-to place on Thursdays, even if Randi and the Bluenotes were there every week playing the same exact sets over and over.
VIBE is owned by the same people who own YOLO, and there were only rumors about what it was going to be. The word was that it would be a "Music Venue", so the hope was that it would be a viable replacement for O'Hara's. Some believed that it would be a Blue Martini type venue; a nice place to hang out with a stage and live music.
But when Vibe opened, it was somewhat disappointing. Another swanky Karen Hanlon design that lacked function. There was no stage; no place for a band to play. Very limited seating. A big fire pit area. It was much smaller than most expected.
As with most neighborhood places, for a few weeks it was a local curiosity. The place was crawling with what we referred to as "cheerleaders"; girls in white, low cut outfits. Girls behind the bar; boobs galore; girls running around trying to take drink orders. Too aggressive; reminiscent of Rare when it first opened. The strategy of using pretty girls to get local guys to overpay for stuff doesn't work on Las Olas.
As a music venue, the place was an abject failure. For more than a year, unappealing acts played for audiences composed of no more than the artist's girlfriend and family. Flamenco guitarists, bands nobody ever heard of before. The artists would play on these little squares they set up in the corner of the room. It was just sad.
They opened at 7pm for a long, long time. And there was never anyone there before 10pm. Almost a year ago, I questioned why they were continuing with the delusion that this was anything other than a late night venue for the after-hours crowd.
In the beginning, you could go there on a Thursday and the best looking girls in town would be there. But there was never anything going on here; a lot of people just standing around; sitting on bed borders. When they first opened you could go into the fire pit area and sit; but after a period of time, sitting in an actual seat required a bottle purchase or something. The velvet ropes where up and regular people weren't allowed in any longer.
This place is one of those deals where the owners have no idea what it is; it's not about providing a quality addition to the neighborhood; it's about raking in cash. They handed off the marketing to club people, who do their marketing by promoting DJs that nobody not in the club circuit understands. So when your marketing people have mailing lists filled with stupid people, stupid people will eventually overrun your venue.
My last visit to Vibe was more like a trip to the circus. The gogo dancers were the first sign of trouble. Good Grief, Vibe, what happened to you?
You used to be able to just walk into the front of Vibe, but now there's a roped entrance on the sidewalk, and there's always a line. I just love waiting on a line when a place is empty. Luckily there's no cover.
Inside, the place is packed with busboys and servers who've just gotten off of their shifts at nearby restaurants and the kind of guys who wear a ball cap backwards. It's dark inside, with loud dance music blaring. The bartenders are now Dudes from Wilton Manors.
More scary than the GoGo dancers outside are the Sailor Girl dancers inside. I was lucky enough to get a salute as I snapped a photo.
VIBE reminds me of a Shiny Automatic Slims, where you'd just go in, look around, and be glad that there wasn't a cover. But there were always a lot of hot babes at Automatic Slims, and they had the bartenders on the bar thing going on. Vibe is a place where slimy guys go trolling for warm bodies.
One thing that remains the same is that Vibe is a late night crowd. They now open at 8:30, but the place is dead empty at 9:30. Get there before 10:30 if you must have a stool at the bar.
Vibe claims to be the only "Ultra Music Lounge" in Fort Lauderdale. Well if you're going to make things up, I guess you can be the only one; there's no such thing as far as I can tell. Kaos and Tokyo Blue also claim to have an "UltraLounge". I guess that means that it's clubby with music.
While there are plenty of places in Fort Lauderdale that I don't care for and that are just ignored by most people, Vibe is different. Vibe has changed the atmosphere downtown. It's hard to consider downtown Fort Lauderdale as "sophisticated" when you have a plaza filled with club people. We have police details downtown now hanging in the streets, and some of the crowd will invariably overflow into nearby restaurants. Tough guys coming over and starting fights at the Royal Pig.
I can only think about how cool it would be if Vibe was more like a modern O'Hara's and less like Automatic Slims.
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