We're in the process of finalizing our table for O Bar's Halloween event this year, and this got me reflecting on the complexity of this process. We still follow the post-lockdown protocol of reserving the table ahead of time by paying the full consumable fee up front, sending a list of our guests at the table, and then trusting everyone to secure their entrance on their own when they arrive at the bar. Not everyone does this, but we prefer to keep things clear. And now that I have a point of comparison in the form of Rampa's reservation process, I actually have more to write about.
This isn't a guide to booking at either bar. It's really more a comparison. And I guess this was also triggered by a TikTok video I came across where the guy was complaining that despite how expensive it is to go to O Bar, the bar itself has seen better days. And he's not entirely wrong - it's hard to justify the cost of going to the bar versus the state of the facilities. So there's a lot to reflect on.
O Bar - Decent Value, High Barrier to Entry
O Bar's post-lockdown pricing involves an entrance fee on most nights plus a consumable amount that can be applied to food or drinks. The entrance fee varies from zero on Thursdays to close to 2k during the really big event nights. In all cases, entrance tickets come with 3 mixers or 1 cocktail, which still works even if you're avoiding alcohol. (This becomes important later.) The consumable amount for walk-ins used to be 500, but has been reduced to 300 since the Iran-triggered fuel crisis. If you reserve a table, then the table consumable takes that part of your expenses for the night, and you secure a better way to host your group for the night. Sure, the tables are wobbly legacy pieces on their own, and chairs and stools are a bit of a premium commodity that are best secured by going earlier than others. But it still beats standing around with your drink in your hand all night.
A lot of friends complain that reserving a table ahead of time can be tricky, and these stories come up too often for me to dismiss. We work with our regular waiter to book tables, but everyone else has to go through the Facebook page or the phone number listed on the photos. I still advise first-timers to go through official channels first; then, if they still can't book a table, I offer to intervene just to give O Bar reservations a chance. I've yet to confirm whether they have more success with the phone number or the Facebook page, so that's something to consider.
When you get past the reservation hurdle, or you just walk in, then things are a bit more straightforward at the bar. You pay for entrance up front and get your blue ticket (entrance drinks) and possibly a white ticket (walk-in consumable), and then find your waiter. Everyone has name tags on, so it really pays to build a relationship over time, as later on that'll make reservations a lot easier. The bouncers cannot take your orders, but they can try to help you find your waiter as the night gets crazier. The more flexible consumable amount makes it easier for non-alcoholic guests to still enjoy the night and experience an amazing show. Plus, a lot of the menu items are really good, so no need to use all your consumables on alcohol.
I wish O Bar had a smarter social media presence to better promote just how good the shows are, but you can tell that they don't really think digitally in that manner. And the bar itself really is showing its age, and no amount of painting over will give things a more premium feeling when the bathrooms are a less-than-ideal experience. At least they still carry Stoli, our preferred vodka brand. For some reason, none of the drag bars I cover in this blog post have that particular vodka on the menu.
Rampa - Socially Savvy, Secretly Expensive
Rampa has a much stronger social presence with regular pre- and post-event publicity materials and people actively manning their social media inboxes. Their reservation process is mostly easy to work with, given that their entrance ticket rates are clearly printed on each poster and their social media team will walk you through the steps. It gets a little complicated for particular special events that are handled by a different production team, so that can lead to separate Google Forms for the entrance ticket, but you still deal with the bar for table reservations. And through all this, they keep the menus hidden from public view for some reason. You won't find listings online or on their social pages, but you can DM about it, and you'll get a link to a Google Drive-hosted collection of images that aren't collected in a deck or a PDF.
Entrance fees are similar to O Bar, but only come with one drink. The night we went there, that one drink came from a list of only 4 options, including a bottle of water. So that's a little tricky unless the value of a bottle of water is the same as a rum-coke. Table reservation fees are also quite low, even when they scale up for busier weekend nights. But that gets a little silly when any table reservation requires you to get a full liquor bottle as part of your order. If you stick to one of their small cocktail tables that don't come with stools, then the price of a bottle will be about double what you pay to reserve the table. That means you'll spend more for a small table once you factor in mixers and food - and this assumes that you drink.
I said I'd get back to the point about what you can use your consumable for, and here we are. A lot of Rampa's patrons are Drag Race fan girls, as in literal girls, many of whom barely drink alcohol, if at all. So for them to go to Rampa, they're forced to buy a bottle they may not drink and then spend, on top of that, for what they'll actually consume during the night. It's a real shame that they do this, as it feels oddly hostile to the girls who make up a significant portion of their regular customers. They might as well just increase the consumable amount and leave it up to the patrons to figure out what to spend on in order to make the same amount of money. That assumes money is the goal - it's more likely an obligation to show the liquor brands that they can move more product through the bar, or something like that.
We're bound to go back, as it's still the best way to see the likes of Precious Paula Nicole perform for a full night again. But we have to map it out ahead of time since it's so far, costs us more, and still feels like foreign territory.
SpectRoom - Up Front Info, Shows Promise
Bonus round - we haven't actually gone to SpectRoom yet, but it's something I've been considering in order to see more drag beyond O Bar. What I appreciate thus far is how they have a very clear pinned Facebook post with their full table map and price packages per table and a separate post with their full menu. If these rates are still accurate, it looks like the tables also come with a variable consumable fee that can be used for different things. What's also interesting is how the highest-priced VIP tables also come with entrance tickets - something you don't see with other bars that still require entrance on top of table fees. Overall, the pricing structure feels pretty generous, and I just hope the actual experience matches that.
I'm keeping tabs on them in case there's a particular event night that might mark a good opportunity to explore the bar. We know at least one of the queens who performs there regularly, and it would be nice to see her on stage again. Should we get around to trying them out, I'll definitely blog about it, and maybe swing back to this post to update the comparison.
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