Olè Lounge – Double Booked then Ejected

It seemed innocent enough, a Craigslist posting by Mitch Gundogdu, the owner/operator of “Olè Lounge”.  I answered the ad via e-mail and received an e-mail back the next day from Mitch.  He explained that they were holding “interviews”, so I decided to call to make sure some old premonitions about “interviews” still didn’t hold true.

These are three items that usually have been overlooked in the past.  I took a look at Olè’s website and saw that it has a long history of being a Tapas Bar.  Now, while traditional Tapas are bar food, that are served “tableless”; the more americanized version of Tapas is a small-plate, shareable, sit-down concept.  I’ve done nights in the past at so called “lounges” with food, and have had a clash of crowds.  Of course if you are expecting to eat dinner, you don’t want blasting music and lights, and likewise if you are going to drink & dance, you don’t want your dance floor covered with tables & diners.

I asked Mitch a couple things over the phone…

• Do you still serve food? Are you a restaurant with an identity crisis
• Are you looking for a DJ, or a promoter?
• Have you looked at my website?

Mitch told me that none of that would be a problem, his establishment had stopped serving food and they wanted to get away from the stigma of being a “Tapas Restaurant”.  He also assured me that while he expects his DJs to self-promote, which I do, he isn’t looking for anybody to draw a crowd to pack the house, because he has promoters for that (rightfully so).  I liked what Mitch had to say, so we setup a meeting for that Friday night.

That Friday I stopped into Olè Lounge after work to talk to Mitch.  He seemed like a very straight-forward guy and I was very truthful and told him about what I do, my background/history, and that while I can build a night, I am not a promoter than can fill a club on a moments notice.  We seemed to look at things eye-to-eye and set an audition date for Friday, December 11 from 9p-1030pm.

The weekend past and Monday came, I received a text-message from Mitch asking me to come to meeting at the Lounge at 9pm, to meet all the other DJ’s & Promoters.  I obliged and showed up at 9pm.  I met that night with Alex, the head promoter, along with Sam & Roger (supposedly the other DJ’s for Friday Night).  According to the details we discussed there was going to be 4 DJ’s Friday night, so my timeslot was to be reduced to 9-945pm, which I was fine with because it was told me upfront and it was an audition anyways.  We also discussed that Sam would be providing CD Decks & Mixer with Serato, so all I would need to bring is my headphones and music on a USB Key.

Friday night I showed up right on time at 9pm, walked up the stairs and into the lounge, there was a small crowd beginning to gather, but something seemed weird…there was no background music.  Usually if I open a night, the venue will usually have some sort of background music playing.  As I approached the booth I saw that there was no equipment hooked up in the booth because Sam hadn’t arrived yet.  Finally, at 9:30pm the booth had been setup.

To my confusion, another DJ went on at 9:30, but I didn’t think anything of it, considering that the club was 30 minutes late getting started.  At about 10:00pm neither Mitch or Sam had said anything to me, so I approached Sam about my time slot and was told that Mitch had brought in another DJ (his “boy”) and that I needed to talk to Mitch.

Mitch was standing near the front door, so I went to confront him about the scheduling issue.  I asked him “What’s up with the scheduling, it looks like you double-booked my time slot?”  Apparently calling his scheduling into question offended Mitch, he started to become belligerent and start yelling in my face to “Respect Him.”  I told him that he had lost any respect he earned when he double-booked me, and called me in for a meeting on Monday which wasted a total of 4 hours of my time.  I asked him to step outside so we could talk about and settle our problems, and he refused, instead having me escorted out by a bouncer.

Apparently there are a couple things that the yelp reviews hold true about Olè Lounge…

• Mitch is a complete douchebag who has no idea how to run a business, and apparently I am not the first person to notice
• The drinks are completely watered down (Hey, the reason your Cranberry & Vodka is Blood Red is because there is no VODKA in it!), and the waitresses could care less about serving you
• Apparently, Olè Lounge is doing a horrible job at getting away from being a “Tapas Restaurant” because they still have customers coming in for food, which creates the “identity crisis” atmosphere and alienates both the dinner crowd & club crowd.

Before I decided to write this post, I wanted to contact Mitch to see if he had an explanation for his mishap & actions that Friday night, so I sent him a text message….

Just wondering if you have anything to say about friday night.  I don’t want to post anything on my blog before you have a fair chance at a rebuttal…

Mitch responded…

Yeah…fuck off.  Write that bro

You’ve outdone yourself again, Mitch Gundogdu, way to stay professional and classy.  Its no wonder your customers complain about they way they are treated in your establishment.

DJ Meltdown is a 16 year veteran club DJ who has performed at many venues on the east coast and throughout Illinois, for booking please use the form located here.

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• Alpha Entertainment - Chicago, IL | DJ Meltdown March 30, 2010 at 11:00 am

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