Michael H.
Yelp
Where do I start...
So I have been coming to the Doheny room for about 3 years now. At first, I loved it; the good vibe, fun people and the drinks were not outrageously overpriced. I had the same experience pretty much each of the times that I had come until a week ago, which is the first time I've been treated this way at any establishment in my life (maybe I've just been lucky).
So rewind to Thursday 10/25, I was staying in Beverly Hills on a mini-honeymoon staycation with my wife and we met up with a group of my family to go out for the evening that had been visiting from the east coast. After dinner, we went out in WeHo and a few were tired, including my wife so they all went back to the hotel. That left 6 of us remaining.
Two of my cousins and I left WeHo and arrived at Doheny around 12 am, We went to the bouncer out front, walked to the back (the downstairs was closed) and some guy who I assumed worked there full time asked for our IDs and let us up. I said, thanks and that I had a couple others coming and asked if I needed to come down and get them to which he replied no. We get a drink, hang out waiting for the other 3 of my cousins and I see a text message that says "this guy is being an a**hole and won't let us up".
I go downstairs, with my drink in hand, and I let the guy know that I just told him I had 3 others coming and that it wouldn't be an issue. So I asked what the problem was and he turns to me and says: "they didn't make the cut". I asked him what that means and he said: "look at them, they don't belong". Meanwhile, there are groups of questionably legal people dressed in sweats, oversized tees, and winter beanies just walking on through giving this guy high fives. By this time it was, 1 am and we couldn't go anywhere else so I made one final approach to the guy and asked him what it would take to get us back up there and he said: "Ummm, you can go back up, but if you want everyone to go up you will buy a table for $500". Needless to say, I passed on some choice words as I wasn't going to spend $500 for a table to get kicked out for closing time in 45min, so we called it a night.
Moral of the story, once a Doheny Room fan, now you'll never see me in there again. This wasn't a dress code, over-serving or capacity issue...this was blatant discrimination, not by gender, sex or race...but by who this guy thought was worthy to enter the bar for that night. Hey, when in LA, gotta take any ounce of power you have and run with it right? Wrong answer. The sad part is, it's probably an outside promoter rather than a Doheny Room employee, nonetheless, it's your responsibility and they represent your brand.
Don't worry Doheny Room, I've spread this little story around to every single person I know in LA. And sure you may not feel the effects of it, but at least people know what kind of mentality gets promoted behind the scenes.