Say goodbye to the Playboy Club — again.
After just one year in business, the owners of the new Playboy Club at the Cachet Hotel on West 42 Street are packing up their Hugh Hefner memorabilia and rebranding the space as a steak house and entertainment venue sponsored by events promoter Live Nation.
The revamp comes as the club’s owners seek to boost business in the #Metoo era, where companies are no longer game to reimburse employees excursions to a club famous for its scantily clad women.
“It’s a powerful brand and has a huge following but may work better in less sophisticated cities,” one source said. “New Yorkers are too cosmopolitan and aren’t going there for serious business dinners.”
Indeed, when the club opened last September as the city’s first Playboy Club since 1986 it was quickly ridiculed. “For a mere $5,000 a year, you can step back into the early ’80s and thumb your nose at the 21st century,” luxury publication Robb Report said of the club’s starting annual membership fees.
“Playboy Club is back and sounds just a ridiculous as ever,” Eater wrote at the time.
The venue is now dropping the polarizing Playboy name and rebranding as Live Nation Theater at Cachet Hotel — thanks to a ten-year deal between Cachet’s owners, Merchants Hospitality, and Live Nation.
The new club will include a new Merchants Steakhouse within the former Playboy Club, which will provide food for the club’s Live Nation venues. Staffers will be offered new jobs — sans the bunny tails and ears.
The Guy Report 