For those of you that read here regularly, you’ll know that I rarely write a bad review, but rather highlight what’s hot and sexy in this fine city of ours.  Well today is different, because I was completely disgusted  and appalled by the arrogance and lack of manners of one particular Vancouver establishment last night.  And believe me, they have absolutely nothing to be arrogant about.

Was excited to be attending the Canadian Country Music Awards (CCMA) Throwdown After Party at the Shark Club and catching some stompin’ good Canadian talent, like Terri Clark and One More Girl, so for once I got there nice early (no mean feet for me, let me tell you). Well, given that this was a ticketed, invitation only party, you can imagine my surprise when I discovered a line up in front of the Shark Club.  No worries, just figured they were running late on setting up.

Ticket Holders Wait in Line at Van City's Shark Club

How wrong I was. Discovered they were letting people in that showed up at the door and were on ‘the list’. No biggie if those people were the entertainment that was showing up to set up. Well, pretty quickly realized that wasn’t the case when they started to ever so slowly let in a few people from our line and huge hoards of people that sidled up to the door.

So what was the story?  A local country station, 93.7 JRfm,  had given out tickets to lucky winners to attend the CCMA Throwdown, and The Shark Club had taken it upon themselves to make the prize winners wait in the line up on the street, whilst they let those affiliated with the CCMA in. When I finally figured that out, it was because the bouncer told me that ‘we’, in the line, were the ‘nobodies’ and those he was letting in were the ‘somebodies’. WOW!!! Curious to know who he was?  The people I was standing in the line with were the true Country Music fans. Many of them were my parents age. Many of them were professionals.  So, I’m sorry, who was he!?!

Musicians are nothing without their fans.  Its their fans that make them stars.  Its their fans that allow them to live their dream.  This is one thing that I love about Country Musicians, is that most of them realize this and pay their fans due respect.  The Shark Club did not pay these fans due respect.  I realized at this point that we would have been on ‘the list’, but there was no way now that I was going to leave the true fans behind in the line.  Shame on you Shark Club.

I regularly attend Television Festivals and I can assure you, if you have a ticket, you don’t wait in line.  Everyone is treated with the same level of respect, no matter if you are a broadcast big wig or writer just starting out.  And I may not be a rocket scientist, but it would seem to me that if you have given out a set number of tickets to an event, then you shouldn’t be over capacity by letting people with tickets in.  Shame on you Shark Club.

Furthermore I’m generally disgusted by any club that leaves people waiting on the street whilst inside things are practically empty.  This just makes you look pretentious and like a bunch of dumb asses.  These are not the sort of establishments that I care to frequent or that I’d recommend to others.  The festival pub at the Banff Television Festival has always been the St James Gate, because they treat everyone the same and with respect.  The only time they make people wait on the street is if they are over capacity and then everybody waits, no matter whom you think you are.  Shame on you Shark Club.

If you want to learn to create raved after establishments, take a page out of the books of two true gentlemen and two of Vancouver’s finest restauranteers – Sean Sherwood (formerly of Fiction and Century House) and Patrick Tubajon (of Gudrun and formerly the Alibi Room).

Photo by Erica Hargreave

What make these two gentlemen truly great in Van City’s restaurant scene is that they treat their guests as though they are welcoming them home.  They know their guest and make them feel loved.  Sean in fact once told me that he thought of his restaurant as his living room, where he was fortunate enough to have so many friends to share it with.

Shark Club get over yourself and learn to behave like gentlemen.  Your parents would not be proud by the behavior I witnessed last night.  Shame on you Shark Club.