Noah Tepperberg Explains Why You Should Pay $400 for Vodka

Speak softly and carry a big watch.Photo: Patrick McMullan

Portfolio sits down with Noah Tepperberg, owner of Marquee (currently grossing $13 million), and asks him about running the Strategic Group, which, club aside, takes in $23 million in gross revenue as a branding and promotions consultant. Tepperberg talks at length about how he got into the business, and we hear a little bit about his $3.25 million apartment, but all we really want to know is why we have to pay two weeks’ rent for a bottle of vodka?

Lloyd Grove: And why would any person who's not deranged want to pay $400 for a $30 bottle of vodka?
Noah Tepperberg: I'll turn that around on you. Why do people pay $2,000 for front-row seats at great concert? In other words, inside nightclubs, there's a show that goes on. There's a voyeuristic aspect. It’s this social show. People want, you know, to have a good seat in the middle of that. And they pay a premium for the liquor, which is really just another way of charging for the real estate.

Hm, we’re not sure that we'd equate front-row Stones seats with getting an up-skirt perspective on some sequined sister from Jersey while she’s shaking it to “Golddigger” atop a banquette, but we haven’t been to Marquee in recent memory (that 40-60 male-female ratio Tepperberg likes to maintain is too intimidating!). As the Pixies say, gouge away...

World According To: Noah Tepperberg [Portfolio]