According to Lee, when Plush opened, the owners signed a four-year lease on the property. The reason, she and Lintott both said, is that a design generally has a four-year shelf life, even if the lounge itself stays in business much longer. "Opium Den went for four years and that's considered a long time for a lounge bar," Lintott said.
Lintott also did the original design for Room 18 when it took over Lightbug's address. The club was temporarily closed and redesigned last year and continues to draw crowds of regulars. Lee said that Plush, too, will undoubtedly see its design revamped someday. Redesigning will be less expensive than it would be if it didn't have an interior designer as one of its owners.
Even so, the amount of money spent creating these oases is considerable. The owners of Perfume Bar, which opened off Tunhua South Road in March, spent some NT$70,000 per ping on such things as a faux fur-covered bar, according to figures cited by 7 Labs (
Other designers cited an average of NT$50,000 per ping spent appointing various parlors, but all were quick to point out that the costs are often much higher. "We spent twice that on Plush," Lintott said, adding that they started with a concrete shell and had to install such basic amenities as central air conditioning.
Is it money well spent? After all, many of Taipei's less lavish bars have been in business much longer than four years. My Place, to cite one example, has been pulling pints in Taipei's Combat Zone for 19 years without a single purple couch to sit on. Others in that area and in the Shita area boast similar success stories.
"It's absolutely well-spent," Lee said, explaining that it's spent creating an aesthetic for those who wouldn't be comfortable in a traditional bar setting. "It's selling a lifestyle," she said.
Are there too many lounge bars in Taipei now? "I'm sick to death of the whole lounge bar concept," Lintott said. His solution is Apartment, which opened on Siwei Road in mid-January and in which he is a partner. It looks more like someone's lavishly decorated apartment than a lounge, with a bar reminiscent of a kitchen island, a fireplace, TV and even a bed in the loft area.
"There are too many lounge bars," said Plush's Lee, who is also involved in Apartment. "We think this is the next trend." So, if she's right, we can expect to spend money going out to more and more places that look a lot like home. Now that is a revolutionary idea.
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