Nostalgia for the 90's
NerveAna is Robert Watman’s Youngest Decade-Décor’d Diva

The decades of the ‘70s and ‘80s lend well to promotional nights, partly because of the outrageous fashion options and partly because those decades encompass the growing-up years of the largest drinking demographic.
    Robert Watman, owner and operator of a multitude of clubs and concepts across the country, has been cashing in for more than 14 years on these specific 20 decades –– about which patrons seem to wax poetic and party nostalgic. Unlike a typical promoter, Watman has developed actual clubs entirely dedicated to the ‘70s and ‘80s, a chain series of multi-level, attached experiences named Polly Esther’s and Culture Club.
    Venturing into the youngest market of legal drinkers, Watman has now begun adding his newest attachment to the first two, called NerveAna. NerveAna is all about the ‘90s, and with Polly Esther’s success rate of 14 years strong and Culture Club’s 9-year run, he says he has no worries about longevity for this 2-year-old concept.

Lots to Look At
    Attached to each Culture Club/Polly Esther’s in cities like New York, Las Vegas, San Antonio and Denver, the NerveAna portion offers guests a true trip back to what Watman calls “a decade of scandal.”
    “In the 1990s,” he says, “there was a lot of scandal. We have a Monica (Lewinsky) wax figure with a stained dress. We will have a Bill Clinton look-alike passing out cigars on occasion. It’s all so over-the-top and fun, and not only that, but when the music kicks in, everyone is singing and dancing. It’s definitely a different nightclub experience.”
    Upon adding the first NerveAna on the club-heavy Varick Street in New York, Watman says he got together with his staff to contemplate cars. Each of the Polly Esther’s and Culture Club locations have vehicles inside such as VW buses and DeLoreans like the one in “Back to the Future.”
    For the ’90s, Watman felt there was only one option. VIP guests are invited to kick back at a private table set inside of a white Ford Bronco. Other props include large, smoking pictures of Sharon Stone in “Basic Instinct” and a life-sized figure of Forrest Gump.

Las Vegas Highlights
    The most recent NerveAna just opened along with the other decade-specific attachments at The Stratosphere complex in Las Vegas. An already over-the-top concept required a great design team to bring each element up to the high shock-value standards of Sin City. Watman turned to McCartan Design out of San Francisco for the space. “They worked on all of the ideas we had done in the past, but just upgraded,” Watman says. “We even did a seminar before opening in Vegas, where we had probably close to 100 bartenders and waitresses. We brought in a makeup artist one day, and she passed out a pamphlet and showed them how to get that ‘70s, ‘80s or ‘90s look.”
    While he has dedicated his career in part to looking back, Watman says he doesn’t see another decade-themed venue on the horizon. “I really couldn’t see doing another,” he says. “I think we are tapped out on commemorating the decades.
    “You know, Polly Esther’s has been around for 14 years, and Culture Club has been around for nine. NerveAna is only two years old. They endure because people are so nostalgic, and they get the warm and fuzzy feeling thinking about their youth.”        NCB