Abu Dhabi's L'Etoiles guest flaunts $130k bill

An anonymous high-roller has raised the bar on nightclub spending in the UAE after racking up a tab of nearly AED 500,000 at Abu Dhabi’s exclusive L’Etoiles club in the Emirates Palace hotel.

The AED 478,056 (about $130,147) bill, dated January 4, was posted on social media sites just days after a $105,000 receipt from Dubai’s Cavalli Club made headlines across the Gulf state.

Topping the tab were 22 bottles of Cristal champagne, at a cost of AED 6000 each, followed by Johnnie Walker King George V whisky at AED 10,000 a bottle.

Also included in the celebrations were 21 bottles of luxury Dom Perignon champagne, at a cost of AED 109,200, and four bottles of Moet Brut costing AED 74,260. The bill also included 36 cans of Red Bull, Coke, Voss water and Marlboro cigarettes.

The bill was more than $25,000 more expensive than the tab racked up in the Cavalli Club two days earlier, where staff said they regularly play host to high-rollers.

The nightspot says an average of 24 tables a year – so two a month – spend between AED 200,000 and AED 500,000 in a single evening.

“Despite individuals and businesses feeling the effects of the downturn throughout 2011, Cavalli Club has seen high-spenders consistently frequent the venue,” said David Lescarret, operations manager at Cavalli Dubai. “Last year saw an average of two tables per month spend between AED 200,000 to AED 500,000 in one night, and we expect this trend to continue into the New Year, with one customer already having spent just under AED 400,000.”

The luxurious nightclub said it stocks the most expensive champagne in the world - the Louis Roederer, Millennium Cristal Brut 1990, priced at a massive AED 500,000 for a single bottle.

There are only two other Millennium bottles for sale around the globe according to bar managers, which can be found in London and New York.

Eileen Wallis, managing partner at Dubai-based PR firm the Portsmouth Group, said the initial idea to post the Cavalli bill was a clever trick that had netted the nightclub publicity, but warned the strategy now risked becoming “a rather tasteless game of one-upmanship”.

“In our experience, true luxury brands don't want to call attention to the cost of their goods but the perceived value of the experience - and it's not especially tactful to do so in today's economy,” she said.

L’Etoiles declined to comment.