Star-studded Miami night club upstaged by coronavirus

MIAMI, FLA.— At LIV, one of the most glamorous, star-studded nightclubs in one of the world’s biggest party destinations, there’s a velvet-roped VIP area, and then there’s a secret VIP area. The parties at the club are so legendary they have inspired lyrics from Drake, Kanye West and Rick Ross. High rollers spend up to $20,000 (U.S.) just for a table.

Today, LIV sits quiet and empty — a casualty not just of the coronavirus outbreak, but of a power struggle between state and local government over how to contain the scourge.

On a recent Friday, the sleek black floors and curved silver snakeskin couches were a sad sight in the harsh light of day. A bottle of hand sanitizer rested on top of the DJ booth, where back in February a man shelled out $120,000 just to sit there during a performance by Cardi B.

The puppeteer behind the parties and arguably the king of South Beach’s nightlife scene, LIV owner David Grutman, stopped by a few months ago to look at new upholstery, but he mostly stays away from the club at the centre of his hospitality empire.

“I cried real tears,” the 46year-old Grutman said of his last visit to the shuttered club and nightlife’s seemingly bygone era. “It’s really been my lifeblood.”

Technically, LIV and Miami’s other nightclubs could reopen at 50 per cent capacity under an order issued Sept. 25 by Gov. Ron DeSantis. But Miami leaders have imposed a midnight curfew — a real buzzkill for a scene that doesn’t even get started until the a.m. hours — and are restricting loud music so that people don’t have to shout and risk spreading the virus through their spittle.

Also, a local mask ordinance requires patrons to keep their faces covered except while eating and drinking — though the governor has barred municipalities from collecting fines for violations.

Florida has seen more than 15,000 deaths from the pandemic. Grutman has already been through a revolving door of openings and closings.

In addition to the clubs, he has several restaurants, including one he owns with the singer Pharrell, plus the celeb hangout Komodo. All of them were forced to close back in March by state and local authorities.

In June, the governor gave the go-ahead for restaurants to reopen at limited capacity. With bars still under shutdown orders, people were soon drinking heavily and dancing at Komodo and other late-night restaurants.

“We thought the world was back,” Grutman said. “I was naive enough to think that we’d turned the corner.”

But he voluntarily closed again after six weeks, as cases skyrocketed and South Florida became one of the nation’s COVID-19 hot spots, with as many as 12,000 to 15,000 newly confirmed infections per day.

Grutman has fielded countless calls from DJs begging to be the first when the club reopens. Others have asked to host Zoom parties from LIV, but Grutman just isn’t into it. He thinks it’s unlikely big club events will be safe without a vaccine.

In the meantime, Grutman is missing out on the action, which has shifted to house parties.

“I’d rather be the ringmaster of it,” he said.