Pop! Culture: I Survived Bottle Service Boot Camp (2024)

The job title might read bottle service "girl," but the five women who signed up for the $299, two-day professional development course titled "Bottle Service Boot Camp: Hands-On Bottle Service Training for Beginners" are all in their 20s and 30s. Three of the women are mothers, one of them is enrolled in college classes, and another drove all the way from Boca Raton to make it to the windowless theater room of a luxury bayfront condominium on Miami's Upper Eastside, where the first day of the boot camp was hosted on Saturday, April 28. They have little in common, save for the fact that they all want to hoist sparkler-topped Champagne bottles high above their heads as they parade across nightclubs in heels — a career that one might argue has become as integral to Miami's cultural identity as ventanita baristas or jai alai players — and that they all have turned to Michelle Kent for answers.

"The escorts and strippers in this city will be your best allies; they frequent these nightclubs and know who is rich, so you need to manifest these friendships," Kent instructs her pupils. Her jet-black curls are tied in a neat ponytail above her visor, and she's wearing pink leggings and a black tank top with the pink-and-green Bottle Service Boot Camp logo emblazoned on the left breast. "Since they don't care about selling bottles, your interests are aligned; there's absolutely no competition."

The women can't seem to jot down her words fast enough.

Kent, who is 39, speaks with the pep of a teenage cheerleading captain and the eloquence of a Tony Robbins or an Arianna Huffington. Over the past two decades, she has worked at nearly every notable nightclub in Miami Beach — Dream, B.E.D., Ivy, Mansion, Cameo, Set, Story, and Mr. Jones, to name just a few. She has served heads of Fortune 500 companies, professional athletes like Floyd Mayweather, Lebron James, and Draymond Green, and A-list celebrities like Drake, Rick Ross, and Justin Bieber. During her top-earning years, she was making upward of $400,000 a year. Now she's mentoring the next generation to "make six figures while building an eight-figure network," as the @bottleservicebootcamp Instagram account she manages states.

"So many people will act like this is a degrading job, or that bottle service girls are just cute waitresses," Kent tells New Times. "In reality, we are the sales agents for these multimillion-dollar nightclubs in a city where sales can range from $100,000 to $5 million in a single night."

The boot camp spread of bagels, pastries, and juice has been largely ignored throughout the day as attention for the past seven hours has been fixed on the big screen displaying the 92-page handbook Kent wrote on the art of being a successful bottle service girl, based on her 14 years in the industry. So far, the class has created a list of locations to scout rich men as potential clients, learned how to craft a winning résumé, ace a casting call, operate the point-of-sale systems on the register, and most importantly, how to upsell clients, ensure overtips, and properly serve Champagne.

The most enlightening lesson, though, has been just how much earning potential is in this line of work: Ten percent is the standard tip for bottle service, which doesn't seem like much until you realize that most nightclubs have a required minimum that must be spent at a table — typically starting at $2,000 and rising to more than $100,000 for big-name DJs or on New Year's Eve — and that bottle service girls attend to multiple tables over the course of a shift. At Ultra Music Festival, Kent says, she has overseen tables with an $80,000 minimum spend.

"The night you hit $1,000 in cash tips, you're like, 'Oh my god, I made $1,000!' and then $1,000 becomes a regular thing, and then you start expecting $1,000 and then $2,000 [a night]," Kent tells them. "During the NBA and NFL lockouts, these guys were bored out of their minds and spending $50,000 or $60,000 tabs — it was like a status thing — and that's when I started seeing $10,000, $20,000, and $30,000 tips."

By the time the first day of boot camp is dismissed at 6 p.m., the five students are equal parts exhausted and inspired.

"So you're going to send us the master list of all locations [to scout clients] we talked about?" Marley Fatale, 31, asks as the class winds down.

"It's 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. that we're meeting tomorrow?" Alyssa Correthers, 27, inquires on her way out.

And, as the room empties, Kent can't help but holler after them like a teacher reminding them of their homework: "I will! 11 a.m.! Exchange Night Club! And don't forget to wear the black Bottle Service Girl tank tops and black leggings!"

The Art of the Sale

Bottle Service Boot Camp was born out of necessity. By 2021, most of the Miami nightclubs that had closed during the COVID-19 lockdown had reopened, and Michelle Kent was back to making her usual $5,000 to $7,000 a week as a bottle service girl at a pop-up party at Okami in the Design District.

The problem, she says, was that many of her colleagues who worked bottle service pre-pandemic switched careers or moved. Or if they hadn't, their manager had. Or the nightclub where they'd been working closed or changed ownership. It wasn't until venues began reopening that Kent started hearing word-of-mouth complaints from nightclub managers and others in the industry that the bottle service girls weren't of the same caliber. Service was down — which meant revenue was down, too.

"People were hiring girls just because they were cute in the face, but they didn't have any skill set." tweet this

"People were hiring girls just because they were cute in the face, but they didn't have any skill set," Sean Fosky, co-owner of Exchange South Beach and Rain nightclub in Houston, tells New Times. "They didn't know how to properly hold a bottle in the air and would almost burn the other girls' faces off with the sparklers."

By this time, Kent was known across the local nightclub circuit for the high-rolling clientele that sought her out specifically. "When I came to Miami six years ago, 10 percent [tip] was common across the board, but Michelle was bringing in 17.5 and 24 percent tips almost every night," Fosky relates. "She's the only waitress in Miami that could jump from whatever club she wanted to work at that night because she was just that valuable."

When industry professionals turned to Kent for staffing help, she never hesitated to recommend another bottle service girl for a gig and vouch for her ability and professionalism. "People made me a staffing agency before I even chose to be a staffing agency," she says.

Clubs like Exchange South Beach and Booby Trap began hiring her to come in and train their bottle service girls how to hold a bottle (never by the neck!), attach a sparkler (with a rubber band!), and go through the menu with a customer (stand or sit side-by-side). She was being flown around the country (Los Angeles, Houston) to help open new nightclubs by hiring and training bottle service girls.

"This is an industry where there's a crap-ton of money to be made, but you have to be focused and understand that this is a profession, not some fly-by-night job where you just to go get drunk and have fun," she'd tell aspiring girls. "I'm living proof that you can have a career in bottle service and have it pay for a lifestyle that most people dream of."

By the end of 2021, Kent found herself at a crossroads: She could go back to working nightclubs or develop a business that offered the kind of bottle-service training venues were practically begging for. The former was guaranteed and, at this point in her career, easy money, while the latter would require her to stop taking as many shifts and use the unpaid time to create training materials, which would eat into her savings until she could get a course up and running.

Kent opted for the latter and took more than a year off, launched the @bottleservicebootcamp Instagram account, and literally wrote the book on bottle service training. ("It's 92 pages, but I'm hesitant to get it printed because I'm still adding to it," she says. "It's a work in progress.")

Her main clients are still nightclub managers who hire her to train their bottle service girls for a day or two. Kent also offers one-on-one coaching sessions and so far has mentored more than 50 girls across the nation, including in Las Vegas, Houston, and Scottsdale, Arizona.

"There was a big difference before and after I took her course. I was holding the bottle wrong. I didn't know how to upsell," says Rose Figueroa, a bottle service girl at the Office, an adult entertainment club in Miami Gardens. "She taught us how to be a lot friendlier, how to go out and make friends and bring them to the club, how to sell bottles, how to be dressed, what we say when the customer first comes in the club, how often we check on them. I mean, she taught us everything."

Before her training, Figueroa says, she was making $300 or $400 a night. Now, she makes $1,200. This year, she says, she's on track to gross more than $200,000.

"One thousand dollars [a night] is my minimum," Figueroa says proudly. "I'm grateful for taking Michelle's courses because now I can use everything she taught me to increase my bottle sales and make a lot more money."

"She taught us how to sell bottles, how to be dressed.... I mean, she taught us everything." tweet this

By popular demand (and a deluge of Instagram DMs), Kent expanded Bottle Service Boot Camp to include beginners — women who have never worked as a bottle service girl but want to break into the industry. When she offered her first neophyte's course for the last weekend of April, more than a dozen women signed up. Owing to the breadth of the material and the one-on-one attention she promises, Kent tries to cap classes at five or six women and wound up hosting a second edition the following weekend and scheduled a third for early June.

"The girls have been harassing me about a beginner's boot camp!" she says with a laugh. "But it did make me realize that I had been booking so many of the staff boot camps and focusing on the girls who were already working that I had left the girls who wanted to be bottle service girls hanging."

Hands-On Training

At 11 a.m. at Exchange South Beach, the bright overhead lights are on, revealing imperfections in the floor and a cigarette burn on one of the red booths. No music is playing. The space is so quiet you can hear the air-conditioning. Every few minutes, the ATM beeps.

All five aspiring bottle service girls have returned for day two, including this New Times reporter, who was treated as if she were a sixth aspiring bottle service girl. We all wear our matching black Bottle Service Boot Camp tank tops and leggings. It's clear from the six unopened Champagne bottles — all wrapped in pink, all bearing the Bottle Service Boot Camp logo — that this will be the "hands-on" portion of the course.

"When the customer asks for a recommendation, I am always, always, always going to steer him away from the tequila and toward the Champagne," Kent explains. "Why? Because a bottle of tequila holds 25 [one-ounce] shots, and a bottle of Champagne is only five or six drinks even though they cost around the same. So I want to fill the glasses to the brim, hand them out to all the ladies in the section, and be mindful that this stuff is expensive, so I need to make sure I don't spill any of it and use up all of my bottles so I can help the client reach their minimum and also to sell more."

"Look at it this way," she continues. "If a customer orders a bottle of tequila and they're just taking shots, it can take them the whole night, and they still might not even finish it. And when they're not buying bottles, they're just hogging the table, and that means you and the club are not making any money."

"When they're not buying bottles, they're just hogging the table, and that means you and the club are not making any money." tweet this

This tip seems important, and I can't help but join my classmates in scribbling it down, too. "I can listen to you speak all day," Fatale says as she gazes up at Kent in awe.

Over the next few hours, each student re-enacts a bottle service interaction with them playing the bottle service girl and Kent playing the client. We must stand beside Kent, repeat the agreed-upon terms about the minimum spend, go through the menu with her, add up each item (either in our heads or using the calculator app on our phones) to reach the minimum spend, and then steer her as far away from ordering tequila as possible without raising suspicions about our financial motive.

"What about Champagne for the ladies?" Caitlyn Rooney, 26, suggests after Kent insists on ordering tequila. "Maybe a brut and a rosé to switch it up? And I'll bring a pack of water and Red Bulls for the table, too."

The scene is over, and Kent applauds. "See how she recommended two bottles [of Champagne]," she points out to the class. "That was great."

Anyone who's ever witnessed a bottle parade at a nightclub might think it is pretty straightforward: Light the sparkler, hoist the bottle in the air, and strut to the table while clubgoers stop, stare, and snap photos. It is not as simple as it looks.

After one re-enactment in which Kent plays the part of a woman celebrating her engagement, I'm enlisted to join Alyssa Correthers' parade and follow the class to a stockroom filled with parade props, including a sombrero, a life preserver, cowgirl hats, umbrellas, light sabers, and light-up signs. I feel bad for my two classmates who are handed heavy stormtrooper helmets ("This is my least favorite prop," one of them sighs as she dons it). Two others are given massive golden Champagne bottle holders shaped like machine guns. Another receives an unwieldy poster board that reads "ENGAGED AS f*ck." I can't help but feel that I'm getting off easy when I'm handed two sparklers, one for each hand.

We are essentially Correthers' backup dancers, and she goes over the kind of choreography she'd like us to perform at the table (a swaying shimmy) and our positions (the back corner for me). On our way out, she lights her sparkler, and we all bring ours to her flame in the bottle-service-girl equivalent of a football huddle. Kent has stressed over and over never to hold a lit sparkler below your head, but as we try to get in formation, I accidentally bring one of my sparklers in close to my chest, brushing its flickering sparks inches from Rooney's face. "Whoa!" she exclaims. "You almost burnt my eyebrows off!" I furtively look around to make sure Kent didn't see.

Someone has put on a funky disco beat to make our parade into this bright and empty club less awkward. When we strut to the table, we're all wearing big, toothy smiles and swaying our hips. I make sure to keep both my arms locked and the sparklers high above my head as Correthers confirms with the client that her order is complete. By the ten-second mark, I glance over at the ENGAGED AS f*ck bottle girl, grateful that I'm not the one who has to hoist a heavy prop. By the 20-second mark, still undulating and smiling, I'm channeling those dancing Santa toys. Kent is the first to break character, pointing out that the two stormtroopers, who can't seem to hear the music or see the rest of us, are dancing out of sync, á la Katy Perry left shark. "It is too funny!" Kent squeals.

Before boot camp is over, each student is required to stand in front of the class, open their bottle of pink-wrapped Champagne, and pour a glass without any fizz or spilling. Per Kent's instruction, we know never to hold the bottle by the neck and to place our thumb into the punt (the indentation at the bottom of the bottle). The label must be facing out for photos and to appease the liquor reps. Each glass must be filled to the brim. Open each bottle as soon as it arrives at the table so no one can try to return it at the end of the night.

Each student is required to stand in front of the class, open their bottle of Champagne, and pour a glass without any fizz or spilling. tweet this

When it's my turn, I fumble, twisting off the cage, alternating between turning clockwise and counterclockwise. After a dozen or more times in the wrong direction, I manage to loosen the cage but don't remove it completely, recalling Kent's anecdote about the time she removed that twisty contraption, placed the bottle down, and had the cork shoot off directly into her eye. I try not to dwell on this thought as I commence to yank on the cork, but I close both eyes just in case and visibly flinch when it pops off. "I definitely jumped, too," another student shouts out to reassure me.

I continue, correctly positioning my thumb and rotating the bottle so the label faces the table. I keep the bottle close to my body, bend down gently to pick up a flute, and lift my right elbow like a lever. An inch of fizz quickly rises in the flute, and I try not to panic. "Stick the rim inside the Champagne," Kent calls out. Like magic, I put the mouth of the bottle into the drink, and the fizz disappears from the flute. I victoriously pour the bubbly mere millimeters south of the brim to a round of applause.

I take a bow, but the biggest compliment comes later when we say our goodbyes. Kent gathers us around her and takes a front-facing selfie video. "We're at the end of day two of Bottle Service Boot Camp," she says, smiling into the camera, "and let me tell you, all of these girls are ready to work!"