Unlike its predecessor, a new Mill Avenue club opening this winter won't invite everyone inside.
Cherry, a new club at Fourth Street and Mill Avenue, will open in December. It replaces the old Club Level, known for its appeal among teenage clientele.
Club Level closed in 2003, and Cherry's owner, Brian Roehrich, hopes to avoid Club Level's previous problems with underage customers by raising the minimum age and elevating the image.
In order to avoid potential problems, the club will only be open to customers over age 21 and there will be no after-hours, Roehrich said.
"We're going after the people that keep going to Scottsdale," said Roehrich, who also owns the Dos Gringos bars in Tempe and Scottsdale. "We're not going after the high school kids."
The club would include a dance floor, a lounge and a stage for live music in the upscale setting of a Scottsdale-like bar, Roehrich said.
Despite its upscale atmosphere, the club will have cheap drinks, Roehrich said.
"We're going to have $3 cherry vodka drinks every night that we're open," he said.
Communications junior Mike Hart said the inexpensive drinks and upscale atmosphere would be an incentive to visit the club.
"You get the best of both worlds," Hart said.
But biology junior Will Buckminster said he wouldn't go to an upscale club because it would likely be crowded, pretentious and more like "a fashion show."
"I like cheap trashy places," he added, listing Casey Moore's Oyster House as an example of the bars he likes.
Roehrich declined to reveal specific details about the decorations, and said he was "keeping it for people when they come in."
For security arrangements at Cherry, Roehrich said he would have between 15 and 18 well-trained guards posted, depending on the night.
"We're hiring people that want to do this," he said. "Not just somebody that's trying to use it for dates."
Still, the Tempe Mission Palms Hotel, located near the club, hopes Cherry will do its best to control the noise level, said Ken McKenzie, general manager for the hotel.
But Kelly Roberts, a manager at RA Sushi Bar & Restaurant, next door to the club, said she wasn't concerned about noise because Roehrich has a good reputation for owning bars and RA could actually be louder than the club.
"We throw a party here every night," Roberts said. "They'll probably get more noise complaints from us."
Reach the reporter at grayson.steinberg@asu.edu
