Bootlegger, the last vestige of what was Fort Lauderdale in it's Spring Break heyday, is now just a shell of itself. On Sunday afternoon, a DJ cranks bad music in the corner to just a spattering of people; The pool is empty, and there's no Hot Body contest. Why they even bother to open it is a mystery.
6 years ago, Bootlegger was a viable entity. It was a pretty good sports bar; a big room where you could get spiced shrimp or a burger. There were a lot of families; kids in the pool, and towards the end of the day it would get pretty crowed; a real place to be.
They used to hire models, Circuit girls mostly, so there were always some nice looking girls in the contest. The downsides were that it was the same girls week after week, and if you were in the know you knew that it wasn't a real contest. A different girl would win every week, as if there was some sort of pre-arranged rotation.
In 2007, Steven Savor leased Bootlegger and turned it into LaPlaya, and from then on, nothing was the same. LaPlaya was some sort of Miami style club; a place for rich old guys with boats to hang out with the kind of girls that hang out with rich old guys. While they continued running the Hot Body contest, everything changed. First, there was No Kids Allowed. Deck chairs has to be reserved. There were minimums. Then you couldn't come into LaPlaya with a drink from Shooters. There was a big Goon in-between Shooters and LaPlaya. And clown-like gogo girls.
When they first opened, they started charging a $10 cover. Shooters, who owned the entire property and were renting out the space to LaPlaya, were outraged that their customers couldn't watch the Bikini contest. Shooters started picketing LaPlaya; it was a big mess. Finally, LaPlaya yielded and dumped the cover. But they still wouldn't let you in from shooters unless you bought a drink.
A year later, Shooters took Bootlegger back, and the place "looked" back to normal. The only difference is that on a Sunday afternoon, the place was pretty empty. They had a sign on the restaurants saying it was "Coming Soon". But it never opened.
It seemed pretty dead, but they still tried to field a bikini contest. But they weren't using the circuit girls anymore. So the girls weren't all that attractive. 5 mediocre girls in front of 18 people was a pretty sad scene.
In July, Shooters/Bootleggers filed for bankrupcy, and the property was auctioned off in December. Even though they're still opened, based on what I saw Sunday, there's no reason to come here.