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Miami Club LIV Caught In Power Struggle over COVID-19 - Billboard
Oct 20, 2020 1 min, 25 secs
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 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.

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 center of his hospitality empire.

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

While a few small clubs in Miami have reopened, Grutman said that between the curfew and the continued risk of spreading the virus, he has no plans to open LIV or his other nightclub, Story.

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.

Grutman said he didn’t want to contribute to the spread, and he was also seeing a backlash from others in the industry.

On a recent Friday night at Komodo, Grutman dined with the Canadian singer The Weekend, while former baseball star Alex Rodriguez sat nearby and supermodel Adriana Lima was at another table.

Others have asked to host Zoom parties from LIV, but Grutman just isn’t into it

In the meantime, Grutman — the hype man, the energy pumper, the one injecting that party-all-the time vibe — is missing out on the action, which has shifted to house parties

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