Blue Martini Boca Raton: Lawsuit Over Fight in VIP Section

Boca Raton’s Blue Martini is the go-to spot for Palm Beach County’s raging middle-agers — sun-cured old dudes looking for their next ex-wife and Botox-boosted ladies riding Appletini binges to bad decisions. So you can imagine that the customers at the Town Center bar expect a certain level of class and safety at their establishment.

But according to a lawsuit recently filed in Palm Beach Circuit Court, an argument that seemed straight out an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm blew up into a violent situation.

Harris Peace had a whole night planned at the Blue Martini on December 8, 2011. According to court documents, the Maryland resident called ahead to reserve a table in the VIP section, a roped-off section of the bar manned by security to keep the scrubs at bay.

That evening, Peace and his group arrived at the bar and posted up at the VIP table. “Mr. Peace left the VIP area to use the restroom located in the general population section of the bar,” the complaint states. “When Mr. Peace returned from the restroom he attempted to enter the VIP area, but a Blue Martini employee denied him access.”

It turns out Peace was “attempting to enter through the ‘exit’ and he needed to utilize the ‘entrance’ to re-access the VIP area,” the employee informed the customer, according to the complaint.

Peace walked around and entered through the entrance, despite the fact that he’d watched the employee allow other members of his party waltz in and out of the exit. Likely channeling his inner Larry David at the alleged hypocrisy, Peace asked the employee why others got to ingress as they pleased while he’d been rerouted.

“After an unhelpful response from the employee and a rude exchange of words, Mr. Peace turned to walk away,” the complaint states. “As Mr. Peace was in the process of walking away the Blue Martini employee initiated an unprovoked violent attack, grabbing Mr. Peace by the shirt and repeatedly punching him in the face.”

Peace claims that as he was getting hauled out of the bar, other employees jumped in on the melee, “punching and kicking Mr. Peace in the face and body.”

Peace’s lawsuit accuses the bar of negligence. His attorney did not return a call for comment (We'll update this post if he does). When New Times dialed Blue Martini, a woman who identified herself as a manager declined to comment before hanging up.