Don't deep "6" a good thing

Randy Smith at Mickey's (Credit: Pat Shannahan/azcentral.com)

Randy Smith is taking a beating in Scottsdale gossip circles.

The owner of the upscale, sometimes-buzz-worthy SIX Lounge and the funky Mickey's Hangover is being bashed by for everything from his dating life to his business finances to his hiring choices.

For months, thedirty.com has been speculating about Smith selling the club, hiring new people, firing old ones and rumors too personal to bother with here.

So I made some calls, did some digging, trying to see if any of the rumors about two of Scottsdale's most decorated, hyped, and visited bars were true, or could even be independently verified beyond hearsay.

But I only did that because I'm a reporter. I didn't really care.

Because I already know what I think of Randy Smith and both his bars.

I like them.

When Smith opened SIX, it was one of the first places in Scottsdale to set Old Town on its path toward the chi chi swank now found around every corner. When he opened Mickey's, it was an immediate after-hours success and hangout for the dive bar crowd that wanted better drinks than most dives served. Both clubs won national nightclub design awards and SIX was name-checked in magazines and newspapers across the country as a hotspot.

SIX was a trend-setter, hosting fashion shows almost two years before it became de rigueur, throwing a snowbound, near-legendary winter wonderland party several years in a row and being one of the first places to incorporate the kind of design touches you take for granted now—the frosted bar top, the LED walls, the fogging bathroom doors.

But I'm not taking up for Smith just because his clubs were once at the front of Scottsdale's nightlife scene. I know that just because something was cool once, doesn't make it always so.

But I'm saying something because the odds are, if you've had a fun night out in Scottsdale in the last five years, you've had it at Mickey's or SIX. I'm saying something because nasty gossip does nothing to further the city's nightlife scene. I'm saying something because whether or not Smith could win a congeniality contest isn't relevant to his ability to run two bars.

I'm saying something because there are, indeed, things wrong with both Mickey's and SIX. But I never hear anyone criticizing Smith for those things. Instead, it's just inside-baseball bitterness that does nothing to make anyone's nights out any better.

I wouldn't mind if people hassled him about his bored, unsolicitous doormen. They're more intimidating than welcoming.

And I'd cheer if someone asked him to hire bartenders that are warm, smiling and enthusiastic. When I was in last week, my bartender acted painfully too-cool-for-school, an affectation that was only exacerbated by his cheesy, overgrown Gotti Brother-hair. No one in the club made an effort to make people feel special, valued, like a guest.

And if people want to mention to him that his bartenders could use a refresher in mixology, that wouldn't bother me either. It's fair to note that if he's appealing to a truly upscale clientele, his drinks have to be as sophisticated as the patrons.

But these aren't reasons to mount a character assassination on Smith. Really, they're just reasons to go somewhere else.

Here's hoping he gives us some new reasons to come back. And, that Scottsdale's bitter-tongued find someone new to talk about.