Redondo Beach Man to Open Nation’s First 39-and-Over Nightclub at King Harbor

Nate Kovacs, Owner of “Been There, Done That”

REDONDO BEACH, Calif. — For decades, nightlife has largely been divided into two categories: places you have to be 18 to enter, and places you have to be 21 to enter.

Redondo Beach resident Nate Kovacs, 49, believes both age limits are far too low.

This November, Kovacs plans to open Been There Done That, a new nightclub at King Harbor catering exclusively to patrons 39 years old and older, a concept he says was born out of a simple realization: he no longer enjoys being around young people.

“At some point I looked around and thought, why are we still putting up with this?” Kovacs said. “There are clubs everywhere designed for 24-year-olds. Where is the place for the guy who has already refinanced a house?”

Kovacs, a longtime Redondo Beach resident, describes Been There Done That as the nation’s first true “39-and-over nightclub,” though he prefers the term adult nightlife environment.

The club will feature low-volume music, extremely comfortable chairs, reasonably priced drinks, abundant places to sit down and what Kovacs calls “a strict prohibition on unnecessary nonsense.”

“No one wants to stand for four hours,” Kovacs said. “That’s insane. We have chairs everywhere. Padded chairs. Chairs with backs. Some of them have lumbar support.”

Unlike trendy nightclubs offering elaborate mixology programs, Been There Done That will keep its cocktail menu deliberately simple.

“We’ve got vodka. We’ve got beer. We’ve got wine,” Kovacs said. “If you need somebody to light rosemary on fire before you can drink something, this probably isn’t your place.”

The bar will also feature a small collection of old-school wine coolers, including several varieties inspired by the glory days of Bartles & Jaymes, which Kovacs predicts will become one of the club’s biggest attractions.

“People our age remember wine coolers,” he said. “We don’t need someone explaining to us what an adaptogenic mushroom mocktail is.”

Food service will follow a similar philosophy.

Rather than sliders, truffle fries or gourmet flatbreads, Been There Done That will primarily offer trail mix, protein bars, pretzels and individually wrapped snacks that can be easily eaten without getting anything on a shirt.

“We looked at doing a full kitchen,” Kovacs said. “Then I thought, people ate dinner already. They’re 47. They planned ahead.”

A Club Built Around Nostalgia — and Irritation

Although the decor includes numerous nostalgic items, Kovacs insists Been There Done That should not be confused with a retro-themed bar.

The club will feature antique televisions, VHS tapes, several functioning VCRs, rotary telephones and a wall of old landline phones. Two restored pay phones will reportedly be operational.

“People walk in, see a pay phone and immediately understand what it does,” Kovacs said. “There’s no QR code. There’s no app. You put money in it and call somebody. That’s civilization.”

One section of the club, known as the Walkman Lounge, will allow guests to sit in oversized chairs and listen privately to music through vintage-style portable cassette players.

Kovacs said the Walkman Lounge was inspired in part by his frustration with younger generations’ insistence on sharing music through portable speakers.

“Nobody needs to hear what you’re listening to,” he said. “We solved this problem in 1983.”

Guests will be able to choose from cassette collections featuring rock, pop and adult contemporary music from the 1970s through the early 2000s.

There will be no DJ booth. Instead, Kovacs says the main room will play music at what he calls “conversation volume.”

“If somebody says, ‘What?’ more than twice, the music is too loud,” he said. “That’s our entire sound engineering philosophy.”

No Millennials. No Gen Z. Absolutely No Gen Alpha.

While Kovacs is passionate about comfort and nostalgia, he makes little effort to hide the larger motivation behind the concept. He believes American nightlife has spent decades catering disproportionately to young people, a demographic he describes as “loud, confusing and constantly in need of a charger.”

“I don’t have anything against them personally,” Kovacs said, before listing several things he has against them personally.

Among his grievances are QR-code menus, ironic mustaches, people recording themselves at restaurants, online dating terminology, complicated coffee orders, cryptocurrency, influencers, unnecessary abbreviations, and “any sentence beginning with ‘So I saw this thing on TikTok.’”

Kovacs is particularly skeptical of Generation Z.

“They’re always telling me they’re overwhelmed,” he said. “Overwhelmed by what? You’re 23. You own a water bottle.”

Millennials receive little sympathy either.

“They’re in their 30s now, so some of them are getting close,” Kovacs acknowledged. “But they still say things like ‘adulting.’ Paying an electric bill isn’t adulting. It’s Tuesday.”

Generation Alpha, whose oldest members are still teenagers, is not technically part of Kovacs’ nightlife competition.

He dislikes them anyway.

“I don’t know what they’ve done yet,” he said. “But based on the trajectory, I’m concerned.”

Proof of Age Strictly Enforced

Kovacs says Been There Done That will carefully check identification at the door. Anyone under 39 will be turned away. Anyone exactly 39 will be admitted, although Kovacs conceded they may be “watched for a while.”

The club’s proposed dress code is similarly unusual. There is no prohibition against sneakers, jeans or casual clothing. In fact, Kovacs encourages comfortable footwear.

“If you want to wear New Balance, wear New Balance,” he said. “Nobody here is judging you.”

Reading glasses will be available behind the bar. Charging cables will also be provided, although Kovacs was quick to emphasize that guests are expected to return them.

“We’re not animals.”

Bathroom lighting will reportedly be brighter than in most nightclubs, a feature Kovacs considers long overdue.

“I went into a restaurant bathroom six months ago and needed my phone flashlight to see the sink,” he said. “Why? What are we hiding?”

The club also plans to offer complimentary earplugs, antacid packets upon request and a coat check that Kovacs says will actually remain staffed throughout the evening.

An Earlier Kind of Late Night

Been There Done That will open at 5 p.m.

Happy hour runs from 5 to 7. Peak attendance is expected around 7:45. Kovacs anticipates most customers will leave between 9:30 and 10:15 p.m. The club will close at 11.

“Nothing good happens after 11,” he said.

Kovacs said he has been surprised by the enthusiasm the concept has generated among friends, neighbors and other South Bay residents in their 40s, 50s and 60s.

“When I tell someone who’s 52 about it, their eyes light up,” he said. “Then they ask two questions: ‘Can we sit down?’ and ‘Where do I park?’”

Parking information will be prominently featured on the club’s website.

Kovacs considers that one of his strongest competitive advantages.

“We’re not hiding the parking instructions six pages deep,” he said. “There’s going to be a giant button that says PARKING. You hit it, and it tells you where to park. That’s innovation.”

Despite the unusual concept, Kovacs believes Been There Done That could eventually expand beyond Redondo Beach, particularly into suburban communities where large populations of middle-aged adults have disposable income but little interest in traditional nightlife.

He has already considered potential locations in Orange County, Scottsdale, Palm Springs and parts of Florida.

But first, he wants to prove the idea at King Harbor.

“I think there are millions of people who still want to go out,” Kovacs said. “They just don’t want to go somewhere where they’re surrounded by 22-year-olds screaming because somebody brought a bottle of vodka to their table.”

He paused.

“We’ve had vodka before.”

Been There Done That is expected to open at Redondo Beach’s King Harbor in November, assuming Nate can get everybody home at a reasonable hour.

This article is a parody, and Nate Kovacs and Been There Done That are fictional.