Business Profile: Elevate Event Lounge, Yorktown
The Front Street location of Elevate Event Lounge has long been a site to host events.
Last August, Mahopac resident Chris Vernia changed the format of the business, which was formerly Bounce the Party Place, in which Vernia was a member of the partnership of Bounce and purchased the facility outright last year.
“I’ve actually been here five years,” he noted. Bounce, which opened in 2009, was geared toward parties for young children.
The name Elevate Event Lounge came about following a “brainstorming session with the rest of my guys that work here,” Vernia said. “We want to take your event to the next level.”
The most common events held at the facility are Sweet 16, and Bat Mitzvah parties. It has also hosted a variety of other parties, including wedding anniversaries and communion and confirmation parties.
“We do really do everything,” he said. “And we called it the Event Lounge because it’s not like a catering facility. It’s more like a lounge/nightclub, although we’re not open to the public. We’re doing nothing but private events.”
“Everything here is very, very sleek and modern,” said Vernia, who has been in the entertainment business for 27 years.
The main room is “customizable” with multi-colored lighting for the tables and walls, Vernia said, adding a bar is also available. “We’re really based on dancing,” he said. DJs or the live pop and rock band, Naked Soul, which performs a wide variety of genres, including “from classics to contemporary” can provide the music, he said.
Packages generally include the use of the facility and entertainment and customers are usually responsible for bringing their own food in, but Elevate could be responsible for the food through catering companies it works with, Vernia noted.
Elevate has a game room featuring a variety of sports games, including Pop a Shot basketball and air hockey.
Vernia said he is very happy with his Front Street location. “Because of my business, I don’t need to be in a retail strip mall,” he said. “Everybody’s closed at five o’clock on Friday and don’t come back until Monday at 9 a.m. All of my events are usually happening after 5 o’clock on Friday.”
Vernia said he received much gratification from his profession. There is “a lot of personal satisfaction,” he said. “I meet a lot of great people. I make friends with people from years and years ago.”
“I’m in a great business. We’re always at a party. We’re always making people smile. To me it’s the best business in the world,” Vernia added.
Elevate Event Lounge is located at 1761 Front St. in Yorktown. For more information call 914-352-6400 or visit ElevateEventLounge.com.
