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Radar editor feels left out of the cool clique [Radar] The new Plaza will make you lonely [GoaG] Manfield Hotel penthouse next hotspot for 29 of your closest pals [HC] Beer bongs make their way to high fashion [Racked] More...

George Gurley has done a yeoman's job and come up with the Definitive Guide to the Beatrice Inn, creating a detailed list of all of the players, staff, and celebs that rock the tiny dance hall on West 12th. For those who are really in the know, there is a special secret buried in the article, but good luck finding it! Everyone knows that Paul Sevigny loathes press, so this may just get George banned from the place forever. But he doesn't care, saying "if I'm banned, so be it". That's the spirit! [via Gawker] More...

Sometimes things are too funny. For instance, we had a great time getting everyone pumped for El Bano, including our humorous little interview with their "management". But apparently some people are still holding out hope that there really is a new secret lounge that is only accessible through a bodega bathroom. Here are two recent emails we received: Has El Bano opened!? Any word? What's the deal with El Bano!? I'm sure everyone wants to hear more,havent heard of anyone going. Plus anyone worthwhile will clearly beat The Eldridge! Fill us in please. So yes, what is the deal? When will the rest of the non-blogging world have a chance to get their key? Will there be real gold flakes in the cocktails? We sit on the edge of our seats, begging for more information. But only because our readers clamor for it, not because we really give a hoot. More...

Mixing apples and oranges I’m into rock and less so everything else. Back in the traditional rock and roll clubs, disco which evolved into house, was the enemy. We looked at that crowd as mainstream and there were posters and t-shirts made to proclaim our superiority. One of the things Ricky Greenstein is doing is supporting a mash or is it a mosh of open format DJs with serious rock stars. His talent, Tommy Lee Jones and Dave Navarro, are performing live with his other talent superstar DJs like Scribble with very interesting results. I mentioned once before the set I saw DJ AM play with Jazzy Jeff and how impressed I was with the dynamic, and not just because of the novelty. It was real fun and I wondered how long before we saw DJ pairings commonly. Clubs looking for post bottle era answers might find value in what it used to be about, the music. Most clubs are happy to hire trendy or scene DJs with inconsistent talent as it is perceived that the models and boys and men that chase them are musically ignorant. The pretty set is effectively used as bait to lure in the big fish spending big bucks. As this spender starts to show up less frequently and charge less to the black card, the value of these skinny sirens and the promoters that harvest them may severely diminish. It may be far more effective to spend beaucoup bucks on entertainment. When I was booking clubs like the Palladium, I was on the phone with agents on a daily basis. I was always putting someone on the big stage to entertain the masses as it was perceived at that time that it was the masses that paid the bills. Now the masses, or filler as we call it, pay some of the bills but it’s the tables that keep owners in their summer homes and black cars. If talent again becomes important then the current batch of operators will need a crash course in booking, or the agents will chew them up and spit them out faster than you can say per diem, force majeure, or backline. Steve Lewis: I’m sitting with Ricky Greenstein. Ricky is one of the partners in Mood swing 360. What does that mean Moodswing 360? Ricky Greenstein: Coming up with the company name took some time. Myself and a partner have had this company for nine years called CEG talent; Central Entertainment Group. Six years into it I met my current partner Johnny Maroney, and coming up with a name for our new venture took us about three months. Johnny said something about how we were so up and down with everything throughout our days between the club owners, artist themselves – it can be a nightmare. SL: So Moodswing is cause you guys both go through mood swings? RG: Throughout a day, yeah. SL: And 360 is just a record swinging around? RG: One of the reasons for leaving CEG Talent was that it became a booking agency. It was all about booking, and what we really wanted to do was start developing artists from beginning to end and not solely book their shows and venues. It was also really important to us not to just take on DJs as that was the concept of CEG. SL: Sort of like that guy who takes on rock bands when they’re small and puts them in the little venues that he’s involved with, and then he takes them up all the way to playing stadiums. RG: Yeah, and of course that would be the ultimate dream, to be on that level. Not just to be taking an artist and promoting the concert, which of course we love to do, but bringing them up through the entire process. When I start I was working solely with DJs and now it’s become the type of situation where we are putting together major touring acts. For example, right now we have Cisco Adler and Shwayze with this kid Tyga, and we’ve placed them with DJ Skeet Skeet. These venues are not twenty thousand seat arenas or anything, they’re two to three thousand person clubs and venues that we’re selling out. While we do specialize in booking the act in the club we also taking care of the marketing end of it; laying out ad-mats and coming up with graphics and markets of distribution. We are also taking care of managing the artists’ websites, Myspaces, and doing everything that has to do with the event itself. SL: Are you selling mix tapes of these DJs? RG: That’s a big part of it too. We put together the DJs mix tapes and do the whole production; graphics on the CD and the insert. Sarah Cunningham (Publicist): One of the things that really impressed me was when we were working with DJ Chachi. Moodswing360 had helped him to take one of his great sets that he had done at Murmur and get it to where it was like a recorded track that can be played over the radio. Now they have the capability to say, “Hey I have Chachi in an open format CD, spinning to sold out crowd at Murmur, one of the larger clubs on the east coast. SL: Murmur is in Atlantic City, at the Borgata. Sarah: Yes. And in all fairness, and this is involving disclaimers… its one of my… SL: You’re talking about fairness… disclaimer on a blog… Sarah: Yeah I know right! SL: Fuck that shit. So now you’re booking DJs, you’re routing DJs. You’re hitting multiple circuits. I hear a lot of the work you’re doing is in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Foxwoods did you say? RG: Yeah. I opened up at the new MGM Grand at Foxwoods. Vegas is one of those spots where they have concerts every night, and out there they are not willing to spend the money that a stand alone club will. In New York or LA there are so many DJs to be had that most venues go with the cheap DJs. Atlantic City clubs usually only book Thursday through Saturday, and they are willing spend more as they have more money to spend. SL: I went down to visit Eric Millstein; he told me he was a friend of yours. As we were driving down the highway into AC to visit Eric, we were seeing these names like Sky Nellor and Cassidy on the billboards. We realized then that DJs are blowing up. They have faces now that everyone recognizes. Their names are very much recognized and it’s like they’re becoming rock stars. There was nothing like when I was with Tiesto at Webster Hall a couple months ago, and it became apparent that the DJ is this generations’ rock star. It’s crazy. RG: I know. It has become that way with all these DJs like who have gone from a house DJ to an open format. SL: Explain that term - open format. RG: It’s the sound that you hear coming from Skribble, who I’ve managed for nine years. He’s always played a mix of hip hop with house, 80’s and rock. SL: It’s many genres. It’s like a mash up. RG: Exactly. Open format is another term for mash up. And I don’t ant to say that Skribble is the creator of it but he has been doing it for quite some time. Also Riz, another client of mine has been playing open format for a long time SL: Riz is a great guy and an amazing DJ. He’s been a friend of mine for awhile. He’s known by most of the DJ community as one of the best there is but he’s not getting the credit or the name that many of these DJs have. RG: I’m glad you said it because he is probably one of the best DJs in the world. All of his colleagues say the same, everyone respects him. He started from underground hip-hop and went to the mash up thing. He doesn’t declare himself this but he’s the king of the mash up. SL: Now, do you consider yourself a booking agent, is that the title? RG: I’d say I manage. You know why, because a booking agent has almost become a negative connotation. SL: Yeah – it’s mosquitoes, cockroaches, rats, then agents… RG: And that is how people think of it, and it’s kind of annoying. SL: Manager is a better word. RG: Manager is a better word. That’s part of the reason I left what I was doing. I didn’t leave just to do the same thing that I was doing although yes, ninety percent of any artist’s money is from touring. SL: And that wasn’t true back in the day. RG: No, of course I know. It has changed dramatically. SL: It’s gone 360… RG: 180. SL: I’m not good at math. RG: The truth is that it’s not that I don’t want to be labeled, because I don’t care what anybody labels me as, but I know what I’m doing. The majority of the money for these artists whether it’s a new artist in a development kind of thing or DJs that have been around forever, most of the money is coming from touring. So I do book all of their shows, but I also am controlling all of the other aspects of that. SL: Yeah, let’s get into that. When I walked into your office there was that kid behind the desk. He is someone that’s familiar to me; he’s a street wise, hip kinda guy. You can get a hip young guy, a hungry kid who will make some phone calls to clubs and book their talent. Most club owners in the industry might know who he is. What’s the difference between having a guy like that kid, as opposed to having a guy like you? Why would I want to pay commission to someone like you? What do you offer that’s more than I could do myself? RG: That’s a good question. I’ve had this conversation a thousand times over the years. The answer is that we are not simply booking the talent. We’re booking their travel, we’re taking care of all the Myspace, Facebook, and other various websites, we take care of their hotel arrangements, their car pickup, and everything having to do with contracts and the collecting of money; amongst other things. SL: Are you a lawyer? RG: No. If I was a lawyer I would’ve been a sports agent. SL: So the answer is that you’re a manager. RG: The answer is I’m definitely a manager. I’m managing people’s lives, their projects and their money. I have a nice team around me that helps to take care of all the duties mentioned. And again, I’ve been doing this for twelve years now so my connections with the clubs and guys like yourself are strong. They know me, they know my name, they know what my company is capable of. SL: Did you ever DJ? RG: No. Sarah: I’d just like to interject and bring up the partnerships that you were able to do. For example, when we put Skribble and Tommy Lee together. An artist is a lover of music and understands how to use Serato and how vinyl works. They can go on tour with their band or host their TV show or whatever, and in between we can be taking them to clubs to spin. They sort of have built a name for themselves other than as being a member of whatever band they are a part of. Listening to Pete Wentz DJ was kind of impressive because he is actually a really strong DJ; you hear all of the different influences that he’s into. SL: Is Tommy Lee playing house music? RG: Not everybody appreciates me saying this, but the truth is a lot of people make fun of the whole rock celebrity DJ thing. While there are many who maybe are not that great, there are those who really can DJ very well. When I met Tommy Lee through Skribble about four years ago, he expressed an interest in wanting to DJ. He liked it and partnered up with a guy named DJ Aero, and they played all electro-house. SL: He’s a rock star he’s know as a rock artist , Pam Anderson, That’s what he’s known for. Now he’s doing house music which is a completely different genre. I wanted to book Tommy Lee for the opening of something… RG: And he wouldn’t do it. SL: No, he wouldn’t do it. I mean he’s a nice guy. I wanted to give him a plug because I’m a PETA member so when I designed home. I took a lot less of my fee upfront because the club was willing to ban fur which is really important to me I took a lot less money to design it and Tommy stepped up to promote for PETA. We did some photo-ops, there was a poster … he’s a great guy. RG: Honestly he is one of the greatest guys we’ve met. Good Night, Mr. Lewis Interview conducted and written by Steve Lewis. Interview has been edited and condensed by Jessica Tocko. More...

Leave it up to our friends from Sixpoint to make an electoral statement with a handcrafted beer. Brooklyn's finest has brewed up Hop Obama, which features five types of malts and three varieties of hop, and results in a unified flavor from an extremely diverse background. Get it? The beer is located through the remainder of the election season, and can be found on tap at your local brew pub. Make a statement with your beer. More...

Did you not get past the velvet ropes of the Eldridge to hang out with NBA announcer Kenny Smith and drink $26 cocktails with real gold flakes? That's too bad. But we've got news for you. You can just put yourself on the guest list via facebook. A LB tells us, "i just got this facebook msg from scott, naeems bf "hey guys! ifyou want to come tonight please add yourself to the guestlist onFACEBOOK. The Eldridge people do not know who you are and if you don'tlet me know, you will not be on the guestlist. thank you." Be advised - write your name in a short, choppy sentence so that you can make the guest list. If its not written in that format, the door people won't understand what you wrote, and you will not get in to mingle with celebrities like Kenny Smith, Camryn Mannheim and MTV’s Suchin Pak. What an action packed lineup! We wonder if any of them hooked up! Also, in case you are wondering Scott and Naeem love it there, saying "The space is really beautiful and intimate. The cocktails areoutrageously decadent and we plan on spending future evenings samplingthe entire drinks menu." That's reason enough for us to stay away, but it may be just enough reason for us to move as well. More...

NYU students increase vices [Gothamist] It's even harder to get a girl in NYC than you thought [Gawker] Crosby St will get a new hotel soonish [Curbed] Flooded loos at 1Oak [NYM] More...

The dapper Zachary Palmer has asked your humble servant (that’s me. I'm humble! I'm one of the most humble people around, ask anyone! Or just ask me!) to be both a judge and a presenter for the second annual L Magazine awards which will happen on September 16th at Touch. I admit that the extensive ballot had me a bit baffled at times, and I leaned on a younger and more trendy crew of friends for advice when I had to. I'm not sure if this is breaking the rules, as no rules were sent, and I wouldn’t have paid attention anyway. The question on my mind is, how many of the industry professionals who read my humble blog would know how to vote? Would those that control nightlife as we know it have any idea who these people are? I think the answer is no. The L Magazine ballot would probably baffle ninety-nine percent of those making creative decisions at Manhattan nightclubs, and if that is true it’s as good an explanation of why the scene sucks as any. I’m very pleased with myself at the ripe old age of thirty-nine (ok, I got shoes that are thirty-nine) that I had an opinion and could weigh in responsibly. I’m also happy I had people to call and was only one degree of separation from a valid vote. It should also be noted that the scene that this awards ceremony speaks to is in itself only a part of the big picture; a small part, of course, of nightlife as a whole. Just as the Meatpacking and outer Chelsea scenes touched upon in the balloting are fairly one dimensional and predictable, this scene is also a clique and often close minded. When I operated clubs I surrounded myself with young, usually highly educated people, from many scenes. It’s ironic that so many of these people have gone on and are now owner/operators. My humble success was because I knew how to integrate the better parts of many scenes into one nightclub. I was watching this documentary on the Roxy on Logo TV the other night; Gene DiNino, who owned the place asked me to watch it. There was an interview with my pal Marc Berkley in which he said that the gay scene post Roxy had become so specialized that there were bars that catered to every whim or specialized group. There were bars he quipped that catered to ‘Asian men who likes black men from Brazil, and there's a bar for you.’ And that the scene was so spread out that a mega club was no longer valid. I disagree. I think a mega club is not only valid but is necessary if New York nightlife is to thrive again. Mansion, a giant club, does not deal with a diversified crowd. It caters to basically one or two crowds. When I spoke of its’ potential it was based on my belief that Mark Baker would integrate a diverse New York trendy scene into the euros and the Miami Vice set that came with the brand, and now populate the joint. In the beginning I think he tried, but the need to make money relegated all scenes except those that buy bottles to second class citizenship. The art of a big club is making everyone feel like they belong. Although Mansion is still standing I can’t say that it has lived up to its’ potential. Knowing Mark I believe he has tried his best to encourage diversity, but the Miami elitists who control Mansion aren’t as broad minded. Marquee, which often has a corporate image, actually does the most of any of the clubs to mix the young trendies with the model/bottle cult. It's the reason that it is still successful after so many years. Marquee management is constantly seeking out the next generation and backing that class with money and music. Now even I, your humble servant, can't be all things to all people, but at least there is an attempt, at Marquee, to embrace "exclusive diversity" as a marketing strategy. Most clubs are catering to a single crowd and their concept or "sentence" is "come here and you will hang with people like you". There are too many clubs to support this promotional strategy. There are too many clubs run by followers who believe they know what they are doing because they have watched and learned how to cater to one crowd. Clubs will have to diversify in order to fill their rooms and odd nights. Those owners that can adjust to this climate change will survive, the rest will go extinct. If I'm sounding a bit like Al Gore projecting doom, I’ll humbly accept the comparison. It's the end of the world as they know it and again, if I did anything better than the rest, I can humbly say it was mixing and combining crowds. This is again the way it will have to be to survive in most cases. Welcome to my world. Good Night, Mr. Lewis Written by Steve Lewis. Edited by Jessica Tocko. Editor’s Note: Following is the L Magazine Awards ballot. Steve has already voted, but we’d love for you to put your two sense in. The L Magazine is New York City's local magazine; a dynamic and comprehensive city guide for young New Yorkers. By fusing the methodology of an alternative publication with the hard content of an event and city guide, the magazine has created a new model. The first issue was published in April of 2003, and issues are distributed free every week (105,000 ABC audited) to the heart of New York City. Zachary David Palmer has served as Nightlife Editor, a role which he originated since November 2005. *Mix of Nightlife and Fashion: Nominees: #1: BYTE #2: Disco Down #3: High Voltage, Ether, Six Six Sick, Trouble and Bass, Ruff Club, Minou, Fashion Indie, Luxe Presents... Parties, Stereo-Type, Cut NYC, TRASH! *Mix of Nightlife and Live Music: Nominees: #1: Lit #2: Minou, Cheeky Bastard #3: Phat Baby, Famous Friends Parties, Santos, Studio B *Mix of Nightlife and Art: Nominees: #1: Lit #2: Beatrice, Supreme Trading, Arlo + Esme, Galapagos, Stereo-Type, Glasslands, Hugs, "Mondays at Lit" *Most Thriving Scene: Nominees: #1: Electro #2: Metropolitan, Williamsburg, Bushwick, "hipster crap" #3: Ruff, Annex, shoegaze revival, it's mushed up (as in, no real scenes), DIY, downtown rock scene, the bathroom line, "anywhere but Manhattan" All-Night Train: Nominees: #1: L train #2: JMZ #3: "none!" #4: J (singular), G, R, F 2007: A train Car Service: Nominees: #1: Metropolitan in Williamsburg, Northside #2: Arecibo #3: McGuinness, New Brooklyn, New Bell, Yellow Cab, 7777777 Carmel, Mobil, TKOmri's Party Wagon and Falafel Bus, bikes 2007: Taxi Fashion Trend: Nominees: #1: Glitter #2: neck-brace, staying in #3: worst- boys with exposed chests/low v-necks, "being demure would be a great trendâ€, large bows, brown leather dress shoes, 80s bathing suits as onesies, "the absense of oneâ€, being yourself, headbands over foreheads, over-sized glasses, clothing optional, "anything but shutter shadesâ€, "fuck trends," glowsticks, Pokemon vomit 2007: Fanny Pack Post-Clubbing Food: Nominees: #1: Ray's Pizza, Punjabi, San Loco #2: Yaffa #3: Pizza #4: Around the Clock, crepes, sandwiches at Hanna's, Salonike, Koronet Pizza, Big Easy, anytime, the Flame, it is not healthy to eat that late, Anna Maria's, NYC bodega-scene, Hana Deli, 7A, Cafeteria, wraps, cottage cheese/hummus/milk/cashews 2007: San Loco Night to Go Out: Nominees: #1: Thursday #2: Tuesday #3: Friday #4: Wednesday #5: Saturday 2007: Friday New Song: Nominees: 1. Kingdom, Dave Gahan 2. Kids, MGMT; Lower East Side, Santogold; Shut up & Let Me Go, The Ting Tings; I Love NY, Drop the Lime; Paper Plates, MIA; I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance, Black Kids; Breakfast, Le Le; Man's Needs, The Cribs; Pop Levi, Mai's Space; Electric Feel, MGMT; MIA Bamboo Banga; No Biterz, Miss TK & The Revenge; Crimeware, Crystal Castles; Tony the Beat, The Sounds *Female Hard Rock DJ: Nominees: #1: Theo Kogan, Carin Shock #2: Shar Gorgiiss, Lauren Flax, Lady Starlight *In-Park Party/Festival/DJ Performance: Nominees: #1: Paul Van Dyk #2: BEMF, McCarren Park, Santogold at Summer Stage, Diplo and A-Trak at Summer Stage, Siren Music Festival, Sundays Best at The Yard, Kevin Saunderson at The Yard, Jelly, The Yard Record Label: Nominees: #1: iheartcomix #2: Epic, DIY, Tiger Sushi, Tesco Distributions, Flagrant Fowl, Kitsune, Norton Records, The Seven Inch Project, Interscope, Disco Not Disco, DFA, Palms Out, Trouble & Bass, "They all suck" 2007: Vacancy Records DJ: Nominees: #1: DJ Jess #2: Jeremy (DJ Bastard), Jake Destroyer, VDRK, Dimitry!!! #3: DJ Eli, Lauren Flax, Alan Astor, John Tejada, Trouble & Bass crew, Alex English, Guy, Michael T, Krames, Twig the Wonderkid, Josh Houtkin, Treasure Fingers, Phast Phreddie, Honey Dijon, Chris Alker, Kids With Snakes, Sushi Steve 2007: rekLES Rock 'n' Roll DJ: Nominees: #1: Twig the Wonderkid #2: Miss Guy *Goth (Forgive the Catch-All) Night: Nominees: #1: BYTE #2: Salvation, SMack!, Weird at Home Sweet Home, Just One Fix, Manic at Trophy, Contempt, Batcave *Underground Party: Nominees: #1: Copy Cat, Minou, Famous Friends, Tingle Tangle, Trouble & Bass, Rubalad, BYTE, Bodega *Party for Live Music (Drumming, Etc.) During and/or Between DJ Sets: Nominees: #1: Minou #2: Cheeky Bastard, Soulpusher *Party to be Abjectly Humiliated by the Emcee: Nominees: #1: Rated X "where's Formika?" *Outdoor Party: Nominees: #1: Sundays Best at The Yard, BEMF #2: Hope Lounge, High Bar, McCarren Pool #3: Sunday Funday at The Yard, McCarren Park, Yard *After Work Party: Nominees: #1: High Voltage, A Rock and a Hard Place, $ Drafts at Turtle Bay, The Hump at Blue Owl, Danny Krivit at Water Taxi Beach *Salsa Night: Nominees: #1: Thursdays at Salsa Salon, "Flamenco is more my style," "That one on 13th b/w A & B, "Nublu?" *Party with Live Performances (Music, Otherwise): Nominees: #1: BYTE #2: Minou #3: Ether, TRASH!, Fixed, Cheeky Bastard, PS1, The Pull-Out Method, RebelRebel, Boys & Girls, Friction, High Voltage, Soulpusher, Rated X, Shout!, The Rub New Party: Nominees: #1: Disco Down #2: Girls & Boys #3: Minou #4: Ether, Bottoms Up!, El Bano, Boys & Girls, Stereo-Type, Ninjasonik on Wed at Happy Ending, Tingle Tangle, Highbar, Yeah Yeah!, Trouble & Bass, Campout, The Hump, The Panty Raid 2007: High Voltage Party: Nominees: #1: BYTE, TRASH! #2: High Voltage #3: Trouble & Bass, Rated X #4: M, Ether, Six Six Sick, Fixed, Unstoppable Perfect, Subway Soul Club, The Pull-Out Method, Nacotheque, Stereo-Type, Cheeky Bastard, East Side Social Clvb, The Panty Raid 2007: FUN Gay Night: Nominees: #1: The Filthy Party at Metropolitan, Family, Sundays at Hiro #2: Splash, Wednesdays at Metropolitan, The Look, mr. black, "Friday (anywhere)" 2007: The Factory Go Go: Nominees: #1: Amber Star #2: Ariel #3: Kelly Hurt, Abby (Chantilly Lace), Apathy Angel, "that hot chick at Beauty Bar on Wednesdays," Lady Starlight, Anna Copa Cabana 2007: Machine Sex *Promoter Most Likely to Coerce You into a Bathroom Stall: Nominees: #1: Michael T #2: "Everyone" *Promoter: Nominees: #1: Andy Shaw #2: Famous Friends #3: Jess #4: Alex English, Frances and Lena, Twig the Wonderkid, Eamon Harkin, Alan Philips, Ruth Heronemus, One Night Stand, Dimitry, TKOmri, Cut, Michael de Guzman, Senari, "they're all drug addicts" 2007: Andy Shaw *Burlesque Performer: Nominees: #1: Amber Star #2: Stormy Leather #3: Venus Velour, Legs Malone, Peekaboo Pointe, Tigger, Janis DiMilo, Tali DiMar, "all the TRASH! ones" *Most Attractive Bartender: Nominees: #1: Aaron (40 C) #2: Robert at Happy Ending, Matt at Union Pool, Mary Kate at Crash Mansion, Lauren Larkin, Maddy Thaler at Royal Oak, "the long-haired model at Beatrice on Fridays" *Most Attractive Cocktail/Bottle Waitress: Nominees: #1: Rebel *Drag Performer: Nominees: #1: Deryck Todd #2: Trigger, Acid Betty, Rainblo, Epiphan, Peppermint Gummybear *Gender Fuck Performer: Nominees: #1: Pixie Harlots *Best-Looking Record Exec in Town: Nominees: #1: Nick Catchdubs *Greatest Living Nightlife Editor: Nominees: #1: Zachary David Palmer #2: Michael Musto, Seva Granik Greatest Living New Yorker: Nominees: #1: Jimmy from Trash & Vaudville #2: Michael T #3: Dimitry!!!, Edward Gorey, Don Mattingly, Robert Deniro, Malisa Meresman, Andy Shaw, Anna Wintour, Woody Allen, Twig the Wonderkid (Antonio), Jack Walls, Jayne Country, Rosie O'Donnell, Danny Krivit 2007: Antonio New Comer: Nominees: #1: Glitter Kids #2: Keyle #3: Patrickdoesit, Lena Utin, Ashley the pirate, Jake D., Charlotte Rose of Luxe, Peter Jay, Ruthie (Famous Friends), Senari, "class of 2012," "anyone that gives me drugs" 2007: Jason Ultra Nightlife Photographer: Nominees: #1: Jess-indierotica.com, Nicky Digital #2: Jeff-thecultureofme.com #3: Igor-drivenbyboredom.com, Brad Walsh, Nikola #4: Scott Rudd, Isabel-isaphoto.com, Patrick Parault, Bronques, darkroomdemons, Mr. Photog 2007: Nikola Nightlife Icon: Nominees: #1: Amber Star, Dimitry!!!, Sophia Lamar, Michael T, Nicky Digital #2: Alex English, Joey Nova, Brad Walsh, Nick Zed, Georgie Seville, Larry Tee, Mistress Formika, Darwin Ortiz, Amanda Lepore, Mr. Photog, Justine D., Gary 2007: Michael T *Place to See DJs Spin Vinyl: Nominees: #1: Marquee #2: Beauty Bar, Santos #3: High Voltage, Studio B, Trophy, 205, Sundays Best, East Side Social Club, Love *Spot to See Breakdancing: Nominees: #1: McCarren Park Track #2: Rebel, Happy Ending with Ninjasonik, Happy Ending, Hiro on Thursdays *Yuppie-Spotting: Nominees: #1: Beatrice #2: Hiro, Manhattan #3: Bar 13, Ruff Club, Vintage, weekends in Meatpacking, weekends in East Village, "L Magazine Nightlife Awards Party" *Spot for Anonymous Sexual Encounters: Nominees: #1: Lit, The Box #2: Don Hill's, Six Six Sick, High Voltage, Bowery Electric, Union Pool, The Cock, Chemistry NYC, TRASH!, "everywhere," "bathroom" *Gay Club: Nominees: #1. Metropolitan #2. Splash, 40 C, The Cock, Phoenix, HK *Place to Spot Celebrities: A-List: B-List: C-List: Nominees: A #1. Marquee #2. Beatrice B #1. Lit #2. Beatrice C #1. Lit #2. Three of Cups Mixed: Happy Ending, Bowery, Hiro *Post-Breakup Night Out Spot: Nominees: #1: Metropolitan, Lucky Chang's, Ruff Club, Chemistry NYC, Death & Co., "stay home" *"My Significant Other is Out of Town" Spot: Nominees: #1. Metropolitan, O'Conners (Brooklyn), Ruff Club, Chemistry NYC, Happy Ending, "stay home," "when my significant other is out of town, I drug myself until he comes back" *Most Relaxed No-Smoking Policy: Nominees: #1: Lit #2: Beatrice #3: 205 #4: Annex basement, Le Royale *Venue Decor: Nominees: #1. Lucky 13 Saloon #2. Love #3. Hugs, Happy Ending, 205, Hope Lounge, Le Royale, Bowery Electric, Chloe's, Cielo *Venue That Deserves Getting Dressed Up to Visit: Nominees: #1. Marquee #2. Beatrice, Gansevoort, Happy Ending, Clover Club, East Side Social Club *Most Dangerous In-Venue Staircase: Nominees: #1: Three of Cups #2. Le Royale #3. 205, Beatrice, Happy Ending, Rehab, The Pool at QT *Venue with the Most Pretentious Line-Companions: Nominees: #1. Marquee #2. 205 #3. Santos, Pink Elephant, Hiro, "who waits in line" *Open Bar: Nominees: #1. Lit #2. Minou #3. Happy Ending Tuesdays, Disco Down, Ether, A Rock and a Hard Place, Sparks, Zygo (High Voltage), R Bar, myopenbar.com, "all" Door Staff: Nominees: #1. Lit (Matt Kepler) #2. Annex, 40 C, Ro (Annex, darkroom), Happy Ending #3. TRASH!, darkroom, Johnny Bravo at Union Pool, Bowery Ballroom, Royal Oak, Gerard at Lolita Bar, Studio B, Don Hill's, Rahnon at The Rub, "anywhere but Hiro," "Rififi when TRASH! was there" 2007: Rififi Bar Staff: Nominees: #1. 40 C (Aaron) #2. Happy Ending, Le Royale, Beauty Bar #3. Matt and Jess at Savalas, 40 C, Charleston, Union Pool, Last Exit, Sweet Paradise, Royale Oak, Renee Marks (Lolita Bar), Studio B, The Plumm, Hanger Bar, Lit, R Bar, Fresh Salt 2007: Rififi Venue-Bar: Nominees: #1. Beauty Bar #2. Arlo & Esme, Savalas #3. Rodeo Bar, Motor City, Home Sweet Home, darkroom, Union Pool, Big Easy, Hugs, St. Jerome's, Cielo, Black and White, Hanger Bar, Duff's 2007: Rififi Venue-New: Nominees: #1. 40 C #2. Santos Party House #3. Arlo & Esme #4. Le Royale #5. High Bar, Country Club, Trophy, Market Hotel, Hugs, Hello Brooklyn, "Definitely not Santos" 2007: 200 Orchard Dance Floor: Nominees: #1. 40 C, Studio B #2. Cielo #3. Rififi, darkroom, Arlo & Esme, Touch, 205, Cielo, Annex, downstairs at Santos, Santos 2007: Studio B Sound System: Nominees: #1. Arlene's Grocery, Santos, Love #2. Annex, Sullivan, Hiro, 205, Europa 2007: Studio B Lighting System: Nominees: #1. Love #2. Annex Upstairs #3. Annex, Hiro, Bently Meeker, Santos, Europa, Cielo 2007: Studio B Venue-Club: Nominees: #1. The Delancey #2. Love, Santos #3. Happy Ending, Rebel #4. 40 C, Annex, darkroom, Bowery Ballroom, 205, Le Royale, Studio B, The Plumm, Market Hotel 2007: Studio B *Non-Theater/Concert Venue for Live Performances: Nominees: #1. Arlene's Grocery #2. Studio B #3. Annex, Don Hill's, Irving Plaza, Bowery Poetry Club, Pianos, Mercury Lounge, Maxwell's, McCarren Park Pool, Joe's Pub, Ars Nova, Market Hotel, Death By Audio *Bottle Service Menu: Nominees: #1. Marquee #2. Beatrice, Happy Ending, 205 *In-House Club Food: Nominees: #1. Trash Bar #2. Bowery Electric, Crash Mansion, Union Hall, sprinkles cupcakes at Country Club, Pete's Candy Store, Union Pool (Taco Truck), White Rabbit, Mason Dixon *Rooftop: Nominees: #1. The Delancey #2. Studio B #3. High Bar, 230 5th #4. 300 CPW, The Hudson, Bar 13, Daniel Casanova's house, Jordan's apartment More...

We never though the AvroKo folks could get Double Crown, their new restaurant on the Bowery exploring the "aesthetic and culinary dualities arising from the British Empire’s forays into India and Southeast Asia", open by the weekend. After all, we had visual proof that the space was barely finished. Alas, we were wrong. A Little Birdy happened by the space this past weekend and the noticed that they were setting up for a private event, meaning that despite being closed, Double Crown was indeed open. Our LB says, "inside looked big (extends way back), high ceilings, lots of wood, lotsof big dining tables with a long bar immediately on the right when youenter. Looks like a restaurant, not a bar/lounge" That's because the lounge will be in the basement and operate independently from the restaurant. We expect work to continue throughout the week with the public opening coming next week. Hold tight. Additional photos after the jump. More...

Opening night of Fashion Week continues with the Interview Magazine party at the soon to be completed Highline location of Andre Balazs Standard Hotel. Still a fairly raw construction site, the party had a pretty rough feel, with the bartenders wearing hard hats, lots of trannies and a somewhat chaotic door. Up on the 18th floor, the views were stunning in all directions. Notable attendees included DVF, Tommy Hilfiger (who we shared an elevator with), Sean McPherson, Terry Richardson and Lydia Hearst-Shaw. Notable attendees getting no love at the door and forced to wait in line included Kristian Laliberte and Taavo Somer. Now, that's our kind of party. More...

There is no better way to kick off fashion week than an intimate gathering of friends and glitterati several hundred feet above the ground. That's why we were thrilled to stop by the Mini Rooftop NYC event on the Far West Side to kick off New York's September extravaganza. The capacity was just 150, so we made sure to arrive early as not to be left out, and so did MK, Philip Crangi, Catherine Holstein, Jessica Stam, Ralph Mouth and Potsy. The main attraction, besides the superbly decorated rooftop, was a live set by MGMT (feeling no pain) and a DJ set by Diplo. The weather was perfect, the production was amazing, and the panaramic views of the city provided an amazing backdrop to the show. We drank, we smiled, we laughed, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. Ahhhh. The Mini Rooftop will last all week, with V Magazine, Vice Magazine, Shipley Halmos and Vena Cava's joint after party, and Rag and Bone's after party all being held there. Good times fer sher, but too exclusive to have any Guests. You know? More...

"I DON'T WORK FOR A PARTY, I DON'T WORK FOR A SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP, I DON'T WORK FOR MYSELF, I WORK FOR YOU." - John McCain "IT'S NOT ABOUT BUILDING A RECORD IT'S ABOUT HAVING A RECORD, IT'S NOT ABOUT TALKING PRETTY, IT'S ABOUT TALKING STRAIGHT." - Tom Ridge I felt like Roberta Flack in that song when that dude is killing her softly with his words. Those quotes up there made my blue and white eyes red as I felt they were meant just for me. I'm going to ignore all the snarky comments and attribute them to just some "ground noise and static" and in this spirit continue to make up my own mind…about THE ELDRIDGE. I ignored the txt msgs from the true believers to rush over there at like 10:30 'cause Donald Trump was there. As the speech was ending I glanced in the mirror and saw that The Donald and I were probably sporting a similar doo, and so not to show the man up I cleaned up my act. I left home and decided to foot it and digest the RNC and their hair doo's and such, and found myself lost looking for Eldridge Street. It's sad, as I used to know my way around down there. I asked a guy in front of a bodega which way it was and he just told me where it wasn't. Oh well, he was a forty ounce sort of fellow and I had my mind set on some of that Armand De Brignac. Another text asked me to rush to view Mr. Trump. In his honor and inspired by Mr. McCain’s plea to help my fellow Americans, I slipped a buck to the girl with the spikes, melting eye liner and the sign that said "help me I’m down on my luck.†She made me an offer I could refuse and I continued on my journey. A door of familiar faces smiled me inside to a room filled with tall and beautiful people. I was glad to see Matt Levine rushing and gushing over to me as I tower over him. He gave me the three minute tour. It's a small joint. There was the Armand De Brignac wall which was a lot less tacky than I expected. Indeed the place looked good. Not too much, the design stayed within itself and didn't overpower the pretty people. There were no new ideas. Matt thanked me for my supportive words and for being a friend. I looked him in the eye and told him that, ‘I’m not being his friend, I was telling it like I saw it. And if you fuck up I’m going to say that too.’ He smiled and said he understood, and started to rehash his journey to this night. Started to explain, maybe even apologize for things once said. I told him, ‘He had done a great job, everyone is talking about this place, and really who's talking about Catch 22?’ I lasted five minutes. Not because I didn’t love it but because it just isn’t my scene. The vans and t-shirt set outside the cheap seat joints left, and right of this oasis of all things modelly and bottley were confused. All were still shell shocked that Mr. Trump was on the block. ‘What’s up with that?’ queried an old queery friend who gave me the secret handshake. I told him it was a promo for the new Trump show "I'M JUST DONNIE FROM THE BLOCK". ‘He's from around the way ya know.’ He looked at me like I was Sarah Palin's husband and said, ‘FOR REAL?’ I told him, ‘We’re going to win’ and I left to look for a bar. Now I only drink two or three times a year, whenever I have sex - but this night of the RNC, The Donald, and The Eldridge deserved an exception. So I looked for that nice guy with the forty and the gal with the cardboard sign, with hopes of making them part of my America. More...

We challenged you, and you delivered. Two Little Birdys came through with the answer to the DBTH challenge, "who has been making it rain at Dune"? It's Chip! One LB delivered the full answer, saying "the guys name is chip. i'm told he's 29. he is a pakistani gentleman of"good reputation" with a "gamblers demeanor" he walks into a room likea "vegas whale". i've been told his money comes from textiles. he is abig spender who tips everyone who is working around him. he buys a lotof bottles. he requests the song "make it rain", has a bottle of ace ofspades delivered to his table with a lit sparkler and gets $300 insingles from the house. he throws the $300 in the air at the climaticmoment. everyone says he's loveable." He sounds loveable. Unfortunately, the summer is over, so Chip will have to find a new place to do his business. Please let us know when he finds one. More...

Photo courtesy of Daily News Let us weep for screenwriter Aaron Schnore, 38, who decided to mount the bull at Johnny Utah's and somehow got thrown off. Shocking. Now Schnore is suing the bar over the injuries he sustained when he fell off the mechanical animal. According to his attorney, Utah's staff "pumped it up until he could throw him. That to us is an assault and battery." To us, it's called the point. We expect this to be settled at some point, and have to question Schnore's decision to call the papers about it. You are suing about falling off a bull. Seriously. [DN] More...

The NY Barfly stopped by the Eldridge last night and posted the first review. Result? They loved it, saying "After a fewdeliberative cocktails – we came to a verdict. There is not that muchto hate in The Eldridge, in fact – there is plenty to enjoy." That's nice. In other Eldridge related news, a Little Birdy writes: I went to high school with Matt Levine and over the past few weeks Ihave been receiving MASS text messages saying "spread the word, the Eldridge is opening thurs night" Isn't this place suppose to beexclusive? It sounds like he is making a desperate cry for businesswhen the doors aren't even open yet. He is trying to tap all of hiswealth friends to come down and buy his ace of spades. More...

The Hunt, New York's hottest weekly party, is on the move to the Anchor. And since its Fashion Week, they will be throwing out $40 bottles of champagne, which seems to be a wee bit dangerous. These two creepy dudes will be DJing, but don't let them scare you off. $40 champagne! More...

Yesterday we posted day two of Steve's conversation with Noel Ashman. They chatted about his love of the white T, his relationship with various celebs, and talk of a girl by the name of Ivy Supersonic. If you missed day two, read it now. Otherwise keep on reading for day three. I went by the Eldridge space the other day. I’m looking to buy a bike and I stumbled past it as I was shopping around. It turns out I know the space well as Paul Sevigny was looking at it before he found Beatrice. I talked him out of the space, or at least he went along with the advice I was giving him. I thought it was too small for Paul’s needs and the location right by Bob’s and the Sapphire didn’t excite me. That was a minute ago and it might be right for Matt’s crew now. A minute or so ago the scene was far different than it is right now. Everything on 27th Street was working and meatpacking was automatic. That’s obviously not the case as I hear of at least one imminent closing in a prime West Chelsea location, while others continue to struggle along. Will Fashion Week and the return of the smart set from their summer homes provide the shot in the arm all are depending on? Will lowering gas prices spur the bridge and tunnelers to use the bridge and tunnels again? Will the absence of the Yankees from post season play be a boost to the October club season? Things are shaping up to be a game of musical chairs with maybe two or three chairs being pulled out at a time. The gathering storm clouds threatening clubdom are so serious that I might not attend the Exxxotica NYC convention on September 12th as a sign of support. I went to the sample sale at Barneys with Nicole and my pal Uriel and his lovely gal Nicky; we saw every bottle host and bartender in town scrambling for Christian Louboutin shoes and Marc Jacobs dresses. A super trendy crowd was preparing for the new year on the cheap. There weren’t ten people in this huge crowd that didn’t belong in a great club, I sure hope someone opens one soon. There was a time that Noel Ashman alludes to in his interview, when all the major clubs were abandoned and the more loungey/ restaurant type joints were all the vogue. I’m so bored with the formula pushed on an increasingly bored public. If I went a bit farther than many felt necessary in my praise for young Matt Levine last week, it was because although some of his ideas seemed… er … far fetched, at least they were new ways of looking at the status quo. I’ve reached an age in my life where enthusiasm is as important as talent. Too many of the super geniuses in club land are resting on their laurels and their hands and their asses, and I celebrate anybody willing to come along and shake this shit up. Mr. West seems ready to go down by the Chelsea Piers with Danny Devine and Jus Ske, answering all the questions that people have been asking about that location for the last five years. I hope this latest entry will succeed as it’s a pretty cool space, and I’ve always liked Danny and Jus. I visited the Roxy the other day at the bequest of some clients looking to use some of the considerable amounts of furniture and fixtures still contained at this sleeping mega club. It was a scene right out of Citizen Kane, with fancy chairs and mirrors and ottomans and sconces lined up in long neat rows. Roxy lays dormant now closed by real estate types with lofty ambitions. Hundreds of roller skates are strewn around and posters screamed the reasons to attend events that happened long ago. I picked through the bones and got what I needed, but what I wanted was Victor, or Jonathan, or Roman, or anyone to slam that giant sound system once again. I spent a lot of nights at 1018 and the Roxy as it became known. I felt like a grave robber rummaging through it and had to leave. Nothing has replaced the Roxy. Its’ “scene†has settled into a hundred bars and a few saloons that some call clubs, but none can ever attain the energy of this sprawling giant. Steve Lewis: Alright, so you have all these celebrity owners, and you’re trying to come up with a name. Noel Ashman: Well certain people didn’t really care, but some of them really cared. They would not settle on a name they didn’t like, so getting everyone to agree on a name was extremely difficult. Both times, NA and Plumm were very big challenges. SL: Where does The Plumm come from? NA: One of the guys who was very adamant about choosing a good name was Chris Noth. I came up with about twenty names that I went through with him, and The Plumm was one of them. SL: Why is it spelled with a double M? NA: To differentiate. I don’t like plum, it’s too common a name. I wanted a name as close to the actual fruit, but not make it just a fruit exactly - does that make sense? SL: Say it again. NA: I wanted to make it visually have a name, and I like the way Plumm looks on paper. SL: It does look good on paper, the fat m’s are really cool. Alright so how did the name come up? NA: Well it was one of the twenty names I had jotted down that I thought of. I had gone through the list and everyone was like, ‘Yes. No.’ I had certain people who wanted one, certain people who wanted another. Chris was one of the ones who didn’t like a lot of them, he was like, ‘No, no no.’ So The Plumm was on my list, and the funniest thing about it was that while I was talking to Chris I was eating a plum. He was like, ‘I can’t hear what the fuck you’re saying, what are you doing?’ And I was like ‘Oh sorry, I’m eating a plum.’ He said, ‘That, I like that one,’ which I was actually getting to anyway. SL: Love that. NA: And then he really campaigned for that name. He went around the set of Sex and the City and asked everyone their thoughts. SL: How important is the name? NA: You know, the funny thing about it is, people make a big deal out of it when in reality the name is not that important. SL: Well you called one of your clubs Veruka, which is what, a bunion or something like that… NA: It’s a wart. In Latin it translates to mean wart. SL: It’s a wart, hmm. NA: But we named Veruka not from that meaning but from the character Veruka Salt of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. Veruka Salt being the surly little girl who wanted everything and wanted it right now, so it’s kind of like a joke on the crowd that we have there, ‘I want to get in and I want to get in right now.’ That’s how we came up with the name. But yeah, you could name the club ‘Shit’ and it could still be great. SL: OK, now you worked at Supper Club and a ton of other places. How old are you now? NA: Oh, old. SL: Not as old as me, you’re not Steve Lewis old. NA: I’m thirty-eight. SL: Thirty-eight’s a good age, you know you’re reaching that forty age. NA: What’s funny for me though is that I’ve always been by far the youngest person in anything I’ve done. Even back when I was promoting I was the youngest, back when we had Earnest and Alexander promoting, I was the youngest. SL: Alexander, we were trying to remember that name the other day. NA: Oh really? SL: You know what the funny thing is, that you worked at Tatou also didn’t you? NA: Of course. SL: We actually were discussing this the other day also, we couldn’t get the spelling of Tatou from an interview we did with Kelly Cutrone, but then Mason Reese called in and spelled it out. I mean we knew it wasn’t spelled like tattoo but… NA: How is Mason? SL: Mason’s doing great, he has little restaurant down on Ludlow Street. He’s doing great, I speak to him all the time. NA: Tell him I say hello. SL: He reads the blog avidly. Yeah, he’ll want to come by and see you. He actually came to your birthday. NA: Oh really? Geeze, I was so drunk. Did you see how drunk I was? SL: Yes you were drunk on your birthday. I did come by on your birthday, which you have to admit, that’s rare that you get me out, but I did make my appearance. NA: I didn’t see you. SL: You did see me, you just don’t remember. Ask Kip he let me into the VIP. Mason said he was stopping in so I’m sure he was there. NA: I’m sure, I was so obliterated. My girlfriend literally had to hold me up cause I could not stand on my own. SL: By girlfriend you mean you’re dating Paula Devicq? NA: Yes, we date off and on. SL: It’s hard to have a relationship and a club. NA: Right, and she’s the kind of girl who’s in bed by 10 o’clock. She’s not a nightlife girl. SL: Well my current girl is not either, even though I’ve met all three of the significant exes in my life at nightclubs. I had met my first wife out at night, my second wife and now my third relationship, which will end up being my wife. NA: Are you with the Asian girl? SL: I’m with a blond. The Asian girl and I broke up with about three years ago, almost four. And now the girl I’m with, Nicole, she’s the love of my life. NA: That’s awesome. SL: Yeah, two years now we’re together, and it’s two years of nightclubs is like what? NA: Ten years. SL: Right, it’s a fifty year relationship. NA: No doubt about it. SL: And how about your mom, does your mom want you to settle down with a nice Jewish girl? NA: She’s like, ‘What are you waiting for?’ SL: Your mom is a trip. What is your relationship with her in the club, is she a hands-on day to day kind of person? NA: She helps out. With NA I had a couple partners who were more day stuff, book keeping and that end of it, the business end. We had a huge falling out which is a long story, so when we opened Plumm my mom kind of came in and helped with those sort of things. SL: She’s not one of the sixteen celebrities, but she’s in there. NA: She’s in there yeah, she’s a small investor. SL: Well she’s a great lady. But I mean I only met her when I was in there trying to work, and it was a trip. She’s really hands on, she was like really, ‘Why, why, why, why, why?’ NA: Well it’s funny cause she never had anything to do with anything I did club-wise, ever, until The Plumm. SL: She’s great. Noah has his sister Judy doing that end of it for them, then there’s Richie who has his sister at 1 Oak. NA: I went to high school with his sister, I never put that together. I just saw her recently at my high school reunion and that’s when I realized that it was Richie’s sister. I knew each of them separately but I never realized they were brother and sister. SL: I think that’s important - that family bond. There are so few people you can trust. NA: Exactly SL: I want to ask you what your feelings are on clubs today and those of the past. NA: I mean, back in the day there were a handful of really good clubs that people had access to go to. You had Veruka, Mumba, Chaos, Magnum, Life; those were the only clubs anyone relatively trendy or cool would go to. There were something like six, seven, eight, nine, ten maybe; clubs that were trendy and cool to be seen at. SL: So basically, at that time you could count the clubs on your fingers. NA: On your fingers, exactly. And as far as good clubs, you only had Veruka and Mumba, those were the only two at that time. SL: I thought Life was pretty good. NA: Life was great, but the period I’m talking about was after it had been open for like four and a half years. Life was my favorite club in the beginning, and I thought Life for the first year was amazing. SL: I thought the second year was better, you know that. NA: Do you really? SL: Yeah, I thought the second year of Life was better. I thought it was more natural; it was more of a mixed crowd and it was a lot more fun. Still maybe it was ten percent of your high end, but the middle was the filler. It was great. But yes, now things are different. How many clubs do you count now? NA: I actually counted them once because I was just so intrigued by it, of the clubs that are not necessarily the coolest, but clubs that someone could think to go to. SL: Or those that a DJ or a promoter could work. NA: Exactly, and I counted one hundred and thirty-five. SL: One hundred and thirty five right now? So you’re talking that this bubble has to burst, that there’s too many clubs right now. NA: One thing that’s really destroyed clubs is bottle services. It used to be that in order to get into a club you had to do something, you had to be interesting, you had to look cool. You had to have an interesting vibe, you know? SL: You had to have some credentials. NA: Exactly, you had to either be important, or you had to look important, interesting, or artistic. SL: You had to contribute to the overall scene of the club. NA: Exactly. And you might have worked at McDonalds, but if you wore a really cool suit, you made yourself look interesting, that was what you wanted in the club. Someone who worked at McDonalds could party next to, you know, Calvin Klein. That was the point of clubs going into the 80’s and the 90’s, and what happened to that was bottle service, even though I’m partially responsible because Veruka was one of the first clubs to do it. The difference was that our idea of doing bottle service was so that you would not have to have a waitress who would come with a tray of drinks and spill it all over people, and it was big mess. I was at clubs in Europe a lot, London, Paris; you’d see clubs there where they had bottles and mixers. The crowd was so much more comfortable. And that’s why we started doing bottle service, it wasn’t to bang someone over the head. SL: Life really took it to a certain level, but then everyone took it to another level, which was the start of having to buy bottles to get in. NA: And that’s what ruined it to me. See when we did bottle service it was done to make it easier for the customer, more comfortable. But it became a way to bang people over the head, to charge them a lot and make them pay a thousand dollars to walk in the door. SL: It became a way to pay the rent, rents went through the roof. NA: True. And to me, that was a problem. Now you have people who could get into clubs just because they’re going to be buying a bottle, whereas they would never even try to get into a hot club before because they’d be afraid to try. SL: They’d just hand over a bunch of Benjamin Franklins and get into the club. NA: To me it really changed the whole way clubs operate. SL: What percentage of your business is bottle service as opposed to bottle business? NA: Hmm, that’s a good question. Probably thirty or forty percent. SL: Still good, a lot of people do sixty or seventy. NA: Maybe we do fifty. Actually to be honest with you, it depends on the night. Certain nights we do a whole rock night where we do no bottle service at all, and then there’s certain nights like Saturday where we do more. The one thing we’ve tried to do at Plumm is that not everyone who can buy a bottle can get in. I have said, ‘Don’t let idiots in even if they’re buying bottles, I don’t care.’ Good Night, Mr. Lewis Interview conducted and written by Steve Lewis. Interview has been edited and condensed by Jessica Tocko. More...

The emails are pouring in. G Spa lounge, the tiny spa cum lounge in the basement of the Gansevoort Hotel,is no more. On Saturday night, the Spa will host its final shindig andyou are invited to give it its proper farewell. Well, maybe not you,but you can try. We were never a fan of the space because well, it wastiny and smelled like a spa. But still, it holds an important place inthe history of the Meatpacking district, in that it proved that for atime, no matter what you opened there, people would come. People wouldcome. Saynoara G Spa. More...

As luck would have it, we happened upon AvroKo's latest project in the former Manhatta space on the Bowery. Slated to open this month, Double Crown will feature 'British Colonial' food. The chef Brad Farmerie is from Public and brother of Andy, one of the Avro/Ko partners. There will be a separate lounge opening downstairs called Madam Geneva. From what we saw (and pictured), the space is lofty and full of gorgeous masonry work, with a large bar space on the southern side of the room. Andrea Strong's 9/16 opening prediction may be a bit lofty, but this puppy is close to being ready. Expect buzz to be revving high for this one through the remainder of the year, and if the food is right, Double Crown will grow to be a lower Bowery fixture along with the Bowery Hotel, Gemma, Whole Foods and McNally's new joint. On the Bowery. How weird is that? More...

Last week, DBTH had the opportunity to head to PDT for an intimate cocktail tasting with proprietor Jim Meehan to sample several cocktails featuring Gran Centenario tequila. While tequila was the main event, we also had the chance to pick Jim's brain about cocktails, PDT, and what ingredients have him really excited for the upcoming fall menu at PDT. One drink we tasted, the Fresa Verde, will be featured on said menu, and features Centenario Plata, fresh strawberries, green pepper, lime juice and pommegranate syrup. The drink had a full, earthy taste that really enhanced the agave flavor. Dynamite. And as for the fall menu ... More...

Yesterday we posted part one of Steve's conversation with Plumm owner Noel Ashman. They discussed his journey through clubdom from the early age of thirteen: living in an NYC apartment on his own, soon to have a live in girlfriend, throwing kiddie parties full of Upper East Siders. If you missed day one, read it now. Otherwise keep on reading for day two. “IF YOU CAN HANDLE A NIGHTCLUB AUDIENCE SUCCESSFULLY, YOU CAN HANDLE ANYTHING.†- Judy Holiday Noel Ashman’s approach to nightclub promotion starts with getting the name of his club in a periodical; in bold face next to a celebrity’s. Oh, and once in awhile he gets his name in there too. In our interviews with Danny A we discussed the importance of cultivating celebrities while protecting their name, and providing them with the luxuries a club has to offer. The most important things offered are free booze, women, and safety against rabid fans or item/photo craving paparazzi. Noel Ashman’s tables are particularly athlete heavy and that brings its’ own particular set of problems. Athletes aren’t always necessarily the type of celebrity that brings an ‘A’ crowd if their name appears near yours in the funny papers. They also, at least in season, are inclined to not want the world, including their coaches and managers, to know they were out before the big game. I remember one night a group of athlete’s wives showed up at the front door of my joint. Beautiful, well dressed, and out to have a good time, they dropped their husbands names in order to get V.I.P. treatment. We were very willing to accommodate but we stalled a little bit, just long enough for me to go downstairs and whisper in the ear of the husbands, clear the table of all females, and replace the bottle of vodka with a bucket of beers. The wives “surprised†their sad, lonely spouses and career ending injuries were averted. I was counting the stars and dreaming of sugar plum fairies one late night outside of the Red Zone when a car dropped off two very drunk large men. The security guards and I were laughing as they approached. One guy sort of fell onto the other and back and forth, but although these weebles wobbled, they didn’t fall down. I said, ‘Gentlemen, you can leave in this condition but I can’t let you in like this.’ They asked, ‘Even if we’re major league ballplayers?’ They showed us their MLB identity cards and we let the two all stars in. The next day they were awful; striking out, dropping pop ups, and the kicker came when one of them, the most famous guy from his team, appeared in a MLB sponsored commercial asking all to drink responsibly. Club people see a lot that doesn’t appear in the papers, and a lot that you do read is semi-true. Noel is surrounded by celebrity types and although many don’t make it into the papers, the people at the clubs see them and get to go home to Jersburbia and tell all about it. They come back looking for more and their friends come too, and once they’re used to the place, the doormen smile at them and they make all sorts of new friends. Once this sort of action starts to happen over and over again, your clubs a hit. I was walking down 27th street about a year ago when Chris, the kid who hustles tourists from the club that isn’t letting them in to a club that most likely will, hailed me. ‘Sugar Ray Leonard can’t get into Pink Elephant, can he join you?’ I was with a group of friends including my bestest pal Marcus, who studies Muay Thai kickboxing. We took Sugar Ray with us to Home where we were treated like world champs. Marcus and I spent a few hours with the former boxing great and his family and friends; it was amazing. Scores of people came by to pay their respects or beg an autograph. I had watched him so many times. I saw him beat Marvelous Marvin Hagler when most of the interested world thought that impossible. Clubs can bring people who exist in the two dimensional world of media to you in real; in the flesh, 3D, living color, up front and personal. The club connects you in this way to the world of glamour and success, where most are mere voyeurs. Steve Lewis: Everybody in the industry talks about everything, and we all praise and congratulate each other. There’s a fraternity comprised of these people like Noel Ashman and Steve Lewis and hundreds of others, who are part of a community of club management. The one thing we say as a group about Noel Ashman is that you hire the best publicists always. Your name is on Page Six almost as often as Richard Johnson’s. So how do you do that Noel? How do you get your name on Page Six and all these other places as often as you do? How are you such a press whore, how do you do this? Noel Ashman: I like that question. SL: You like that question? NA: Well first of all, I think I’m very lucky that people have found an interest in putting me on. I don’t think that I’m the slickest dude on the block… SL: Wait a second. I want to address that. You don’t think you’re the slickest dude around? I have never seen you in anything but a white t-shirt in over twelve years. NA: There you go. SL: I want to ask you a question. Do you have a new white t-shirt for every day of the week, or do you have a closet with like a hundred white t-shirts on hangers? NA: I think I wear black T’s too. I probably have twenty white t-shirts, twenty black, and twenty gray. SL: And you buy them, and you’re constantly changing them, and that’s your uniform… NA: Yes, and shorts. SL: Of course. NA: I wear shorts a lot. I’m very casual. I actually have very sensitive skin, to where it itches when I’m wearing a suit for example. Since I was very young I’ve been the most casual kid everywhere I went. Even back when I was younger going to formals and such, I would go in jeans and a t-shirt. It’s funny, the person I always get confused for even though I don’t look anything like him is Alex Von Furstenberg, cause anytime we go somewhere we immediately dress exactly alike. People yell to me, ‘Alex!’ ‘I’m Noel, the other guy in the t-shirt, that’s Alex.’ We are the two guys who always did that wherever we went. I think I’ve only worn a suit three times in my entire life. SL: You’ve worn a suit three times in your life, what were the three occasions? NA: Now that I think about it, it might be four actually. My father’s wedding, my Bar Mitzvah, Chuck Knoblauch’s wedding, where he made me, and David Well’s wedding, where he made me, oh and Robbie Kravitz’s 21st birthday. It was held somewhere where you had to wear a suit, and he gave me so much shit about it like, ‘My father will really be mad,’ so it was those five, four times besides my father’s wedding. SL: Ok, you’re not the slickest guy on the block but you just dropped about three or so names which I think was pretty slick. NA: Well you asked where I wore a suit, how I am going to answer that? SL: But you did drop some bold faced names, Robbie Kravitz, who’s Henry Kravitz’s son, you have Chuck Knoblauch who was second baseman for the Yankees, who ran into lots of troubles for us and was unable to continue performing in major league baseball because of his problems. Then David Wells, who despite his problems, despite the fact that he was in clubs drinking until the wee hours, was a great major league pitcher. NA: Well the thing about David is that everyone thinks he’s such a wild and crazy guy, and in a lot of ways he is, but he’s under control. He never ever loses control and he’s very aware of what he does, and knows exactly what his body can do and it can’t do. I was with him before he pitched in the World Series for example. And you know we were out, we were hanging out; he knew exactly what time he had to go to bed, he knew exactly what he had to eat, and although he had this image of being a wild and crazy guy (which he is by the way) he’s very bright. He really understands his body in a way that other people don’t get, and he doesn’t seem to need a lot of sleep. SL: Well I remember carrying him with the help of another guy, and David is a big guy; we were helping him get up the stairs at Life one night, and he was drunk. NA: I remember the night, drunk off beers. SL: He was drunk off beers, and as I carried him up to the first level I said, ‘Thank God you are not pitching tomorrow,’ and it was a Saturday night, and he said, ‘I got a 1:30 start tomorrow.’ I called my father and said, ‘Dad, bet the house.’ NA: Remember what he did that day? SL: No, I don’t remember. NA: Two hitter. I was with him. SL: Torre got pissed at him. NA: Torre and him had a hard time because of his drinking. SL: Right, they said it was a weight problem, but it wasn’t a weight problem, he was drinking and everyone in New York knew he was drinking. But of all of them you’re right, Dave was able to control himself more. And you’re also friends with Pavano and all these players… NA: How do you know that? SL: How do I know that? I know things. I’ve seen Pavano at your table a lot. He’s the nicest guy in the world, good looking when he’s cleaned up. He doesn’t look like a major league baseball player. He looks like a club guy, you know, a sharp looking guy. But he’s never been able to pitch since he got here. I read something that said, ‘I wish that he was on the mound as much as I see him in clubs.’ He’s gotten that criticism. NA: You know I think, especially when you’re an athlete, you can get away with a lot of things. Athletes are expected to be home by twelve, you know, but everyone’s different. Certain athletes can do it, like Wells being a prime example. As long as they know their boundaries and what they can and can’t do. It depends on the person, certain can’t play New York City, which is a very high pressure environment. SL: I remember one night when these San Francisco Giants were in my club partying hard and they had a game the next day. And this New York Yankee who was there told me that as a professional baseball player, for the most part, it doesn’t matter what field he plays on. He’s been playing since he was a baby, it doesn’t matter home field or away. But he says that when they’re home, the players are with their girlfriends and wives, and when they’re on the road is when they’re partying and whoring so much that they’re wrecked. So the big home field advantage is that when they’re home, they’re probably getting sleep at night, and when they’re on the road they’re out partying. You’re nodding your head yes. So publicists, we got off on this tangent. How the hell do you get your name in the papers so much? You’re in the papers more than Noah, more than Mark Baker, more than any of these guys. Now many guys don’t like the publicity. They avoid it, it’s not part of their shtick. You’re very press oriented, and that’s your thing, Veruka got the most publicity of any club I ever saw. NA: Studio got more… SL: Veruka was a small place that got an unbelievable amount of press. They had a diagram that was in the New Yorker or New York Magazine… NA: Entertainment weekly. SL: There was a diagram that showed every table in the place, and which was whatever celebrity’s favorite table. NA: It was actually a map of what celebrities had sat where over a three day period. We had three nights in a row, one was a huge event and two were just good nights. I remember we had everyone from Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg, Kevin Spacey, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Prince… SL: This was a celebrity based club, and you’re in Page Six a lot. One of your ways of marketing yourself is through newspapers, and you find that a much more important tool than many club owners. Explain to me your philosophy. NA: Well two things. One thing you asked before is, how do I do it? I think it’s funny because I don’t actually ever use one publicist. There are a couple I have used over the years. Look at someone like Susan Blond who never did a club before in her life. I used her once maybe eight years ago, and suddenly she was doing forty clubs. She used to always call and thank me. So to me it’s not about the publicist, at any given time I have two or three publicists who I have deals with. SL: So you make a deal like, I’ll give you this item and you get this kind of money, kind of a deal? NA: In part. A lot of these guys want me to get celebrities to come to their event type of thing. Like their client is opening up a hotel and I’ll get celebrities to come. I get to do a lot of corporate stuff, so I’ll bring celebrities to events and such. SL: You’ve maintained a relationship with Leonardo DiCaprio. Mark Wahlberg has always been a good friend of yours, and Mark is one of the coolest, most genuine people. NA: People don’t realize what a good person he is. SL: When I got in my trouble, Mark Wahlberg sent me a letter of support that really raised my spirits; he’s really a great person. So yes, you maintain a relationship with celebrities. Now most people consider celebrities to be commodities, but you actually think of them as friends, that’s the difference. NA: Most people who I guess you would say have celebrity clubs, do think of celebrities as commodities and they go out to meet the youngest, hottest celebs. The funny thing about me is, and I think you know this, I’m a very shy guy. SL: This is true. NA: There are owners and such who go and run up to every celebrity and try to make friends with them, I just kind of fell into it. A lot of the people I grew up with were lepers when they were younger, who everyone wanted out of their club. Now these little kids have gotten older and a lot of them became famous. SL: I remember walking Leo up to a club once, it might have been your party. I don’t know whose it was but it was up on 61st Street… NA: Mai Tai, sure. SL: That was your party, right. I remember that I brought him in with me and walked Leo across 1st Avenue to the club, and the door didn’t know who he was. He was a young guy then. Wow I forgot about that place, that’s right, Mai Tai on 61st and 1st. Why haven’t you done more things on the Upper East Side? NA: I used to when I started, I did a lot of things in my early days uptown like Country Club on Mondays. SL: On 79th Street was it? NA: Country Club was on 85th. I did Rouge which was Uptown at the time. I still have a very Upper East Side crowd, a lot of the Europeans and that kind of socialite crowd, but even a lot of them as they got older rather go Downtown if they’re going to a club. SL: So that’s your theory, that Uptown will always go Downtown. NA: And Downtown won’t go Uptown. Exactly. That’s a lot of work though. SL: A lot of work to get Uptown from Downtown? NA: Yes, it’s much easier to get Downtown. SL: Alright so now you’re at Plumm. Now, it’s an interesting story; every maybe three hours I get an email from a girl named Ivy Supersonic. Noel’s laughing. And Ivy Supersonic goes into like five hundred word tirades about you. And I think that she actually got arrested… NA: She was in jail, yeah. SL: Ok, so this is true, she got arrested. NA: I put her in jail. SL: You put her in jail, ok. Who is Ivy Supersonic? Why do I get emails from her and what the hell does she have to do with you and the club? NA: Ivy is the girl who I sort of had known from around the way for a while. She’s always been a little bit eccentric. SL: She’s a scene girl. NA: She has some issues. She used to beg me to do parties at the club, but I’ve always found her to be a little bit nutty. Nothing against her in that sense, but just a little nutty. SL: She’s an eccentric girl for sure. NA: Yeah, so I always kind of stayed away from her. Also, when it comes to celebrities, she’s aggressive and kind of rats on them; that’s something that’s very important to me when we talk about publicity. I never do a negative item… SL: We talk about that a lot, it’s called burning celebrities. NA: I never ever do a negative story on celebrities ever. If a celebrity comes to one of my clubs and doesn’t want to be in the paper, I won’t put them in the paper. If they want me to do a write up on them, then I will. I’ve always been very careful with celebrities. If they tell me to say something, I’m happy to do it, but certain celebrities come to my clubs every night and have never been in the paper as being in my club. SL: Well Leo’s been around the last few weeks and no one’s put his name in the paper. Leo’s out there every day now, and we’re not reading about it even though he’s hitting all the stops. The clubs have respect for Leo and they just don’t burn him. NA: Exactly, that’s the point. It’s very important to me not to have people around me who burn celebrities. Ivy’s one of those people who would go out of her way to talk about celebrities… SL: What happens is this. When you deal with Page Six, Rush and Molloy, and all these other gossip columnists, sometimes you feel that if you give them an item, if you need something in the future, it’s quid pro quo. Ivy wants to get her name in the paper as much as she can, so she’ll burn celebrities for future consideration. But you did let her in at one point yes? NA: Well what happened, to make a long story short, was she had been trying to do an event at the club for a while, but truthfully I didn’t really want to associate with her. Finally she talked one of my managers into letting her do a little event for a night, I think it was for some porn star or something. They decided to try her out, and were gonna pay her per head. She ended up bringing five people and said we owed her $20,000 because she’s a celebrity. Hey if Madonna came in, we would pay. SL: She went nuts on you guys. NA: Yeah, really that’s what it was. She wanted press and she knew attacking me would get a lot of press. It got to the point where she was attacking my friends, and all the things she was saying were complete lies, it was ridiculous. SL: She committed vandalism and… NA: Yeah, she went in and tried to spray paint something on the door that Noel has a big ego or something. SL: I’ve known Ivy for many years, and in this family of clubs you meet thousands of people and ever so often there are clashes. I know I got in the middle of this because she wanted to write about it on the blog. She wanted me to report it and she wanted to do the writing. I would say to her, ‘Chill the fuck out,’ and I just couldn’t get her to chill. She knows that she’s a freak but I happen to like her. Although yes, she would burn anyone to get herself publicity. NA: Right. So because of those reasons I never really wanted her around. Actually, there’s one exception that might be funny. There’s only one time in my entire career that I burned a celebrity, once. SL: What was that? NA: It was Mike Piazza, which you probably remember. SL: I do remember this sort of, but tell me exactly. I remember that he got burned in the paper. NA: Mike Piazza came to Veruka one night with about ten guys and they were all wearing sweats and shorts, really underdressed. My door guy recognized immediately that they were really undressed, so they weren’t letting him in. He immediately jumped into this, ‘Do you know who I am, I’m Mike Piazza, I’ll buy you, I’ll buy this club.’ Maybe he was drunk I guess. But yeah, they didn’t let him in and that was the end of it. I didn’t put it in the paper, I would have never put it in the paper. We left it alone and then the next day I get a call from a columnist who was saying that the Mets PR person called and claimed that I was discriminating against him because he was a Met. SL: Which is silly. NA: Which is stupid, right. He was saying it at the door like, ‘Well the Yankees get in here, how come I can’t come in here, da da da.’ Veruka was, as you know, very exclusive; we really ran by list. If you weren’t on the list, you weren’t on the list. SL: Well let’s be straight. The Yankees, when they go out, they all dress. The Mets never dress. It’s a matter of class. The Yankees as a team dress very well. When you see Alex Rodriguez in a club, which you do occasionally, he’s wearing a beautiful double breasted suit. Jeter dresses very well. They make a point to be very well dressed. NA: Except for Wells… SL: Well, but Wells is a great guy, we love him. But the point is that you would let Mike Piazza, who is a hall of fame level kind of ball player, into your club and he’d treated very well under most circumstances. NA: Right, but when it got back to me that he was really trying to get a negative item on me, on Veruka, that was when I told what happened. SL: I remember that he drove by Life one day, he was in the car with his dad. They looked over at the club and it was like six guys at the door who said, ‘Hey Mike, don’t even think about coming here.’ Everybody just started laughing. NA: I remember that. The best part is that about two years after that, I was in Veruka with Chuck Knoblauch and Mike Piazza walked in. I’m going, ‘Shit, here we go.’ And Chuck, being the wiseass he is goes, “Hey do you know that this is the guy who wouldn’t let you in?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh God.’ And to his credit, he came over and shook hands with me and said, ‘You know listen, I was really out of line that night. I was wrong, I was under dressed, and I really said a lot of things I wish I hadn’t said.’ He was actually a really good guy and I felt bad after that. SL: He actually had a good reputation, I kept on thinking Mike was never a New Yorker. I mean he always seemed like he was rented. You know we both follow baseball… NA: Actually, I don’t really love baseball. SL: You don’t? NA: I’m not a baseball man, no one realizes. SL: Then let me have your tickets, I need tickets always. NA: The funny thing is everyone thinks I’m a baseball fan. David Wells is one of my best friends. I’ve gotten friendly with Jeter and Giambi and Alex. I became friends with them because I’ve met their friends and it just fell into place. You know, the first time I met David Wells I didn’t know who he was. We met when he played for the Tigers and a friend of mine was like, ‘You guys gotta meet, because you would be best friends immediately.’ SL: I was called in to a very famous pop star’s apartment, and when I got to L.A. I was really nervous about this big celebrity… NA: Who was it? SL: I can’t tell you. NA: Come on tell, who? SL: I can’t, I was sworn to secrecy, even off the record I haven’t told anybody. So I went there and I was sitting with her for a little while when finally I said, ‘Look, I’ve got to tell you, I have no idea who you are.’ She goes, ‘Oh, that’s great!’ I told her what I thought she does, and she explained to me her career. I had no knowledge of anything she had ever done, I had never seen anything she had ever done. I had no idea. I knew her name, but people always assume that when you’re in this business that you know everybody. You just don’t have time for TV or movies, or to know all of these faces. NA: But you always could pick out the celebs…. SL: Oh yeah I know them, but because I have a great eye for people and celebrities. I do scan magazines and the papers. That is one of the things you do when you work the door of clubs for a long time. But about the Plumm, what most people don’t know is when you did Plumm, you actually hired me to do the layout. You hired a designer cause I couldn’t design if it was between your mother and myself, one of us would have ended up dead. Tell me about your mom’s role at the club. I remember your mom always looking over my shoulder while I was designing the place and she’d be going, ‘Why on earth…..’ She’s difficult, let’s be real, she’s your mom. NA: She’s my mom. Well, it’s a funny thing cause when I first opened, which the space was actually NA first… SL: Let’s talk about NA for minute. Is the NA for Noel Ashman or is it Nell’s Again? NA: I’ll never tell. SL: Ok. Or was it Not Again? NA: Not telling. Everyone agreeing on a name was one of the biggest challenges I had doing this club. SL: Isn’t it the most ridiculously hard thing in the world to pull off? NA: Oh it’s crazy. SL: You can open up a club, that’s the easy part. Naming the club is the hardest. NA: It’s even harder when you have fifteen celebrities who all have their exact idea of what they want the name to be. SL: Who are the people involved with the club, who are the owners of the club? NA: I always miss people, I’ll try, but I always miss people, it’s bad. SL: You know what we’ll do, you’re going to name them right now, and if you think later that you missed anyone, you can just call up my editor Jessica right here and you guys can fill in the blanks. Ok, who’s the celebrity owners of Nell’s and he’s going to get it right, ok… NA: Ok, here we go… Chris Noth, Jesse Bradford, Joey McIntrye, Simon Rex, Ethan Browne, Damon Dash, Samantha Ronson, Jason Grimsley, Ross Robinson, Bo Deitl, Ann Dexter-Jones, and David Wells of course. Good Night, Mr. Lewis Interview conducted and written by Steve Lewis. Interview has been edited and condensed by Jessica Tocko. Check back on Thursday for the final installment of Steve's conversation with Noel Ashman as they discuss how he and his crew came up with ‘The Plumm’, as well as his thoughts on the bubble that needs to burst in way of NYC nightlife. 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Remember Valentines Day in middle school, when kids walk around hoping to be special enough to be given a card or treat? Well, knowing that this is the week that the Eldridge sent out its "Guest of Matt Levine" cards to the 400 most special people on the planet (exclusing Tom Cruise), we can't feel more than just a little bummed. Why didn't we get one? Why did we only get a roll of two ply? Waa. Waa. Anyway, apparently there are scores of them going out to people. Pictured above are three cards sent to three Little Birdy's who lined them up and snapped a pretty picture. So pretty. A Little Birdy also told us that several people were getting multiple cards. Can they not find 400 recipients? We also were forwarded an email blast by Shecky's, who have been inside and state "this is the best $650,000 wall of Armand de Brignac among the tenements of the Lower East Side." You know Shecky's, always willing to go out on a limb. We will be standing in line outside each and every night, begging to be let as a +1. Have pity on us. More...

Over the weekend, Jim Meehan and his team at PDT took a few days of R&R and did a bit of work to their hidden East Village coktail den. Visitors to the bar will see a spit shined bar, a fresh coat of paint and some re-sanded floors, as well as a brand new ice machine churning out pellet ice cubes and some new taxidermy on the walls. PDT was closed for the weekend, but is open for business. Do stop by, if you can secure a coveted reservation. More...

“UPPER EAST SIDE QUEENS AREN’T BORN AT THE TOP, THEY CLIMB THEIR WAY UP IN HEELS NO MATTER WHO THEY HAVE TO TREAD ON TO DO IT…†- Gossip Girl Plumm’s head honcho, Noel Ashman, is not an owners owner. He does his own little thing and although he shares DJs, promoters, and some staff with the rest of the scene, he exists sort of on his own in his own little Shangra-La. We have made this analogy before and it really applies here. Each owner/operator does things his own way. They are indeed like pro poker players. Each has their own approach to the game, their own style. The math is the same for all of them as it is for club owners, but their approach to the game is very distinct and personal. Noel doesn’t dress up, he’s actually very shy and not always recognizable as the owner. He is blessed with an aura of honesty and despite an Upper East Side rich kid upbringing, he has a very down to earth demeanor. He basically wears a white t-shirt all the time. It’s his signature outfit. It creates a feeling of accessibility that transcends classes and cultures. Other owners discount him and his approach to the biz, but when I watch poker on TV these are often the guys left standing at the end. The Plumm location is strange. Just far enough from the meat districtto be not in it, but too close to take a cab. It’s surrounded by fratboy bars and c level clubs, and right next to a blinding yellow subwaysandwich shop. It isn’t exactly glamorous. Yet it was here that NellCampbell opened Nell’s, a club so chic and so different that it’sranked as one of the best of all time. Long after the celebrities andsmart set had moved on I would go and check out a jazz band and hangwith a real New York crowd, I’d even have a burger and some wondrousfries. This is from a guy that never ate in nightclubs. Although I didnot design Plumm, I was involved in the layout of the main floor. Iremoved some false columns and situated a stage at the far end of theroom. Shortened the bar, improved the entrance/egress situation, andrethought the seating plan. I still think that it could be a great rockand roll bar but alas, those aren’t making enough money these days. I think Noel’s approach to clubbing can be summarized like this. He befriends lots of people, celebs, and hoi polloi alike, and cultivates and maintains those relationships. His core crowd are the people he grew up with who support him to this day. It’s an old school saloon keeper approach, making people feel they are your friends and the club is a second home to them. With Noel, it is that way. I may only see him four or five times a year, but I consider him a friend and would never deny him an accommodation. Reliability of product and a familiarity with the people who feed you is a real good approach to the club biz. Noel’s nice guy approach is a winner. Steve Lewis: So I’m sitting here with Noel Ashman who is an old friend of mine and currently the owner of Plumm, the 14th Street nightclub in the location where Nell’s was. Some of the old people in the business will still say, ‘I wanna go by Nell’s tonight.’ I hear that once in a while, but they’re referring to Plumm. It’s big shoes to fill being in the space that was Nell’s, which was one of the greatest clubs of all time. And you can’t nod your head, you actually have to talk… Noel Ashman: Right, yeah the reason I bought it actually was because it was Nell’s. Nell’s was one of the first clubs I promoted in '86 when it first opened, so it’s an honor to be in their shoes. SL: It’s an unbelievable space. Nell’s lasted forever. Nell’s was famous because they charged five dollars to everybody, and I guess they got famous one night after they turned down Cher. They tried to make Cher pay five dollars and she refused. NA: I was there that night. SL: Oh yeah? Tell me about that, I was never really sure it happened. NA: Oh it’s true. I didn’t see it actually happen, but I was inside when it happened. Was it Jessica or Simon at the door? One of the two came in laughing, like, ‘Guess who we just turned away?’ SL: Jessica who? NA: Rosenblum. But it must have been Simon, I don’t think Jessica was there yet. Simon Allen was the first doorman at Nell’s. No one believed us, but it was on Page Six I think… SL: It was everywhere. I mean that was a big deal. I think the act of turning away Cher was better than letting her in, because if they let her in, they would have gotten one day of an item, ‘Cher was sighted at Nells.’ But in this way, it just went everywhere. Everyone was talking about it, and I guess that says, ‘Hey, everybody is going to pay.’ If they’re going to turn away Cher, they’ll turn away everybody. I guess it was a good business decision. NA: Definitely. SL: I like Cher. NA: She did something that offended them, I forget what it was. I forget the exact story, but she did something that was offensive. SL: Cher always seemed like such a sweetheart, but I guess she does have a temper, or maybe a little sarcasm. Although I’ve dealt with her, I’ve always found her to be ridiculously cool. Like when you’re talking to her she smiles, and you just know she’s listening. NA: Yeah she’s definitely a cool person. SL: So it was an honor to take over Nell’s, of course, but tell me how you started; you started when? NA: Uh, funny story. I started when I was thirteen, actually. SL: Thirteen years old? NA: Yeah,when I was thirteen, I lived with my mother at the time. My parents were divorced, but they got together and decided they were sending me to boarding school. I refused to go, and at the time I was working for a real estate company. SL: At thirteen? NA: Thirteen. It was my summer, after school job. I had a job since I was four years old actually; I can go through that, that’s kinda a funny story. But yeah, so I went to my boss, who I was very close with, and they owned like half the West Side. They had hundreds of apartments that weren’t selling at the moment. I asked if I could pay him cash to get an apartment for a little while, and he gave me a little apartment which was maybe the size of a big walk in closet. SL: You’re talking about 10x8 or something like that, 12x8. You’re thirteen years old and getting your own apartment. NA: Right, I moved out. Well, my parents basically kicked me out when I wouldn’t go to boarding school. SL: It’s gotta be illegal in every state but Kentucky to do that. NA: Without a doubt. But somehow I got away with it. We literally had a big fight, I left, and then didn’t speak to my parents for a year after I moved out. SL: So between the ages of thirteen and fourteen, you didn’t see your parents for a year, and you were supporting yourself in your own apartment. What’s the statue of limitations on a crime like that, I mean that’s got to be child abuse. NA: I don’t know actually. The funny thing at the time was when I wouldn’t go to school for a day, and my school would call my mom and be like, ‘Your son is not in school today.’ She’d say, ‘ Well I don’t know, call him, here’s his number, he doesn’t live with me.’ So they’d call me; it’s very funny. I had the best life in the whole world. SL: Tell me you weren’t getting laid at that age, right? NA: Actually, I hit puberty very, very young, so my first experience was around that time. SL: Jesus Christ, you were way ahead of me. NA: I had a live in girlfriend at fifteen. She was older. SL: That’s amazing. This is not an interview, we should do this as a movie. We should stop right now and turn this into a mini-series on Showtime. NA: You know, we’re doing a screenplay on this. SL: On what, you living with a girl at fifteen? NA: Well we’re doing a screenplay on my life. It’s not going to be my life exactly, it’s going to a character that is very loosely based on my life. SL: Gotcha. What’s your first job in a club? Tell me about that. NA: Well I didn’t start in clubs, I started in lofts. See, I was thirteen and I went to prep school with all kinds of rich kids in New York, but when you’re thirteen you really have nothing to do. Cause you’re not old enough to get into a club yet, but you’re too old to go to a movie every weekend. You’re kind of in that tween age of not knowing what to do. I was with a couple of my friends that had said, ‘Yeah let’s get together, let’s throw a party.’ So what I would do was rent out different lofts. I remember we called it Midyear, the invites were this flyer that had said, ‘Midyear Bash, five dollars all you can drink.’ Even though I was thirteen, I actually looked much older so no one ever carded me. I went and bought the kegs myself without a license. SL: Ok, so, now you’re thirteen years old, you’re not talking to your parents, and you’re throwing keggers in a loft. It’s not your loft cause you live in a small apartment, so you’ve got a loft…. NA: I’d go to like a starving artist and say, ‘I’ll give you three hundred bucks, just let me throw a party at your place.’ And they’d be like, ‘Sure!’ You know. I played football in high school, so the security at these parties was actually different members from our football team; that was our security. SL: Unbelievable. You had the football team as security, you had all these rich kids; this is right out of Cruel Intentions, right? That’s basically the crowd. It’s an Upper West Side crowd? NA: Yeah, very much like Cruel Intentions, although it was mostly an Upper East Side crowd. SL: Ok so it’s rich kids, Manhattan, old money Manhattan crowd. Entrepreneurs, the sons of people like should we say Henry Kravitz, because that’s one of the people who were there. His son Robbie Kravitz, that kind of crowd. Those are the names. NA: Well the funny thing back then was that there were all those names who did come to the parties, but no one ever thought of it then because they were so young. It was like they were lepers, you know, kept away. When I first started doing clubs people were like, ‘Oh, get these little kids away from me.’ I used to have to go beg club owners. ‘I’ll sweep the floors after work, please let me do this. I’ll pay anything.’ I’d literally beg to get my crowd into clubs, but the first club I think I actually did was Private Eyes. SL: Private Eyes, which is closed now. Actually, the block where we’re having this interview is the same block where Private Eyes was, right across the street from where we are. How funny is that, it’s on 21st Street, and Dolf London was the door person. NA: I didn’t even remember that. SL: Dolf London was the door person, I believe. There were many other door people, but Dolf was definitely at one point the doorman. That’s where Grace met him, that’s the rumor. He was a good looking guy, a really cool guy, I’m sure he still is. Sweetest person I’ve ever met by the way. People know Dolf as this big, dumb, blonde actor, but actually he has an engineering degree. He speaks seven languages; he’s sharp and he’s a cool guy. Alright so you have your first party at Private Eyes. NA: I was probably fourteen when I started at the clubs; 1984, or around that time. For the following three years I did a lot of clubs, but they were mostly kiddie parties, they weren’t adult parties. SL: When you say “kiddie†you’re talking about under twenty-one. NA: They were made that way. SL: But it was more acceptable back then, it was eighteen and over to get into a club. When the party’s eighteen and over, it was far more acceptable for sixteen and seventeen year olds to be found going out. It was not unusual for sixteen year old girls to be in clubs. NA: Oh not at all. It was actually trendy at that time, if you remember at like Tunnel – you did Tunnel the first time around right? SL: I didn’t do Tunnel the first time. NA: You didn’t do Tunnel? SL: No, not the first time. I was at a place called Café Americano which became Nobu. I was there with a guy named Johnny Corio who was the operator, and Eli Dyan owned it. I was introduced to Eli Dyan and he told me about this wondrous club called the Tunnel. The funny thing about the Tunnel was that the concept was, at the end of the night, they would turn on the sprinkler system and wash everything down these big drains in the floor. Wash away all the dirt from the night. So all the garbage would go into these drains, and I said, ‘My God, there’s going to be mildew and everything like that.’ Anyway he wanted to hire me to do the place, and I brought in partners Rudolph and Steve Gold. NA: Rudolph was the guy I actually made that deal with. SL: That’s right. And Rudolph was running Palladium, I went and took over Palladium, and Rudolph sort of pushed me out of the Tunnel. I ended up going back to Tunnel later. NA: I remember that, that’s when we worked together. That was probably the first time we worked together. When you reopened Tunnel for the first time, I think ‘90 or ‘91. SL: I don’t remember dates. NA: Yeah,I did the very opening, I remember. I remember that Peter paid me some crazy amount of money the first week… SL: Something like nine hundred dollars. NA: And then it stopped. SL: It was a lot of money at that time. I know that Noel Ashman was getting more money than anybody else at that time. We were paying you more than any other individual promoter. The first week we thought you did amazingly well, but then there was always a problem identifying your crowd from the other crowds, and it was always a war. NA: I did the first week and then you kept me out, so I left. SL: Well, you were a large promoter who was probably better suited off doing your own space, which you ended up doing. We would integrate you and you were good for a thousand people, which was great. If you’re doing three thousand people, the energy between three and four thousand is so incredible, but your crowd basically at that time homogeneous. You had one crowd. It was white bread, in one age group, all Upper East Side people. You didn’t want to add too many of those people into the environment… NA: Well that’s the funny thing actually. When I talk to commercial promoters and such they’re always like, ‘Oh well you wouldn’t understand this cause you do this, you know, celebrity thing.’ I’m like, ‘Well actually, I was known to be commercial until much later in my career.’ SL: You were a very commercial promoter, and that’s where we had beef with you. We were always in a tough situation identifying people cause I’d be hanging out at the door, and let’s face it, I knew ninety percent of the crowd. Everyone would be coming up to the door and say, ‘Hey Steve!’ And then you’d say, ‘Wait, that’s mine,’ and I’d say, ‘Well why is that yours? He comes here every week.’ So it was a very difficult thing to quantify what you were doing. But I remember saying to Peter and to whoever else we were working with that, ‘Whether or not they’re yours or ours, if he doesn’t do it here, he’s going to do it there.’ And that’s what you did, you went to other places, right? You never had trouble getting a place. NA: Never. SL: And where else have you worked? NA: Wow uh Nell’s, MK… SL: MK was Eric Goode’s place. It’s on 24th Street in that little triangle there. It’s that really good building that you can enter from all sides, and it wasn’t licensed at all. In fact, there was an alarm system where if the police entered the building these sirens and lights went on, the sound system went down to low, and it became a lounge. You can see MK if you look at King Of New York, it’s the scene where they’re having dinner when Frank first gets out of jail. NA: Oh really? SL: That was shot at MK, the rest was shot at the World on 2nd Street. That was Frank White’s headquarters. NA: Oh wow, I gotta look at that again. SL: Yeah, and Able Ferrara is the most insane human being I’ve ever met. I once said to Able at the King Of New York party at the Palace, ‘Able man, how do you do this? Every time I see you you’re a wreck.’ And he goes, ‘You think I’m bad, wait til you meet Walken.’ Right then Christopher Walken walks in and he goes to the bar, and man he’s throwing down. I mean at that time, those men were animals, I mean they were all over the place. NA: Yeah, I almost did a movie with Able and Lillo Brancato was… SL: Lillo Brancato, in case you guys don’t remember, was very much a club person. He was the young kid in the Sopranos who got killed. He of course was involved in that murder and is currently awaiting trial; he’s in prison right now. He claims it was an accidental murder of a cop during a robbery. NA: Well one important thing is that he did not have a gun. The guy who he was with had the gun. That’s no excuse, but the guy who he was with actually went and killed him. SL: Right. There’s no dispute about that that Lillo did not have the gun on him. If you knew Lillo at all, the concept of Lillo actually shooting someone is ridiculous. NA: He’s actually very scared of guns. I’ve known Lillo for a long time, he’s a very close friend of mine. I’ve known him since he did Bronx Tale probably, and he was always very afraid of guns. He was the last kid in the world to have a gun, it’s really tragic in my opinion cause… SL: Because he had a lot of potential. NA: Exactly, so much potential. SL: Robert De Niro took him under his wing and they put him in Robert De Niro’s film, A Bronx tale. Peter Gatien was actually the executive producer of that film, and it was the first film that De Niro directed. Lillo Brancato played the kid; everyone said he stole the movie, it was a great role. He went on to the Sopranos and was doing well, then these things happened. I guess that’s unfair for me to say that things happen, they don’t happen to some people, and most people, but it did happen to him. When you live a life on the edge, you do come into contact with evil doers. NA: The tragic thing about it is, you know he’ll be the first to admit that he had a problem. He had a bad drug problem and he got very into it. It affected his thought and he made a lot of very dumb decisions. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong person. SL: But isn’t it if you get drunk, you get behind the wheel of a car and you hurt somebody, you’re responsible. It’s a murder, it’s a manslaughter, it’s vehicular manslaughter because you take that drink and you know you know that you can’t control yourself, you do those drugs and you know you can’t control yourself, you’re taking responsibility for your actions, whatever they may be. NA: Well, the only thing with Lillo is that he didn’t know the other guy was armed. What happened was, they were trying to get into an apartment of a friend of his, they were banging on the door, and the cop I guess heard the raucous and came down. He pulled a gun, and the guy who Lillo was with pulled a gun, and they then returned fire. The cop happened to get killed and Lillo and the guy he was with both got shot. The tragic thing about it was that Lillo was guilty of being an absolutely moron for being in that situation. You know, with the guy in an alley trying to bang on someone’s window. Of course it’s stupid, but he’s not a killer. SL: So you’re saying he’s guilty of being a moron? NA: Yeah, guilty of having horrible judgment. SL: I always knew him as a respectful kid… NA: He’s a very good kid, he’s got a very good heart, and really means well. He wouldn’t hurt anybody intentionally, except himself unfortunately. SL: I’m going to visit Michael Alig with Maurice Brown next week, for the fist time since he’s been in prison. NA: Oh wow. SL: Yeah, so I’m in a forgiving mood. Good Night, Mr. Lewis Interview conducted and written by Steve Lewis. Interview has been edited and condensed by Jessica Tocko. Check back on Wednesday for day two of Steve's conversation with Noel Ashman, owner of The Plumm, as they explore, the nature of his business, his relationship with celebrities, and an explanation on why it’s never good to burn them in the press. More...

First there was the website mystery. Then there was the key. And now there is the roll. This morning, we received a package at DBTH Worldwide Headquarters from our good friends at El Bano, the Fashion Week hoax that just keeps giving. Inside, we found the key needed to gain entry to the secret club and of course, a roll of soft cushiony toilet paper. Perfection in a package. We really cannot wait for this place to open. More...