An l of a time

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L MAGAZINE, LEHMAN, LOST IN MIDTOWN

As reported last week, I was honored to be a judge at the 2nd annual L Magazine club awards. I was also a presenter at last night’s festivities at Touch nightclub on 52nd and 8th. I’ve never been to Touch although I have often been accused of being out of touch. So I guess that’s true. I was very impressed by the decor of the main floor. I sat for hours with my pal Rachelle Hruska of Guest of a Guest and we talked of all sorts of off the record things. Not referring to her at all when I say this I find it funny these days how many times I hear "off the record" from people I talk to, as if the stories about their cleaning ladies and the price of veggies at the local deli would end up boring you on this blog. I got plenty of other stuff to bore you with. Rachelle told me her gorgeous Olympian "special friend" Cameron liked what I wrote about him on the blog. His story of Olympic glory and blogosphere litigation is as incredible as he is shy and modest. Rachelle introduced me to her staff, one just brighter and more bubbly than the next, and we laughed and enjoyed the awards. Michael Musto and I chatted before the ceremonies. I had just come back from visiting Michael Alig in prison, something he had done years ago, and we compared notes regarding the process of inmate visitation and the difficulties of writing about it. I will soon so stand by. He presented the best gay party award and quipped, he's always typecast in this category.

Fellow blogger Brittany Mendenhall found herself without an award to present so I brought her up on stage with me. I just checked out her blog Chi Chi 212 and I just love it. As we had the honor of giving the best venue-bar award as well as the best club award, I got a little nervous and was glad she was their to prop me up, or at least be a prop. Masters or is it mistresses of ceremonies Mistress Formika and Michael T. did a great job of entertaining an enthusiastic but small crowd, while everyone wondered why this wasn’t done downtown somewhere. Anyway, best bar-venue went to Beauty Bar and best club went to Santos Party House.

After the ceremonies we tripped over to Amalia, the closest place that would treat me and mine to free liquor, and ran into the remains of a Lehman Brothers party. It seems the restaurant has been hosting these regularly, but alas there's but one more scheduled. I asked a slightly inebriated reveler who had just lost her gig when she really knew the ax was going to fall. She said she had no idea up until a few days ago. A waitress who is leaving soon explained how these parties brought in steady revenues that won’t easily be replaced. Earlier in the day while on the Aspen Social Club job site, I was talking to a manager of a nearby restaurant who mumbled that something like 24,000 people who were important to the bottom line of his and other Times Square joints, had lost or were expected to lose their jobs. He said, ‘All we'll have left soon is the tourists.’ I told him that as a manager, he may actually have to start earning his money. He asked me, “What a manager could do?’ I asked him, ‘Do you really think the Yankees wouldn’t be in the playoffs if Joe Torre was still manager?’ A good manager learns to deal with the hand dealt as our "lost Joe" is doing in L.A. where his Dodgers unexpectedly lead their division. So many of today's operators are so lost in their spaces, that they just keep doing things the same old unsuccessful ways. These are times that call for innovation, experimentation, and a realistic approach to the consumers limits and needs. People will be going out to eat and to drink, but they will be more conscious of what they’re getting for their buck before they go unconscious. I’ve been through recessions as an operator and I thrived. And as bad as the news rings, I still heard the sounds of new construction and thousands of cabs; trucks and people bustling and hustling through the midtown streets. Was the collapse of Wall Street lost on these people or are they so anesthetized by the continuing bad news this administration has thrown at them, that they seem immune. As my editor pointed out earlier in the week, and yes Grub Street scooped me on, I am completing the build out of the Aspen Social Club in the Stay Hotel in Times Square. All around me I see renovations and new construction. Are these business men building in the eye of a hurricane, or just spitting in its’ eye?

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