Butter is still better.

[cpnews]

Butter was the first place I designed for somebody else. Prior to Butter I designed the clubs I would run, but the concept of being an interior or hospitality designer for hire never occurred to me. At the time, the mixing of all sorts of woods hadn’t really been done. There was a place called Industry in the East Village that was all about the wood, but I don’t think it was as much of a statement as Butter. Richie Akiva listened to my plan and went for it. I got best new restaurant design (tied with Sea in Brooklyn) from Time Out Magazine and that led to a whole new career for me. Just when I needed one, as things turned out. Sherry is my friend, she’s sharp as a tack, won’t take shit from anyone, and don’t even think about getting over on her. The concept of Butter, normally a fine dining restaurant which has one night where it is a super lounge, is brilliant. It’s been seven years and it is still undeniable. That’s nightclub 101, hold the line at the door. It seems simple but only a few clubs do it. The success of Marquee is largely due to Wass fighting the good fight. Pink has Irv Johnson and Tenjune the ever controversial Aalex Julian. There are of course a handful of others. All the great door people share what Sherry brings, an attitude and self respect, and commitment to excellence. Each is given the ultimate sign of trust… autonomy. An owner can’t be at the door all the time, although I always tried to be. There are many other things he needs to see and do. To give trust to a doorman underlines a bond which takes time. Sherry has been with Richie and Scott for eleven years and her success at Butter should be acknowledged.

Steve Lewis: How did I meet you?

Sherry Cosovic: I met you in 1990, 1991. I was with my cousin online at Tunnel, and you had pulled us from the line and said my name is Steve Lewis, you’ll never have to wait in line again.

SL: Jesus.

SC: And then from there on we were out every night at Palladium and USA which was my favorite by far. Short-lived, but it was my favorite. And then I started working for you.

SL: Where did you start working for me?

SC: At Life.

SL: Were you doing the door or…

SC: Promoter. And then I did the VIP room at Sullivan in the back, the Sullivan Room.

SL: Right right.

SC: That was on Fridays with Richie Akiva and the boys, and Jus Ske – definitely fam.

And we did that party for three years.

SL: A great party.

SC: And then we went on to open Spa.

SL: That’s right.

SC: You took us aboard as well there, and we did Lot 61 on Mondays, which was the best party ever.

SL: I think you might be right, I don’t think people are remembering Lot 61 on Mondays correctly, or it’s not talked about.

SC: Mondays with Richie, that was his signature night. That’s when we started Mondays. I mean look at Lot, look at Butter, you know. Butter’s still going on seven years next year.

SL: You are the Monday night door person.

SC: I do the door Monday nights, yes.

SL: Have you been doing it this whole time, from the start?

SC: I have. Then in the last year or so I’ve been hosting, which I should have done from the get because I love it much more.

SL: You like hosting. Why do you like hosting more than the door?

SC: You don’t really have to deal with the bullshit, you know? I mean you do have to stroke a lot of egos. But with hosting, there’s no drama to it. The difference is when you’re working at the door and someone gives you lip, they don’t have to come in cause they’re not a paying customer. But when you’re a host you could get customers that can be egotistical or rude, and you’ve got to swallow it because they’re paying customers. That’s the difference.

SL: Right, once they get in there they’re important.

SC: Of course. So at the door it’s different because they never gain entrance, so you can treat them however you want.

SL: How much autonomy did you have or do you have at the door on Mondays? I mean, do they trust you? Do you know your shit?

SC: Yeah I know my shit, of course. I wouldn’t be working with Richie for eleven years now if I didn’t know my shit. I know everyone, but that could also be a bad thing; baggage to an industry you know what I mean?

SL: Of course.

SC: There are different levels in this scene of promoters, different scenes, you know? Everyone thinks it’s one whole scene but it’s not. You have the Downtown scene, the whole 27th Street scene, and the Uptown scene.

SL: And you have to know it all.

SC: You have to know it all, of course.

SL: Especially on Monday night. I drove by the other day on my bike…

SC: Yes, I saw you.

SL: Right, you stopped and said hello as you always do that. You stop whatever you’re doing to say hello to us always; when we rolled up Scott and Richie were outside the door, it was Fashion Week, and everyone was yelling their name. They’ve learned to ignore it. I remember when I was an operator I used to spend a lot of my time at the door. Do you think it’s a good thing that there’s an owner at the door or bad thing?

SC: Well it makes my job easier.

SL: Because they say no.

SC: Because they say no.

SL: Or they say yes.

SC: Well Richie always ends up doing the door, you know what I mean?

SL: Right. He learned that from me. That’s the place to be.

SC: Of course, like at Lot 61 you used to stand on a chair like Studio 54 - you, yes, you, no, you, get off the line…

SL: What is some of the criteria at a place like Butter?

SC: Well for me it’s straight up style; personal style. It’s not what you’re wearing it’s how you’re wearing it. There could be a girl that’s wearing Christian Louboutin heels and a short dress, and I won’t really like what she’s wearing. The girl next to her could have Converse and skinny jeans and a t-shirt, and I’ll feel her style more.

SL: I know what you mean.

SC: The thing is that people try too hard. They’re not dressing for themselves; everyone just looks the same to me. All these girls. I guess it’s because, and I mean no disrespect, but they’re not from New York. That’s the thing. Growing up everyone was from New York. We were all from downtown, uptown, and we all had our individual style. You’re not trying to be someone you’re not. That was the difference.

SL: Of course. And at a place like Butter it’s also about who you know.

SC: Of course.

SL: What percentage of the crowd do you think you know? I mean you absolutely know?

SC: Eighty percent.

SL: And then there’s twenty percent where it’s…

SC: You know, the tourists and the few tables that just come up cause they’re spending a lot of money and that didn’t book a reservation, and the model crowd.

SL: I drop by once in awhile. Every once a month I take the bike up or I walk the dogs up and I just…

SC: And it’s the same right?

SL: I actually see the same people a lot outside, waiting…

SC: Regulars that have been coming for the last six, seven years.

SL: Also people who aren’t getting in, I see them at the same time. The person who’s been there week after week after week after week - do they eventually get in, some of these people? Are they learning?

SC: We still have people that come every week that don’t get in, and they’ll wait four hours.

SL: And they come every week.

SC: It’s like they have no life, they have no fucking life.

SL: I remember back in the day, I used to go to Studio 54; not go inside, I would never go in. I would stand outside cause I would like to watch the scene of it, I was learning from Steve Rubell, although at that time I had no idea I’d be running clubs down the line. I didn’t know at the time that I would end up doing it, but I wanted to see it. It was amazing watching his brain work and how he did the door. It was incredible. It was the greatest show on earth.

SC: It’s funny that you say that cause I grew up in the Lower East Side. My mom used to get out of work at 11:30, midnight, and my dad and I would always go pick up my mom at 14th and 4th at the train station. My mom worked at the Carlyle for thirty years, so as a little kid we would always walk by the Palladium. I mean I’m talking about seven, eight years old and I was mesmerized Steve, by the club kids. And my dad would pull me, ‘Don’t look at them.’

SL: So you were watching me work when you were seven years old…

SC: And not even knowing! And not even knowing it! Exactly.

SL: That’s so embarrassing.

SC: I was just that kid who would stare at all of them and my dad would just try to turn my head and I’d just gasp, cause you know the outfits were really revealing. My dad would be like, ‘Why are you looking at them!’ and curse me out in Albanian. And then look at me today…

SL: Exactly.

SC: I just loved walking by the Palladium. I didn’t want to go meet my mother because I missed her, I wanted to go by the Palladium.

SL: So you were obsessed at eight years old.

SC: Yes, yes.

SL: I think the Palladium is one of the greatest clubs of all time.

SC: I love the Palladium.

SL: The sheer size of it, that hundred foot high ceiling, and when that place was packed…

SC: The memories, the memories. Right after high school it was more hip hop clubs, and I didn’t make it to that whole generation I guess. It was very mixed, it was very hip hop.

SL: The thing about the Palladium was there were so many places to get lost. I always felt that in a club that I’m building, if I had the space to make places to get lost, I’ll make them cause when you’re lost sometimes you get found, it’s kind of a cool thing. I liked that about the Palladium.

SC: Every girl I know fucked in the fucking bleachers…

SL: Ha.

SC: Oh every girl I know!

SL: One of the funny stories about the anything goes policy at Palladium was, I was in London in a PR meeting and it was actually very heated, we were arguing about something. There was a famous PR over there that I was having a big fight with and they stormed out. I knew they would come back in a minute and so the assistant turned to me and said something to the effect of, ‘Oh my God, I heard what your wife did last night at the Palladium.’

SC: Really?

SL: Yes. And I said, ‘You heard what my wife did at my club last night? What did my wife do at my club last night?’ And he goes, ‘Oh I’m not gonna be the one to tell you that.’ And I go, ‘What did she do?’ He said, ‘Well I heard she went there naked.’ So I get on my cell phone and I go, ‘Jennifer, did you show up at the club naked?’ She said, ‘How did you know that?’ I go ‘Cause I know.’ She thought someone ratted her out from New York but…

SC: It wasn’t.

SL: It wasn’t. I heard about it in London. But yes, she was always very bold. She actually wasn’t completely naked; she wore her dress backwards. Although she was actually topless and she was walking around like that and nobody said a word. She said nobody had the balls. She just wanted to see if anybody would say anything.

SC: She had amazing tits?

SL: Do you remember Jennifer?

SC: No, no.

SL: She was small, she was a fitting model for Givenchy when she lived in Paris. Part of what she did was she would sit for Givenchy and Audrey Hepburn, because she was exactly Audrey Hepburn’s body and neck and looked like her. They’d fit clothes on her all day and sip tea and they’d say yes no yes no and things like that. She stopped traffic.

SC: See that’s the difference. I remember as a kid going out, how everyone just was so outrageous. You don’t have that anymore, everything’s so segregated.

SL: It’s the society we live in. Society is celebrating sameness because people are freer when they’re more secure in their environment. We don’t really have a rock as Americans to stand on anymore. With Iraq, the economy, and things like that, our society is fairly unstable and people tend to sit. I mentioned this awhile ago in the blog that people have a tendency to hang with their own kind; white people with white people and whatever. Even in Butter it has a sort of it’s own culture…

SC: But I have to say, Butter is so diverse, it really is. You know there’s flavor, a lot of flavor in that club.

SL: There’s common threads; music…

SC: Of course.

SL: They worship the same gods, same celebrities, the type of celebrity that goes there, although I know all kinds of celebrities go there. I notice about that you don’t see Butter in the press that often even though I know the place is packed with celebrities, as many celebrities as you can get. They don’t drop the names, they don’t burn the celebrities.

SC: Never, ever. Richie is not big press or anything. We don’t need press. It runs itself.

SL: Press is a marketing tool, but you don’t need it.

SC: Exactly, and I’m not just saying it because I work at Butter and 1 Oak but I don’t think in all the years that I’ve been working, that anyone is killing it the way that Butter and 1 Oak Six nights a week, every night except Sundays.

SL: It’s amazing right?

SC: I’ve never worked this much ever.

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 Sherry Cosovic as they chat about working the door at Butter and other NYC venues, memories of mega clubs from the past, as well as their perspective on what makes a celeb a “real†celebrity.

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