CIPRIANI
Following a New Years Day appearance that left New Yorkers stunned, Cadenza's leader and jet setting superstar Luciano is set to make his triumphant return to the Big Apple. Changing up the scenery from a warehouse in Brooklyn to the esteemed black tie hotbed better known as Cipriani 42nd Street, Luciano offers New Yorkers a chance to replace football Sundays with an early evening soiree that will be filled with tropical sounds typically found on the White Isle.
For those of you that think that Cipriani will be letting in anyone due to the event's magnitude, don't kid yourself. Heed warning club goers, entry will be granted at the doorman's discretion which means dress to seriously impress.
City Harvest hosted An Evening of Practical Magic this week, honoring Union Square Hospitality Group. The charity's 18th annual gala took place at Cipriani 42nd Street and attracted 550 guests while raising an astounding $2 million dollars to feed the needy. Tickets ranged from $750-$2500 while tables went from $10,000 to $50,000, with 100% of the proceeds going towards City Harvest.
We all know that New York City is the greatest city on earth. The rest of the world seems to agree, as international peeps flood the island of Manhattan every year for the best New Year’s Eve parties around.
One of the most popular destinations this New Year’s Eve will be Marquee, located in West Chelsea and known as a legend among Manhattan’s chic nightclub circuit. Celebrities, divas, and international party animals meet here on a regular basis for a party that is hard to beat.
New Year's Eve in New York City. It's 2011. Where do you go? What do you wear? Who are the celebs that are going to be rubbing elbows with you at the open bar? Every day until New Year's Eve, we are going to give you the best of the best on where to be and how to have a night to remember to kick off the New Year. Today we continue with the letter 'D.'
D is for DJs
This New Year’s Eve there is sure to be plenty of great music throughout the city. You might want to check out some of these places for world famous DJ performances that will have you dancing all night long.
Now that I have fully recovered from my hangover, I can give you the scoop on the Hennessy Artistry 2010. As I approached Cipriani Wall Street, I noticed a line that wrapped around the block and knew that it could not have been the press check-in. After a little investigating, I found my appropiate entrance and was escorted to a tiny room filled with people with cameras hanging around their knecks and recorders in their hands. "Eeek, I'm in the press pit!", which I can't stand so I opted out and headed to an area more to my liking, the bar. With some raspberry and hennessy concotion that was topped with sprite in hand, which might I add was very tasty, I checked out the scene. The crowd was quite eclectic. There were guys in colorful sneakers, ladies in sparkly dresses, a few "isn't it passed your bedtime grandpas?" and wall street banker, upper east sider types.
In an Egyptian plague-like occurrence Monday afternoon, a swarm of 15,000 bees stormed the restaurant and banquet hall, Cipriani Wall Street, scaring workers, diners and streetwalkers alike. In an effort to control the situation and keep pedestrians safe, the NYPD closed off the block and called the city's resident bee wrangler, NYPD officer, Anthony Planakis. Planakis vacuumed all of the bees up and said they were being shipped to a bee farm in Connecticut.
Perhaps this worries the lot of you preparing for the end of times, but, although the never-ending Israeli-Palestinian conflict lines up with biblical warning signs, y'all can rest easy because the Cipriani family - in addition to their restaurant - has a past speckled with all sorts of shady Godfather-y stuff. With tax evasion, disputes with food purveyors, and mysterious exits from the country, the bee attack starts to sound a little less like the rapture and little more like they wronged the wrong person. Some people get dead horse heads in their bed - others get bees.
Well, it's been some time. I have sat down to write so often but my mind has been a log jam of activity. I know I promised details of Fashion Week in New York but it was such a hectic time. I’ll leave what I wrote then. It's enough.
Green Star
The best thing that happened during New York Fashion Week was that I was able to put two friends together on a green initiative. Charles Roberts has an amazing concept; market forces that drive companies to become more environmentally friendly. The idea is to rate a company's carbon footprint and allow consumers to choose amongst the competing brands. Each brand is rated with a green star, which represents how environmentally friendly they are - five stars being the best and no stars meaning they are basically egregous polluters.
Fashion Week
Fashion Week started out as a tropical depression and soon escalated into a category four hurricane. A deluge of shows, events and parties poured down on the city, its' inhabitants and visitors drowning some of us, while others fled to the safety of their favorite haunts or low key hideouts - secretly wanting to challenge the onslaught of the storm that is Fashion Week.
I, for one, opted for the challenge and fought on through, only to pay the price of a two day hangover and a loss of 8% body mass. The lack of sleep and juggling of work, fashion and fun caught up to me late Friday night (actually early Saturday morning). After an amazing dinner and party at Cipriani we ran over to Rose Bar then to 1 Oak (Richie’s week early Bday party) and finally to a friends loft in Soho, and then back to my place with friends - OUCH!!!
Cipriani Upstairs
Thursday nights Fall re-opening was amazing! I had a hot little crew with me - Dovile Virsilaite, her best friend Kirsten and Russian model Guzel. Dovile and Kirsten joined me Upstairs after dinner and we got crazy. My associate “Slim” rolled in with Nima Yamini and took over a swath of the room with eight or nine models. I honestly couldn’t tell you who else was there. But a thank you to all that came to help celebrate - including Damon Dash, who holds meetings outside of Cipriani on an almost daily bases, hyped about his new #1 single.
August
Week In Review
My apologies for the lack of entries over the last 2 weeks. But, I’m back. The summer has flown by. I have had plenty of opportunity to go away but the timing has been all wrong. So I’ve roamed the city and headed out to the Hamptons a few times. So what’s been going on? Well a little bit of everything. Where do I start?
Fashion Week is fast approaching and everyone’s starting to come back so we’re opening Upstairs at Cipriani early. The date is this Thursday, August 28th, play throughout the weekend with Karaoke this Sunday and get crazy all of next week. I’ve been going to everyone else’s places but they seem to just be a stop on the way home. I don’t know why but it's true. BIASED BUT TRUE…
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