Art Mosh & the Hotel Club Renaissance

Amy Gunther of the Williamsburg North skateboard mecca KCDC asked me to do the door at the Art Mosh opening in West Chelsea last night. The event, promoted by PAPER magazine and uber-trendy watch company Nixon, attracted a Jane-worthy hipster crowd. It was pretty much a no-brainer until the space hit its legal capacity and a large crowd of equally important folks got stuck outside. Then it was 3 out, let 3 in, and I had to actually work ... it's been a long time since I had to work a door. Four PAPER interns were on hand to help, as was PAPER's director of events Nicky Balestrieri. A hundred people were in the street and very few were leaving, as free booze and great music from cinematographer, filmmaker, and actor Shawn Regruto kept everybody happy. Oh yes, there was a great photography show as well. I controlled the crowd, whisked the super VIPs in as fast as allowed, and I thought of the problems over at the Jane and other hotspots where only a chosen few will ever get in.

Yesterday’s article dealt with the rise of hotel bars, restaurants, and clubs leading nightlife into its new golden era. I wrote about this era back when I started this blog with Joonbug about a year and a half ago. At that time, I thought Mansion, under Mark Baker’s direction, could lead the way. That of course didn’t turn out to be correct, as the infighting, egos, and complete miscalculation of his Miami Opium Group partners spelled disaster. The new era, however, did arrive. Nightlife rose from the boredom of the corporate bottle service dark ages into a new light led by the hotel joints. In yesterday’s comments, it was correctly pointed out that the relationship between hotels and their food and beverage wings has inherent problems. With the hotspots driving the hotels, it becomes unclear who is in the driver’s seat. Over at the Gramercy Park Hotel, the Rose Bar has been the hard-to-get-into “in spot” for three years. Nur Khan rules this roost but is in a constant give-and-take with hotel management over the rights of hotel guests to partake in the adventure. The hotel operator is of course Ian Schrager, who gained fame as the co -owner of impossible-to-get-into Studio 54. Hotel guests get some before-9pm privileges, and some are lucky enough to smell the roses later.

The wave of openings in the new hotels is attracting hordes of hipsters to the lobbies and of course rooms of these very in inns. The Standard leads the way, but even the Jane—a hotel where guests are told their bathrooms are “down the hall and to the right”—enjoys the crowds of the new downtown. Jane’s door, according to all accounts, is being overwhelmed. The neighbors are organizing, and this situation must right itself or everything there will just go wrong. Ian Schrager knows his clubs, and Eric Goode, who operated Area (probably the second-best joint of all time after Studio) also knows what’s up—as does his partner, the very sharp and experienced Sean MacPherson. André Balazs of the Standard and many other ultra-hip properties was a partner in Eric Goode’s MK on 5th Avenue, which certainly had a good run. His Mercer Hotel was to some extent driven by its food and beverage. SubMercer was for quite awhile the hotspot in town. I’m actually going there tonight to enjoy DJ Jennifly, one of the few DJs I actually follow.

As other hotel groups who have far less club experience enter the fray, A-list promoter types and owners will be hired to drive their hotels. The Donald is bringing Nicola Siervo and his Miami crew to drive his long-coming Trump Soho property, with hopes that they will fare better than the Opium Group. A regular old corner nightclub is saddled with far more core expenses than the hotels. The mom-and-pop operations like Marquee and 1Oak have to worry about insurance and rent and publicist costs, which the hotels can spread around. The hotel needs the restaurants if only for room service. And the hotels of course now salivate over the celebs, hipsters, and hotties whose milkshakes bring all the boys to the yard. The hotels have already started plucking the cream of the clubs crop to consult on their joints. The owners and promoters see the opportunity to expand their own brand and even export themselves to places like Vegas. Andrew Sassoon and Noah Tepperberg and Jason Strauss did it the hard way, but now it seems every Tom, Dick, and (well, you fill in that blank) will become the international superstar he sees in his bathroom mirror every morning. The hotels offer too many carrots to resist, and the drain of talent from the street-level boîtes will become torrential. The new era needs more talent, and it will be creative types that will fill the void. We are smack dab in the middle of an amazing new era of nightlife, and those who say otherwise must be the ones left waiting outside. I’ll be at the Jane after Jennifly.