Blasts from the Past: ‘Pillage’ as Movie, Au Bar Goes Lavo

Way back in June, club player Brantly Martin proved that he wasn't just another pretty face by putting out Pillage, a book that exposed many of nightlife's unusual suspects as the miscreants they really are. I heard from Brantly over the weekend. He's in Paris now; he finds it "livelier than Italy." He's sending me a copy of his magazine, Grey. He was excited to tell me that he "just optioned the film rights [for Pillage] to Renée Zellweger. Of course, they still got to find a director, star, and raise the loot ... but so far so good."

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Although Brantly had changed the names to protect the guilty, I was able to obtain some clarity and named names back in my June interview with the literary lad. Boldfacers present included Scott Harrison, Eric Hower, Mark Baker, and Adam Hock, among others. The movie creates all sorts of mind-game problems for the massive egos of clubdom. Which is worse—to have your inner creep and debaucherous lifestyle exposed on the big screen, or not to be portrayed at all? I thought if I were to be played on-screen, who would I want to play me? Denzel, of course! Most nightlife operators don’t live the Sodom and Gomorrah lifestyle. It is my experience that the serious players have serious relationships.

Speaking of serious relationships, I caught up with Noah Tepperberg on his way to Los Angeles and then Australia. Don’t panic, Avenue-ites—he has partner Jason Strauss covering for him for the week. Although he couldn’t say much, he didn’t deny the story I have been sitting on for quite awhile: that being how partners Mark Packer and Rich Wolf are converting the old Au Bar space into a joint was talked about here back on September 25. The blogs that stay open over the weekend caught the latest news that Tao partners Noah and Jason are coming aboard . I called my usual and unusual sources to get the whole picture.

Mark Packer originally was going to put Canastell’s in the famous Au Bar/Paper Moon space; he ultimately elected to place the Tao group’s Las Vegas brand Lavo into the 58th Street space, directly across from Tao. Au Bar was where bottle service really began as wealthy euro types tried to out-conspicuously-spend each other at tables. Later on, guys like myself, Jeffrey Jah, Michael Ault, and David Sarner adopted this point-of-sale breakthrough to start the modern era of clubs. The Tao-heads are connecting the subterranean Au Bar club with the street-level Paper Moon restaurant. The restaurant will be a seven-day and -night Italian bistro, with Tao corporate chef Ralph Scamardella in charge. The club “figures to be open Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and for special events”. My friend, designer Lionel Ohayon, will handle a “very big-budget conversion”; they are looking for a “spring opening and are looking for the right teams to create a Euro oasis ... there is a rich history of highly successful Euro-based clubs in the area, like Club A and Regine’s and Au Bar.” Said an insider with an accent, “There isn’t anything that compares to those haunts now.” House music will be the mainstay. Noah told me, “I am really excited about doing an uptown project with the entire Tao family”