Happy Mondays at Stanton Social

Mondays have always been very, very good to me. I used to host my Monday-night bowling at Bowlmor, I DJed regularly on Mondays at Life and at Luann, my Stevieverse parties were always crowded (Junior was doing Juniorverse and, well, it seemed clever at the time). The industry goes out on Mondays, and I was coerced by Richie Romero to check out his Monday-night gala at the Stanton Social. Great service, great food, and the promise of a Green Day party upstairs enticed me to get out of a long-overdue appointment with my pillow, and the night delivered as promised. A diverse crowd, which included former Studio 54 VIP hostess Carmen d’Alessio, promoter types Dave Delzio and Morgan Miller, and the staff of half the joints in New York packed the place. The way most restaurant/club spaces operate is that the weekends pay the bills and the profit comes from the rest of the week. Stanton has a winner with their Monday. If a joint like this can generate the numbers I’m thinking they do to kick off the week, then they’re doing great.

I didn’t attend the Green Day festival in the upstairs lounge since it seemed to be a huge deal. I was told that they would walk me up, but then I realized I didn’t really want to meet Green Day anyway and had another OBAN. I’m sure they’re sweet, and their name is so PC, but I just never understood why some rockstars have to isolate themselves in a situation like this. For all the grief David Lee Roth got, he was never one to hang with bodyguards or separate himself from the public. He was available to chat up and buy a drink. Sting, Debbie Harry, and even Prince hung out when they went out. I remember shaking hands with Jimmy Page, Peter Gabriel, and each of The Rolling Stones. Yet Green Day was upstairs, and a lot of the crowd down. Mark David Chapman types are indeed very rare and not hanging at the Stanton.

Stanton Street itself was bustling, the stores and bars and restaurants largely filled in the middle of the worst economic downturn since the talking film was invented. A vibrant nightspot like Stanton Social was having a tremendous impact on the businesses around it. There were cabs getting fares and a line at the local deli; everybody was spending money, and that translates to jobs, taxes, and the lifeblood of the city. We made our way to Lucky Jack’s bar, and I thought the world of it. They too benefited from stragglers from the Stanton. This economic scenario is playing out all over the city every night—the hospitality business feeding the surrounding hood.