Industry Insiders: James Woods, Hammer of THOR

James Woods, the Hotel on Rivington’s Operations Manager, on ushering the A-list inside the hotel undetected, bringing an LA vibe to the Lower East, and the journey from Long Island bellboy to lounging in a hot tub way above the LES.

Favorite Hangs: I love the Eldridge, my friend Matt Levine’s place. That’s my new favorite place. I like it cause it’s small, and there’s, you know, not an overwhelming sense of, “Oh you know, who are you? What are you doing here? Do I have to know somebody to come in?” You can pretty much just go there and hang out and have a couple drinks. And I think the drinks are fantastic there. But I love Schiller's Liquor Bar. I’ve always been a Schiller's fan.

What did you do last night? At the last minute, I had a huge celebrity book the penthouse and as usual I was here personally for their arrival. We get so many A-listers that stay here because of the privacy of the hotel and the neighborhood and how easy it is to go unnoticed. We have a private entrance for celebrities to enter the hotel that I take them through, similar to the movie Goodfellas when they enter the restaurant through the side. After that, we take the express elevator up to the penthouse. This allows them to avoid the lobby and go unnoticed every time.

Back in the day, I used to run a tiny bar on Allen Street that was where the new Thompson Hotel is now. So it’s very strange for me to see these huge towers going up around here. What once was a tiny little one-story bar is now a 30-story hotel, and that transformation isn’t slowing down. First [the Lower East Side] wasn’t the greatest neighborhood ... there was nothing going on. And then out of nowhere, things just started to change—things went up, and now it’s like every weekend around here is absolutely insane.

Tell me about the roof parties at the hotel over the summer. Yeah, it was every Sunday during the day from like 2 p.m. until sunset inside the penthouse, with a really cool DJ. And then it spread to the entire rooftop too, which has a small hot tub. It’s like a 10-person hot tub, so when the days were nice, you’re just looking down on the Lower East Side. It’s very LA but in New York. At first it was just my friends and some hotel guests, and by the end of the summer it was so crowded that it was unbelievable. What started off as like Sunday brunch thing for hotel guests turned into this incredible party.

Any rooftop with water in New York—especially this one—is pretty special. And I feel like [the fact that it was] Sundays was important too. A lot of my friends are in the industry, either hotels or restaurants, and normally Sundays are most people’s day off. So it’s like everyone’s looking for something to do besides just going out for brunch. They’re looking to extend their weekend and do something fun during the day. Once people got up here ... the space sold itself. The views are just breathtaking. And then when you get on the roof and have the hot tub, the drinking, food ... I felt like it became a little bit of a breakfast club thing. Everyone was just like, “Oh you know, Sundays at the Hotel on Rivington.” I’m definitely doing it again next summer.

You came to the Lower East Side and brought a little LA scene out here. I still go to LA all the time. I have a project that I’m going to be working on with friends of mine out in LA who are opening a hotel out there that I’ll be consulting on.

Known Associates: Paul Stallings, the owner of the Hotel on Rivington and Stallings Hotels, with whom I’ll be doing some of my future projects. He’s also a huge downtown real estate owner and developer who’s responsible for some of the jump-starting of the Lower East Side, as well as my involvement with the neighborhood. My mentor is Jeffrey Felshaw, the general manager of the Hotel on Rivington.

Anything else in the works? I’ll be doing a party [in the second floor lobby lounge of the Hotel on Rivington] every Thursday. It’s going to be more of an after-work thing that starts at like 7 p.m. or like 6:30 p.m. and goes until whenever. But it’s going to be for the Lower East Side people—everyone that lives in the neighborhood, local people that work around here, and then some friends of mine that I invite.

What are you doing tonight? Dinner at our restaurant Thor with [friends from] Ted Baker London; they do the uniforms for the hotel and restaurant and also make all my clothes. Then going for drinks at the Eldridge.

Photo: Chelsea Stemple