Industry Insiders: Serge Becker, Thinking Outside The Box

Serge Becker is a partner in New York dining and nightlife staples like The Box, Joe's Pub, Café Select, and La Esquina. His stake in the nightlife industry began as art director at Area and continued with his involvement in some of the city’s most exclusive spots (MK and Bowery Bar). Currently, he's taking a break from nightlife and exercising his green thumb.

How did you start in this business?
I started as Eric Goode's art director at Area, doing art installations. There were six or seven of us that were the core group.

You were an artist?
I studied art and graphic design. I worked briefly in advertising and hated it before I came to New York. I supported myself as a DJ through design school, so I was always in nightlife from a very early age—mainly through music. When Eric did Area, it was an invitation to get involved in the nightlife through the art angle and through a visual approach that hadn’t been explored much before. It was like getting a master’s degree in this business for me. I was focusing on design and its influence on people.

How did you connect with Eric?
I met him at an after-hours place called The Continental. I just started helping out, and through the process it became clear that I was quite talented at what I was doing. I loved it, and there were amazing people on the team. It was a group effort.

Any of those people still in the business?
Eric’s creative partner Shawn Hausman now designs a lot of Andre Balaz’s places. He designed the Standard and is a very talented guy. I think it’s just Eric and I that stayed in the nightlife business. Many people like Darnell Martin—who just did that film Cadillac Records—went off to do other things.

What was after Area?
Eric and I teamed up and became partners. We were inseparable. We would sit around bouncing ideas off each other. We did MK and Time Cafe and Fez and Bowery Bar, we directed music videos, and Eric did also his own art.

Wasn’t Fez once Stinky Mike’s Frog Bar?
Yes. We named it after a painting of Jean Michel who lived down the road. We wanted to have live music. Time Cafe opened right at the ‘90-’91 recession. It was a pretty hard-core recession. Everything around us closed, and people where in a very flat mode. Bowery Bar had an exuberance because, after that, people were just ready to have fun again. Once Clinton was in office, the economy turned around. People had money again. Shortly after Bowery Bar, Spy Bar opened, and that was a pretty good one-two punch.

Which time in your life did you like better: doing Area and MK or Bowery Bar?
In the 80s, I was young, and it was just so exciting. I had just come to New York. It was a hard, dirty, nasty, crazy place. Vast parts of the city were dilapidated. Koch was mayor, Reagan was in office, and the country was in a deep recession. It was completely abandoned and free. Every day was an adventure. Coming from Europe, it was the Wild West.

What was next?
Eric and I split up. He did The Park and I did Joe’s Pub. I love music and wanted to do a live venue.

Is that what inspired The Box?
The Box was Simon Hammerstein’s idea and was designed by John Cole. I only tweaked it and added things to the room that fleshed it out. My main role there was to help assemble the performers and the crew—give it a shape and to be a sounding board.

And your current place, Café Select?
Select was created because the space became available, and I didn’t want a place that might bring a bad crowd to open in the neighborhood. I live here, so I care about the local community. It’s a Swiss café run by Oliver and Dominic—friends of mine who put the whole thing together. It’s very low-key.

Is that the ideology that has kept your places so exclusive?
If a place is attracting a bad crowd, the only thing to do is shut it down and start again. One of the reasons I got into this business was to be around cool, interesting people. For me, not everyone has to be beautiful—the conversation usually suffers—but I have nothing against other places that do that. There is something about the energy of having a room full of incredibly attractive people. It’s addictive.

Who do you think does it right in the business?
The crew that owns Employees Only, Smith and Mills, and Macao. Also, Taavo Somer from Freeman’s, Carlos Quirarte who is opening The Smile on Bond Street, and Stu Bronz at Collective Hardware.

Where do you go out?
Really just to dinner. Mostly at Omen, Bar Pitti, and Indochine—it’s like home there.

Do you think that New York is keeping it interesting?
This recession will help. Everything became too excessive. It will level the playing field. Owners have been put in a position where they had to charge so much. They call bottle service “real estate inside.” Owners have to pay so much per square foot that it has just been passed on to the customers. The new reality will hopefully allow young people to get in and start their places. We need it.

What’s next for you?
I’m looking to start a community garden with a few friends. It will be a place for kids to come and learn gardening and enjoy the spoils of it on a grill, or just come and chill. Other than that, I’m fine for now being able to go to a beach and read a book.

What are you doing tonight?
I’m going to see the band Whiskey Go Gos at Collective Hardware, and then to Sebastian Nicholas’ loft party.

Photo: Curtis Kulig