My favorite weekend is Memorial Day weekend. No, sillies, it's not the Fleet Week sailors that get me happy; its the enthusiastic departure of three quarters of the population. With the sun high in the sky, almost everyone I know is going somewhere I'm not going to be, leaving me room to walk my puppies and take a deep breath. The recession almost canceled summer this year, but the last few months have brought optimism as a coincidence of the weather (or maybe not entirely). People are spending ... boutiques have been slammed with peeps looking for their weekend wardrobe. I was supposed to give you my interview with sound god Dan Agne today but my assistant begged for a reprieve and headed out of town.

For clubs in the city, long weekends can be tricky. They take what they can get on Friday and Saturday, which never generate the usual dollars; but they score big with a Sunday, as everybody is off on Monday -- hoopla! The extra day of operating costs is usually absorbed by the third-day soiree, and the end result is around a break-even. Every lounge, club, and restaurant in the Hamptons is geared up to accommodate every Tom, Dick, and Mary that braves four hours of traffic to party hearty, then crash on the beach and repeat, and repeat. The major bottle/model social clubs of Manhattan have all grabbed a piece of real estate out east and will service their clients either in some hole in the wall type joint or some sponsored grand mansion away from the fray. Although money is always the object of operators' affections, it is equally important to entertain clients who are away from their city-side joints. Operators have great fear that a bottle host, waitress, or rival will entertain their bread and butter, and come the fall, these clients will desert them for their newfound friends. Holding on to what you got is a major concern.

Word comes that Avenue is nearly open. The staff has been hand picked from thousands of applicants. They have undergone long hours of training to get them ready for the old-school Marquee clientele's expectations of service. The physical delivery of the approved liquor license is all that's holding them up. Dune in Southampton will have to do for this weekend at least, and Marquee still remains a quality option. Long weekends demand short posts, so I'll leave you with just a thought. It should be remembered that Memorial Day is a holiday set aside for the memory of those who gave everything so that we could walk our dogs, party in the Hamptons, shop for outfits, drive in traffic, make money, and repeat. I have over the years noticed that many clubs give the sailors and marines who visit us in droves on this weekend a hard time at the door. I urge operators who have lost their a crowd to summer travels to treat these service men and women as the real VIPs they are. Enjoy and be safe.

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