Darkroom

Rob Shamlian has been in New York for 15 years. Pretty good for a guy who’s opened five restaurants and bars in a two-block radius on the Lower East Side. The L.A.-native comes from a background of the hospitality savvy, and his brother Will is huge on the West Coast (Library Bar, Spring St., Laurel Tavern). More on his newest addition, the "cantina with a club feel" and some input on the age-old New York v.s. L.A. war.

Darkroom.

Buenos Aires gallery owner Daniela Luna is just as likely to be caught reading The Harvard Business Review as she is to be seen dancing on a pole at six in the morning. She's the outspoken mastermind behind Appetite, where you can't turn a corner without coming face to face with photographs of sizable cocks, or more recently, a gigantic pink inflatable bear with breasts. Some of the city's best DJs have made their debuts at her War Club parties, and with Appetite showing everywhere from Lithuania to London, this international gallery is becoming more than just a downtown destination for the scrappy chic.

After the sun goes down, the makeup brushes come out in full force. Beauty junkies can get away with a lot when roaming New York's Lower East Side: the bars are dark, the drinking is heavy, and people look good in that uncombed, rolled-out-of-bed way. Just Cavalli sent this LES bar-hopper down the S/S 2010 runway the other day in Milan. She looks exactly the girls we know who shop at Blue&Cream and Opening Ceremony, hang out at White Slab, Darkroom, and Gallery Bar, eat at Les Enfants Terribles, and wear a ton of MAC. Appropriate, since MAC was in charge of creating the look. Maxine Leonard, the artist in charge, describes the look as "rock n' roll to reflect the collection. The girls look a bit like they did their makeup themselves and had a great night out.” Here's how the pros captured the LES girl.

● Butter (Greenwich Village) - Butter Mondays, but what else is new? This party has defied New York City’s attention-deficit disorder pandemic since 2002. ● Johnny Utah’s (Midtown West) - Nobody said Monday-night dancing had to be classy; instead, this midtown saloon hypes their bull-riding challenge for all the pretty service industry folks.

Jason Baron, owner of two of the Lower East Side’s finest music dens, has all the makings of a rising nightlife macher: great timing, the party bug, plus tons of famous music-making pals. Five years down the road, the Annex and Darkroom owner reveals what it takes to stay current in the ever-shifting LES.