Overheard last night: "Darling! (double air kiss) I feel like I never see you anymore since the Beatrice closed!" "I know, I feel like no one knows where to go anymore!" "That will probably change now that Paul's new place is open." About a year ago in New York, there was a bar with a neighborhood feel, that was actually not in the neighborhood of any of its regulars and eventually pissed off the actual neighbors. This was a bar that people knew to steer clear from if they were avoiding a friend, one they could flock to after fashion events and where they'd inevitably end up whether they wanted to or not. Some felt smug for gaining access, some were just happy to drunkenly sink into a backroom banquette. Some are truly sick of people talking about it, but no one can deny, the Beatrice Inn was a staple part in the New York nightlife diet before shuttering. While Paul Sevigny swears Kenmare, his newest joint venture with Rose Bar's Nur Kahn, is "not a new Beatrice," the all too familiar private party "commitments" the duo made to "friends and family" during fashion week, coupled with the opinions of Beatrice regulars past, seem to point to a second coming.

George Gurley, The New York Observer scribe and BlackBook contributor (see his interview with Christina Ricci), is one of the figureheads responsible for the baffling lure of the Beatrice Inn. He's the one I associate with all those nights I manage to lose a bit of my dignity between waltzes on the dance floor (tangos with the stairwells) and all of those clever conversations I seem lose myself in after the second Stella Artois. But arriving at the Beatrice at a respectable hour of 10pm last night for George’s surprise birthday hurrah gives me a strange sort of imperviousness. As much admiration I have for the disarming journalist my own projected cocktail count will not leave any room for finding myself chatting away past 4am. And this time, there will be no negotiating with the stairs on my way out.

The diminutive indie princess is about to debut as a karate-chopping, chopper-navigating super heroine in the Wachowski Brothers’ virtual-reality film adaptation of TV’s “Speed Racer.” Will she be a demon on wheels? George Gurley plays Racer X to her many whys. Like, Why is this guy asking me these weird questions? Collision or collusion? You decide.