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If you find the weather outside frightful and are seeking a destination that's delightful, I have an idea. Book yourself a trip to the Bahamas and join the Cain at the Cove 4th Anniversary Party, next Saturday, November 12th. DJ Cassidy will join Stan Courtois from Paris, and the jet-set and Cain flock will be in full force. It could be déjà-vu, all over again. Cain was a legendary club anchoring a West Chelsea gathering of joints that included Bungalow 8, Marquee, and Pink Elephant. Owner Jamie Mulholland has been a little low on the NYC radar compared to then, but his Goldbar, anchored by its smashing Sunday Funday party and man-about-town Jon Lennon, still thrives. His Surf Lodge has just enjoyed its biggest season yet. News comes that something new is in the works, and I asked Jamie all about it, and the anniversary.

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Lavo is coming soon. It looms as a game changer. Located on 58th Street right off Park Avenue, it is, as far as I can tell, the first joint to be conceived in Las Vegas and then land in New York. The big world of nightlife keeps getting smaller and the diversity narrower. These club/restaurant combos that are all the rage cater to increasingly identifiable crowds with service and style to please anyone. Lavo figures to be a place where uptown money, Europeans, and Upper East Siders can enjoy downtown and Vegas levels of service right in their back door. Tao, right across the street and owned and operated by much of this same crew, has been one of the top-grossing joints in this country since its inception. There is money in those hills, heights, high-rises, and townhouses north of the traditional club/restaurant world, and this crew will be cashing in.

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As a player, winning a World Cup for the first time makes you want to kiss the first Spanish TV reporter you see, especially if she's your distracting girlfriend. Losing a World Cup, on the other hand, has a different effect—on the footballers, their home countries, and their fans. The French opened up Parliamentary investigations into their team's spectacular loss and made the team return home in coach. The Brazilians tried to kill the players when they were coming off the plane after sending their normally pampered asses back home, also in coach. Maybe that's the problem: these superstars are so used to being treated like royalty that flying coach is the ultimate punishment, whereas the North Korean penance of being forced to fly coach and work in the coal mines is probably a tad more effective. It's a toss-up between that and Uday Hussein's popular method of flogging losing players and making them bath in raw sewage. Somehow, I can't picture Cristiano Ronaldo being forced to shower in shit as punishment for his terrible World Cup, though Nike probably wants to flush him down the toilet right about now. But for fans such as myself, there is no punishment greater than having to visit a World Cup smack-talking country when all you want to do is be on a beach somewhere. That's why my first stop coming back from South Africa after Argentina exited the Cup was France. Sure enough, Paris as a whole acted as if the World Cup had never happened. This, and about 20 liters of wine had me feeling great.

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There comes a time in a young girl’s life when she must use a relaxing beach escape for actual rest. Now is not that time. Though the spa treatments brought to the Surf Lodge in Montauk this past Saturday—thanks to the SoHo-based Maria Bonita Salon and Spa—for an event to fete the official launch of BrazilianSupplement’s Envix Deep Conditioning Hair Masque certainly helped me and my ocean-fried hair to feel refreshed, the open bar of Leblon Natural Cane Cachaça caipirinhas and a sexy live music set by Brazilian beauty Karina Zeviani had me, once again, hitting the sauce. The lovely and lively event, however, did afford me a closer look at the Surf Lodge’s more active alternatives to your usual drunk-in-the-sun-fun. An account of my day, which moved from clouds to sun to a particular, lime-scented kind of fog, after the jump.

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What: Tilapia fish tacos served with mashed sweet plantains (or baked beans) and corn on the cob. Where: Surf Lodge, Montauk's arbiter of cool and one-stop locale for drinking, dining, taking in the view, and, as of recently, shopping (Memorial Day marked the opening of the Store at the Surf Lodge). Ideal meal: When the weather's good, this place is a sure bet. The view of Fort Pond from the deck on a nice day/night, taken in while sipping a Caipirinha, is unmistakeably one of the most picturesque Hamptons experiences on the market. Because: Chef Sam Talbot established himself as a post-Top Chef success with this local-ingredient heavy, seasonal everyman's menu. This summer, the culinary hunk is also overseeing the the Surf Lodge taco truck for late-night bites, starting in July. Tastes like: Talbot's inclusion of ginger, cabbage, garlic, jalapenos, and Avocado Crema give the fish a little kick, and each bite gets a keep-you-coming-back-for-more zest. Bottom line: $23 for tacos seems steep, but with the side fixins included, it makes for a filling entree.

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I attended the one-year anniversary of Avenue last night and it was indeed all things to those people. I popped in to pay respects, and was overwhelmed by a beautiful, relevant, and successful crowd. Although I always feel more comfortable in dive bars and hipster hangouts, there is no denying that Avenue, in it’s brief existence, has captured the hearts—and cash—of the bottle/model crowd. All things table service were honed and perfected at Noah, Jason, and Mark Packer’s joints, Marquee and Tao Vegas. While others have added their personal touch to the art of plying the goose from the ganders, as Carly Simon once put it, “nobody does it better” than this crew. On the way in I stopped to chat with my old friend Wass Stevens. As we talked about the ‘this and thats’ and ‘what have you been up tos,’ we were interrupted from time to time by a steady flow of the beautiful, the rich, and the connected as they passed through the velvet ropes. I asked him who was inside and he said, “everybody,” and proceeded to name names. Indeed, it was a cast of bold-face names that had your humble author shocked and awed. We don’t repeat the named names here. The old adage is, “those who can’t, teach,” and I stand by, "those who can’t write, gossip."

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Find out what's new out east

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Last night I attended the wrap party of what might be remembered as one of the great clubs of the bottle era. In reality, the Cain we all knew closed a long time ago. The redux as Cain Luxe never caught on with the crowd owners Jamie Mulholland, Jayma Cardosa and Robert McKinley were accustomed to entertaining. The neighborhood, Chelsea, had died a quick death from enforcement malpractice after city zoning procedures changed the area from commercial to mixed use. The rebirth of Cain as Cain Luxe didn’t work and probably never could have. Perhaps last night signaled the end of an error.

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I caught up with a seemingly suave, cool and collected hospitality designer, Robert McKinley, as he prepared for tonight's opening of Good Units, the brand new space in the Hudson Hotel basement. Publicist Steve Kasuba told me Robert was frantic finishing up, but I sensed no panic, except from Kasuba. One thing is for sure, when opening a joint, in 99.99% of the cases, no matter how much time you get to complete the task, there will be paint drying opening night. I love Robert McKinley’s designs. I loved Cain Luxe, thought Surf Lodge was a home run and GoldBar a masterpiece. Shoot, I’d go to GoldBar even if Jon Lennon wasn’t there

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The formerly sleepy surf destination's charms, unraveled

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