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FINALE, the long-awaited EMM Group entry at 199 Bowery on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, has finally opened – and it’s a game changer. This is a place created by a well-heeled, bottle sales-based group with creativity at its core. To those who pooh-pooh bottle service and blame it (and Rudy Giuliani) for all the terrible things that have ever happened to New York nightlife, I say pooh-pooh to you. Without bottle service, burgeoning rents, insurance, and salaries would have buried nightlife. The problem is that clubs banking for big bucks have catered to the bores with black cards, a scene that’s unbearable to the artistic set. FINALE embraces the downtown scene with performance types on staff, and bartenders and waiters dressed and ready to perform at the drop of a beat.

It looks like it’s going to be a while before Eugene Remm, Mark Birnbaum, and Michael Hirtenstein (seated, left to right) get a vacation. While they’re already busy running such white-hot New York nightspots as Tenjune and SL, the EMM Group partners now have two exciting new restaurants to oversee. The first, Lexington Brass, is a stylish New American bistro in the Hyatt 48 hotel that serves three meals a day, seven days a week, along with signature cocktails and craft beers. The second, Catch, is poised to become nothing less than Manhattan’s seafood Mecca, with multiple levels, a glass-enclosed rooftop lounge, an outdoor terrace, and some major firepower in the kitchen courtesy of Top Chef Season 3 winner Hung Huynh (standing).

When it comes to nightlife, the W New York Downtown finally seems to be taking the "downtown" part of its name seriously, as evidenced by the line-up of DJs they've secured for a new bi-weekly party at the hotel's Living Room Terrace. Starting tomorrow, with DJ Mia Moretti and her violinist friend Caitlin Moe, and then going every other Tuesday until August 30th, the "Summer Jam" series (lazy name, guys) will feature in chronological order: sophomore clothing founder Chrissie Miller, Paul Sevigny, Jesse Marco, and Jus Ske. (Admittedly, those last two favor the 1Oak/Tenjune/Avenue crowd more than the fashion/art element that's recently cannibalized New York nightlife.)

Diners will soon have the opportunity to eat at a pop-up restaurant manned by 15-year-old wunderkind chef Greg Grossman, where "Guests will feel like they are dining inside an artist like Andy Warhol’s mind circa 1982." Sounds disorienting and uncomfortable! The dinner will consist of "molecular gastronomic masterpieces" inspired by pop artists like Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein.

It’s 10:30 on a Wednesday night and I’m in gym clothes crossing Union Square wondering if I’ve anything good left on TiVo when I first hear them. “Let’s just get drinks here,” a California blond squeals to her fellow interns, a group of smiley, freshly implanted college girls. “This part of the city is amazing—there are so many places to go!” Suddenly I feel refreshed, the soggy, angry heat evaporating around me. I immediately recall those same, remarkable feelings of excitement when I was new to this city: every step was one outside my comfort zone, and the possibilities were endless—the night was a mystery. Now, since I've settled into the groove of actually living in this city, the knee-jerk reaction toward their enthusiasm is a swift eye-roll at their naïveté and a silent recitation of the latest snarky blog post about this exact area going to hell in TGI Friday’s hand basket. These days, the trend is to speak about nightlife as you were attending its funeral. I’ve grown bored with the idea that there’s nothing new or provocative happening in this metropolis. Nightlife isn’t dead, it’s just different, and it’s different for everyone. It’s been a while since I first started covering nightlife as "Holly GoNightly," but my interest is once again piqued to seek out new ways to look at New York after dark. While some longingly wish for their days at Studio 54, Tunnel, or the Beatrice Inn, there are many more seeking out the new. The internet has given everyone a certain kind of access, diversifying trends and experiences. There’s something for everyone, and the only way to find out what works is to step out and try it on for size.

Nightclubs can’t survive in this economy on booze sales alone. It’s for this reason that today’s savvy businessmen are now looking to on-site restaurants to support their operations. Food seeds a room early. Smart new boîtes are doing big dinner business at 5pm—or brunch, even—with their clubs only a staircase away. Whether or not they eventually fill up, places that don’t serve food don’t do much business until well past midnight, which means their owners spend way too much money on soaring rents, insurance fees and operating costs. New York nightspots like Tenjune, STK, Simyone Lounge, Abe & Arthur’s, the new Butter and the forthcoming joint from Scott Sartiano and Richie Akiva all play this same game. Noah Tepperberg and Jason Strauss’ Avenue even does it all in the same small room.

MTV's Jersey Shore City Guide[$.99] - Your fist-pump is near perfect. You get juiced with your bros on the regular. Now find out where to unleash your tats and toned abs with the MTV Jersey Shore City Guide. The app provides listings and maps to where guidos and guidettes get down when they’re not GTL’ing (if you don’t know this one by now, well, it’s time to throw in the towel). Discover Snooki’s favorite spot for “bangin’ sushi,” find out where Vinny goes to see “naked chicks” and follow The Situation to Tenjune, where “the music is hot and the girls are hotter.” The Jersey Shore isn’t a place, dude, it’s a lifestyle.

1. Richard Gere, at the premiere of Brooklyn's Finest: My favorite restaurant has to be the Bedford Post. 2. Don Cheadle: BOA, in L.A. 3. Ethan Hawke: Manganaro's, on 9th Avenue. 4. Wesley Snipes: That's gotta be home. My wife is an excellent cook! Where do I like to go? Oh, La Dinastia, the Cuban-Chinese restaurant on 72nd, near Broadway. 5. Hoda Kobt: I love 21 Club. I love Tabla. I love Shake Shack, just their burgers. 'Cause the first time I saw a line, I thought, 'Who would wait in a line this long for a burger?' And then I realized, 'I would.' There's something about the size, the texture; they're moist, they're delicious. And I like Kefi -- on Columbus -- the best, best Greek food ever, delicious.

1. Matt Damon, after Green Zone press day: Oh, boy! There are so many great restaurants here. I like Bob De Niro's place, Nobu. That's a good one. 2. Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi @ "Masks and Mayhem" Purim party @ Solo restaurant: Definitely, L.A., Voyeur, that club, I like it. 'Cause I just like low-key stuff because, since I've been in the limelight, when I go to clubs, it's just crazy. It's hard to, actually, party and have a good time, because I usually go out with Pauly and Mike in L.A., and it's just hard to party because everyone's, like, 'Oh!' They go crazy. And we love that, but, yet again, we like to have our low times. So, Voyeur, definitely, a good place to go because there's a lot of celebrities there, so we can actually relate with people.

In partnership with the aspirationally driven folks at HBO's How to Make It in America, we're proud to offer you the chance to achieve a personal gold standard by unlocking the exclusive BlackBook Nightlife badge on Foursquare. Make HTMIIA your Foursquare friend, then check into any 3 of 20 possible New York nightlife or dining destinations (restaurants are the new nightlife, you know), and you'll get the shiny new Foursquare badge pictured here. Soon we may provide an even more material motivation to have fun with this, but for now, download the BlackBook Guide iPhone app and start hitting the hotspots. Complete list of eligible joints after the jump.