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.

Not too long ago, I sat on the steps outside of the Bea with George Gurley. He had been temporarily banned from entry for his Who's Who at the Beatrice Inn, a map of who sat where and what they talked about for Fashion Week Daily. Gurley was optimistic that Sevigny would "find a way" to forgive him and let him back in. Among his list of notable regulars: Lindsay Lohan, Mary-Kate Olsen, documentary filmmaker Jack Bryan who Gurley noted as a "Social Butterfly" and "smooth with the ladies," and Paul Johnson Calderon who he characterized as an ""outrageous hipster-fashion-socialite-blogger dude."

While Sevigny is still trying to "find a way" to open up his beloved watering hole, Bryan doesn't see Kenmare as a waiting room for that to happen:

"I think it will bring everybody. With only brief interruptions new York night life has been dead since the Beatrice closed. People are itching for excitement as it's been feeling like a dead town. Hopefully this will be the thing that ends this collective nightlife hibernation it feels like everyone's been going through since Beatrice closed."

Paul Johnson Calderon shares this sentiment:

"I have no doubt that the Beatrice fanatics will flock to the joint en masse. We were a family & we're very supportive of our patriarchal nightlife gurus." He admits that collaboartive effort may bring different crowds, but adds: "this city is chock full of great people and chic, awesome scenes, but is in desperate need of a good stomping ground. It's men like Paul and Nur who quench our lust for fun as we give into our urge to surge through the night."

Calderon at the Beatrice

Though there have been many options for nightlifers to make themselves at home, there has been a discernible lack in continuity in the shape of the crowds and atmosphere within these other establishments. The Jane had to cool her heels, White Slab is always promising but the crowd is less than encompassing, and Chloe 81- once known as the white hot 'new Beatrice'- burned out too soon. As Kenmare prepares to host Prabal Gurung and Proenza Schouler after-parties this week, Sevigny tells Grub Street that he isn't interested in creating a new Bea, stating "Beatrice is not a franchise," No, but with the help of his devoted nightlife disciples, the well documented preceding regulars of the Beatrice Inn, what he might be creating is something closer to its spirit than any of these alternatives formerly touted as the 'next Bea.' Photos via Facebook and Vogue