James Woods, the Hotel on Rivington’s Operations Manager, on ushering the A-list inside the hotel undetected, bringing an LA vibe to the Lower East, and the journey from Long Island bellboy to lounging in a hot tub way above the LES.

Favorite Hangs: I love the Eldridge, my friend Matt Levine’s place. That’s my new favorite place. I like it cause it’s small, and there’s, you know, not an overwhelming sense of, “Oh you know, who are you? What are you doing here? Do I have to know somebody to come in?” You can pretty much just go there and hang out and have a couple drinks. And I think the drinks are fantastic there. But I love Schiller's Liquor Bar. I’ve always been a Schiller's fan.

Martini Park and Marquee co-owner Chris Barish on underage promoting, the power of the water-sipping celeb, bringing club culture to suburbia, and growing up with the Governator.

Point of Origin: I’m from New York. I started throwing parties at my parents’ home when I was young. We’re talking really young, like 15, 16 years old. You know, there used to be fun clubs in New York. They would have an off night, and I would come in and make a deal with whomever the owner was, because either they were failing a bit or they wanted to make a little extra money. I’d promote to the various people I had met in grade school who had then graduated to high school. When you think about it, we were really young, and I can’t believe these clubs would let us do it. It was New York, and it was a different time, different era, different laws, and a different mayor.

Baron Jean van Gysel de Meise is in fact his real name, and he owns the international V boutique hotel brand. He escapes the drudgery of Wall Street and clears his mind in white Spanish sand before building a budding Middle East empire. Being born with a silver spoon in his mouth never stopped the Baron from actually working for a living; he owns and operates his hotels from his native Belgium, and an experimental Greek "World" island he created in Dubai.

Point of Origin: My mother is French; I was born and raised in Paris, but my father is Belgian and lives in Brussels, and it’s his name (and title) I carry. I came to the US to study and have an MBA from Columbia University.

Jeffrey Jah holds forth on going from runways to club king, bringing heat from here to Sao Paulo, and putting DEA raids behind him.

Point of Origin: I'm originally from Toronto, but now I live in Gramercy Park. After my modeling days, I was an event producer and creative director for venues. I started out having connections in the fashion industry, from photographers to make-up artists, editors, and designers. I started producing events, which eventually turned into parties, promoting clubs, directing clubs, and finally owning clubs, bars, and restaurants. I currently own the Inn/Canoe Club in New York, I'm a partner in 1Oak, a partner in Café de La Musique in Florianopolis, Brazil. I also have six Lotus clubs in Brazil, Double Seven reopening in New York, and a Double Seven opening in LA in 2009.

The force behind two of the hottest bars in Paris -- the Experimental Cocktail Club and the recently opened Curio Parlor -- Romee de Gorianoff abandoned a golden banking career to pursue his true love: the cocktail. His contemporary speakeasies are packed nightly with an almost exclusively word-of-mouth buzz, full of interesting types serious about their liquor.

Point of Origin: A graduate economics student from Dauphine University in Paris and Bocconi University in Milan turned entrepreneur in Paris in the bar business. I was supposed to start a year ago trading in a brokerage firm in London the week before I found out about the location that was to become the Experimental Cocktail Club. Between being a finance guy and an entrepreneur, the choice became very evident for me!

Greg Brier is the man behind Highbar, Amalia, Aspen, and the soon-to-open Aspen Social Club in Times Square, designed by yours truly. Greg is a very dear friend of mine. Of course, he hires me once in a while to design his spaces. I’ve done two and half spaces for him so far. I did Aspen initially, then Amalia. Now we're sitting in the Aspen Social Club at 47th Street and 7th Avenue.

First of all, Amalia and Aspen Social Club are in this Times Square/Midtown area, and Aspen is really in the Chelsea thing. And instead of being downtown or in the Meatpacking District where everyone else is, you’re in Midtown. Explain what you like about it.
Well, I mean in addition to that, we just opened Highbar in Midtown as well.

That’s right. I forgot about it because I didn’t design it.
[Laughing] You’re right, it’s not as beautiful as all the other places, but it’s successful, and it is in Midtown.

The Donald’s little darling talks industry jargon, raises cash for the fuzz, gives props to Rupert Murdoch, plays a few rounds, then slings gold to those Trump-loving Russians. All in a day’s work.

Point of Origin: I'm a native New Yorker, born and raised -- and from the looks of it, likely to remain here in perpetuity.

Occupations: Modeling, for me, was purely a pit stop, fun, in the moment. I worked for a year for the [Bruce] Ratner organization in Brooklyn, cutting my teeth on the business, away from prying eyes. I believed I could be effective in this field through real life training and experience outside of the fishbowl that would be the Trump Organization, where people would have been observing and watching a 22-year-old commence her first few weeks of work. I joined the Trump Organization a year-and-a-half later, and am now the vice president for real estate acquisitions and development for the organization and for Trump Entertainment Resorts and Gaming.

Michael Achenbaum of the Hotel Gansevoort puts down The Law, emerges a towering hotel titan, and reveals what’s in the works for Park Ave.

Point of Origin: I grew up on Long Island and went to the University of Michigan. Then I went to NYU for graduate school for a JD and MBA for law business. When I was in school here and in Michigan, I began to concentrate on children's charities. I worked at a Japanese bank and Bear Stearns doing commercial mortgages -- an industry that's just falling apart right now, and the residential component is now affecting the commercial component. I left to go and work with my father in commercial development as he had his own construction company. Prior to my involvement, my father was responsible for developing thousands of apartments and several million square feet of office space. After I joined the company, we decided to take a few projects in a different direction, including high-end hotels, and we ended up picking up the property that would eventually become the Gansevoort.

He's literally run the gamut from shirtless busboy at Studio 54 (identified in Anthony Haden-Guest's book on the disco as "Pecker 54") to white-tie hotelier to the stars. Richie Notar is a hometown boy made good.

Point of Origin: I was born in Jamaica, Queens. I used to play ball on the Trumps' lawn, and now I know all of them socially. When I was about 15, the owners of Studio 54 -- Ian Schraeger and Steve Rubell -- had a place called Enchanted Garden in Queens, their foray into the club business ... a little-known fact. They wanted to upgrade from guidos to celebrities. A friend asked if I wanted to hang out there with him for, like, $2 an hour, so we were washing dishes! This little guy comes in and says, “What are you doing?” and I said “I'm washing dishes.” And he said, “I like your style, so you should come out and meet the people.” It was Steve Rubell.

Lionel Ohayon's ICRAVE has designed and architected some of the coolest bleeding-edge restaurants, clubs, lounges, and hotels of recent years. From New York to Los Angeles, and Las Vegas to Miami, ICRAVE venues draw praise from nightlifers and aesthetes alike -- and Ohayon promises more to come.

Point of Origin: "I'm a French Moroccan Jew. I was made in Morocco, but born in Canada where I grew up and studied architecture at the University of Waterloo. After working and studying in Paris and Rome, I came to New York at the bequest of a client/friend who had recently gotten engaged to the daughter of a billionaire and needed help on a sprawling mansion. I never finished that project (I don't think it’s finished yet); it’s not destined for completion. But I did get a virus in my system called New York, and never left. New York is my junk."