Kerry Simon, owner of Simon (Palms Place at the Palms Hotel and Casino), Cat House (Luxor), and Simon LA (Sofitel Hotel in LA). He dishes on rock star aspirations, rock star labels, and the food in between.

Point of Origin: I thought I was going to be a guitar player and got a job at a pizza place to earn money to buy equipment. I eventually found out that I really enjoyed cooking. I really didn’t know where to go, so I started learning about culinary institutes and going to cooking school. Even when I was doing that, I didn’t know exactly where it would take me.

DJ Sasha, global DJ and producer, on not getting jaded about the music, his new CD, Invol2ver, and following his belly around the world.

Point of Origin: I’m originally from North Wales, but I ended up in Manchester when the famous nightclub Hacienda was opened. I was completely blown away by the music, decided to start DJing locally, and then it just went crazy and I ended up playing all over the world.

Cain Luxe's Jaime Mulholland on sailing to New York's promised land, surviving the W. 27th Street club disaster, partnering with the Brazilian female mafia, and almost going broke before hitting the big time with his expanding nightlife empire.

What places are you involved with? The first summer [after opening Cain in New York] we took over Cabana in the Hamptons. It had been a dead space for a while. We redid the whole space to make it look more like Cain, the South Africa beach club. We also took all our staff. It wasn’t just hanging a sign. It was taking what was authentic to Cain and putting it there. It was incredible. It was packed, lines around the corner. Luckily it was very successful. The following year we didn’t know if we wanted to do it and David Sarner owned the space and brought in Pink Elephant. We went to Jet - another successful year. The third year we were opening in the Bahamas on Paradise Island. Three pools, a restaurant, DJs, all outdoors, very celebrity driven, high-end clients. In a new tower they opened, The Cove, that’s $800 to $8000 a night, beautifully designed. It’s a great extension of our brand. We opened GoldBar the same time we opened in the Bahamas. It was insane. It’s half the size of Cain. We kept it under the radar, away from Page Six. It has a great following. Lenny [Kravitz] wrote a song with GoldBar in it on his new album. Great clientele. It will have long legs. It has a tight door and the quality is good. I am proud of it. We have four venues in four years and are now regrouping. We bought a hotel in Montauk and redid it. It’s called the Surf Lodge, very chill.

Derek and Daniel Koch are 26-year-old brothers and purveyors of one of New York's hottest day parties: Saturday brunches at Merkato 55. They explain the logic behind a day party, the transition from college wrestling to nightlife artistry, and the ubiquitous nature of French toast.

Point of Origin: We were born in West Virginia and raised in the Ohio Valley area, about sixty miles west of Pittsburgh. There were a couple thousand people, it was a very small town. It was a village. We were at Ohio State University for two years, we were on the wrestling team, and we didn’t want to wrestle anymore. We wanted to move to a bigger city, try to reposition ourselves.

Described by cutting edge food writer Louisa Chu as “the epicenter of the global absinthe revival”, Peter Schaf is as far removed from an absinthe fueled maniac as one could expect. Discreet, self-effacing, and polite, Schaf is a major player in the absinthe renaissance. An obsessive collector, scholar, and consultant to some of the best absintheurs in the world, Schaf is the dark horse of an industry that is all too often characterized by false perceptions and charlatans looking to make money off of the misunderstood and legendary literary tipple.

Foreign-born bottle-service diva Reka Nyari on why men with ties buy $5,000 bottles at clubs, inventing a nightlife resume to avoid the pole, and parlaying industry connects into a career in photography.

Where do you go out? I go to Beatrice or Rose Bar. I also will still go to the bottle service places to see my friends. A lot of my friends still work in the business. They work at Cielo, Bijoux, and Marquee, so I will go to see them. I also will go with friends to Schiller’s and chill and have wine. A friend has a table at Bungalow 8 every Thursday, so I’ll go sometimes.

Giacomino Drago, youngest member of a Los Angeles culinary dynasty and the man behind Via Alloro, speaks about growing up in a Sicilian kitchen, tending to his restaurants like babies, and the difficulties of dating complicated, beautiful women.

Favorite Hangs: As soon as I hit one place, I think, why did I go here? What can I tell you, Skybar? Skybar isn’t a bar, it’s a scene.

Point of Origin: I come from a family of eight. Six brothers and two sisters. I’m number seven. Five are in the US now. Being younger, I was always in the kitchen, my hands helping. We couldn’t just stand around, we had to help. Cooking at my house was always 8, 10, 12, 16 people. In my house in Sicily, everything comes from mom and dad’s farm. And I came here at 15, and started working for my oldest brother at Celestino.

Los Angeles underground artist Brandy Flower of Hit+Run Crew, on touring the world’s parties to bring art to the people, the death of the Xanax-munching, skinny jean-clad hipster, keeping up with the latest conspiracies and why his grandma thinks he’s boring.

What exactly do you do? I never learned any silkscreen technique, so for my 30th birthday, I bought a small starter kit and set it up in my kitchen. As a hobby, I started printing in my apartment and throwing small parties silk-screening on old clothes people would bring over. After I printed at a friend's backyard party in summer 2005, my college friend Mike Crivello realized that people loved checking out the screen-printing process, and he wanted to start a clothing line that used live printing as promotion. In November 2005, two months before Sony decided to move all creative services to New York, Mike and I started HIT+RUN with an event at the Blue Nile Cafe in Long Beach. Close to 200 events later, we have traveled all over the United States, to Europe and Japan, and have never had to solicit anyone to have HIT+RUN at their party.

Aaron Simpson, co-founder of lifestyle luxury brand Quintessentially Group, on his 24-hour global concierge service, plans for a private floating club at the 2012 Olympics, and painting an heiress’ plane pink.

Point of Origin: In the film business, I was looking after the folk coming into town ... these film stars that had no idea what to do in London. As a producer, I would end up taking them out and making them feel cozy and at home in various clubs and restaurants around town, and then the concept came to me. I said to a couple of my partners who were doing sensible things like being lawyers and restaurants owners, "Lets set this up." We thought it would be a very simple 100-person, 100-member club, but now it's in 52 countries.

Italian Stallion: Jason Denton, co-owner of Italian eateries ‘ino, Lupa Osteria Romana, Otto Enoteca Pizzeria, ‘inoteca and Bar Milano, speaks on still being giddy after 20 years in the game, getting deported to New York, living off canned fish, growing up in a culinary wasteland, and being Italian at heart.