BlackBook Magazine

Tenjune door sentry Aalex Julian dishes on the K-Mart of nightlife, the old chicks and thugs who don’t make the cut, “animals” who grab asses, and why some nightlife vets are toast.

Point of Origin: I've been working the door at clubs in Manhattan for almost six years. I started doing a lot of special events, for Lizzie Grubman, other PR groups. I did the Jay-Z event in the Hamptons. I knew people like Jeffrey Jah from going out. Some people resent me because I befriended the right people.

Monsieur Meatpacking: Bagatelle and Kiss and Fly's Remi Laba on boring models, the grub at Pastis, and bringing down the house (music).

Point of Origin: My dad’s American, my mother’s French. I was born in the US and raised in France. I can’t seem to negate my origin for some reason. Nightlife was an accident, to be honest. I was working for a liquor company, Pernod Ricard, and people were constantly asking me for sponsorship, and at one point I said ‘You know what? I’ll comp your sponsoring if my friends can come to your events.’ It grew from there until club owners starting saying they would pay me to bring people to their club. And that’s how we [partner Aymeric Clemente, formerly of La Goulue and Le Bilboquet] started, ten years ago.

Socialista gatekeeper Jeffrey Trunell on working the door for a former doorman, club owners who scowl, and why Perez Hilton isn’t on his list.

Point of Origin: I moved to New York in 1996 to be an actor. I started working at Coffee Shop. I was a bar back and I didn't know anything. I was just a kid from Philly. I started bartending, worked at a lot of hotel bars: 60 Thompson, the Hudson, and subMercer right when it opened. I remember that was the first place where cocktails were $15. Nowadays if you're not charging $15 a drink you're nothing, but back then it was like a science experiment. My voice would always choke when I told a guy he owed me $30 for two drinks.

1Oak adds a dose of swank and civility to the New York lounge scene.

1Oak -- we won’t make you guess -- stands for “one of a kind.” The owners of the new exclusive Manhattan nightspot sensed change in the air. Jeffrey Jah, Scott Sartiano, Richie Akiva and Ronnie Madra have set out to add a little refinement to the New York lounge scene. Akiva, who conceived 1Oak’s tastefully burnished space, explains, “I wanted to create what I felt had been missing in New York,” insisting the city needed “more warm, classy high-end lounges.”

Adam Alpert, director of promotions for white-hot nightclub 1Oak (“1 Of A Kind”), is a true New York City party boy. From trips to St. Tropez in diapers to managing events at Manhattan restaurants and clubs, Alpert doesn’t know the meaning of a night off. Sushi Samba, Butter, and Pop Burger are among the notches on his belt, not to mention more in the Hamptons and those infamous New Year's Eve parties in South Beach. Still, the med school student turned nightlife aficionado took a minute to talk with us about parties, Darwin, and those curious 1Oak paintings.

Point of Origin: “Born and raised on the Upper East Side. Went to Horace Mann high school in the Bronx. Went to collage at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. I was pre-med. The summer after my junior yr of college, right before I started studying for the MCATS, I came home for the summer and started going out to night clubs and enjoying myself. After a few weeks, people were calling me, begging me to come, giving me drinks for free, and I became immersed in this culture, and entranced by this, and how all the different industries come together at night, and I loved it

“I’ve got too much on my plate,” a buxom blonde whines over a mound of Kobe beef in a slick corner booth at the Kobe Club. She has no idea. In one night we’re tempted to traipse through most of Manhattan, fitting in Richie Rich’s Rox and Riley Footwear Launch Party at 205 downtown, uptown to the Kobe Club to celebrate the opening of Kobe Beach Club uptown, chat up Eva Mendes at Calvin Klein, and gawk at the Bravo Awards after-party. We certainly have a lot on our plate tonight, and it's not sirloin.

Most of the time, after a drawn-out night in New York, we come to work on time, pulled together—a little tired, but kempt. Today is not one of those days. The city was busy last night. Kanye played 1Oak, the MoMA hosted an event for the release of HBO's Recount—stay tuned for our candid interview with actress Laura Dern—while GQ and Stoli Vodka threw down in the West Village. We didn't make any of these.

On last night's Gossip Girl, one of New York's newest temples of velvet-rope-ism made a cameo appearance. Serena's mysterious drunken blackout while out on the town had her thinking (and telling others) that she accidentally killed someone -- squeal! But the next day, who should call boyfriend Dan on Serena's abandoned cellphone but a bartender from 1Oak, claiming the phone had been left at the bar (along with a substantial unpaid tab). Though 1Oak was off-camera on GG, take a look inside the club via our photo gallery.

Last night, BlackBook partnered with SKYY to celebrate the release of our high-octane May Design Issue featuring cover girl Christina Ricci. Nestled within Manhattan’s newest hideaway, 1Oak, hundreds of imbibers brought out their best jazz-hands for inimitable deejay duo Andrew Andrew.