Serge Becker is a partner in New York dining and nightlife staples like The Box, Joe's Pub, Café Select, and La Esquina. His stake in the nightlife industry began as art director at Area and continued with his involvement in some of the city’s most exclusive spots (MK and Bowery Bar). Currently, he's taking a break from nightlife and exercising his green thumb.

How did you start in this business?
I started as Eric Goode's art director at Area, doing art installations. There were six or seven of us that were the core group.

Sometimes the first course is worth the whole meal.

1. Grilled corn Mexican style at Café Habana (Nolita): The corn comes two to a plate, grilled and topped with a generous pile of chili powder, lime, and cotija cheese.
2. Devils on horseback at Freemans (Lower East Side): The bacon-wrapped figs are the perfect mix of sweet and salty.
3. Carcofi at Bacaro (Chinatown): The stuffed, lightly breaded artichokes here are a must-have.

About damn time.

Friday
1. 1Oak (Chelsea) - Cool rules the door at this lavish new hot spot.
2. Ella (East Village) - Deco blacks and whites glamming up lower Avenue A.
3. GoldBar (Nolita) - Gold is the new black.

A new generation of creative spots covers your foreplay duties …

1. Dressler - Williamsburg elegance defined, stepping up from Dumont with brilliant fish dishes and top wines.
2. Little Owl - Top Mediterranean fare fueled by Greenmarket’s latest arrivals, West Village looks quaint as all get-out through paned windows.
3. Applewood - Sates your Earth Day alter ego with sumptuous organic bites and an atmosphere like a Vermont B ‘n’ B.

Who’d have thought you could build an empire in the hopelessly ill-mannered contemporary New York City by reviving the aesthetics of 19th-century gentleman hunters and topping them off with a dollop of good ol’ Southern gentility? But Taavo Somer and Sam Buffa’s Freemans Sporting Club and Freeman's restaurant, indeed, came on the scene like Adolf Loos and Philippe Stark never happened, and became de facto hipster stomping grounds. Now they takes their act West, with FSC Barber opening this week on a charming corner of Horatio Street.

Stepping backward in time with forward-thinking fashion, on location at the rustic Freeman's lodge.

Styling by Bryan Levandowski

Click here for full gallery!

From left: Sweater by D&G, jacket by Z Zegna, pants by D&G, shoes by Gucci, shirt and tie by D&G, watch by Cartier.

Stepping backward in time with forward-thinking fashion, on location at the rustic Freeman's lodge, in our May Design Issue, on newsstands everywhere April 21st.