● Lotus - Thai fave relocates to gorgeously decorated, lantern-lit house in Chinatown's main strip.
● Tegui - Star chef reaches spectacular new heights in the city's resto of the moment.

Somewhat surprisingly, biopic-happy Hollywood lacks a movie recounting the legendary but brief life of Tupac Shakur. The slain rapper is uncannily suited for the celluloid treatment, with his firebrand rapper-as-revolutionary persona, his frequent brushes with the law, and an early death that saw him ascend to both myth and martyr. If he ever does get his own movie (and he probably will), a good bet to play him might be Anthony Mackie, who portrayed the rapper in a play written by his Julliard classmate; Mackie's donning the bandanna again in Notorious, a film about Tupac’s friend and foe, The Notorious B.I.G.. Mackie met up with me at the W Hotel in Union Square to discuss embodying Tupac for a second time, leftover street booty, and why pungent Eurotrash are ruining New York nightlife.

Eugene Remm, the sovereign of Tenjune, talks about working his way up from the mailroom to picking up the slack in nightlife industry, and what he's got on the books for '09.

What are you doing tonight? Going to Tenjune!

Where do you go out? Gramercy [Hotel] is one of my favorites because they have a great scene, great design and great people who work there. Pastis always stands out because they know how to treat regulars. That combined with the great food and great staff makes for a consistently good dining experience. Charles has the appeal of an intimate restaurant where the owners treat you like family and the food is really good.

New York Nightlife Association prez and Los Dados owner David Rabin on re-opening the legendary Lotus, commuting to Moscow, and suckering his partner into doing his other job.

What are you up to these days? We are re-doing the Lotus space, though we don’t know what to call it yet. We’re doing it with Mark [Birnbaum] from Tenjune. Just yesterday we got the plans for Double Seven in New York, which we’re trying to re-open on Gansevoort Street near Los Dados by the end of the year. I don’t know if I believe it myself ...

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.

Mark Baker of Mansion and Lotus fame (among others) rises early, loves Russia, accepts responsibility for the superficial lounges he helped create, and has fun while trying not to get stabbed by irate, rebuffed club-goers (again).

How did the day start for you today? Actually, today was an early start. I get calls from Europe [early] because nobody [there] has any idea what time it is here, so my day started at 7 a.m. I always leave my phone on because you never know what catastrophes or overdoses or suicide cases or whatever our friends and clients ... People with suicide these days is a really heavy deal. There’s a lot of kids out there who just give up, and that’s part of running a network of friends and clients, basically just keeping an eye on everyone. And being accessible.

You get a lot of these crises? I get crises, I get idiots, I get friends I get ... models.

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.

The bold-faced Bungalow 8 gatekeeper is about to be smoking hot. “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” indeed.

Our seemingly unquenchable cultural thirst for celebrity gossip has gotten to the point where star watchers are not only obsessed with what’s going on behind the velvet ropes, but who’s out front manning them. To wit, Armin Amiri—best known as the gatekeeper at New York City’s enduring Bungalow 8—has parlayed his doorman “celebrity” status into a burgeoning movie career. In his breakout performance in this winter’s Factory Girl, he took on the daunting role of Ondine, Andy Warhol’s misunderstood cohort. But rumor had it that the fledgling actor almost got booted from the cast. “I read for director George Hickenlooper and he took a chance on me,” Amiri recalls. “Then the part got bigger and bigger, so the studio decided, ‘Hey, who’s this kid that we hired? Let’s get someone else.’ I almost got bounced; I thought that was going to be my karma.”

However, with support from the director and leading lady Sienna Miller—whom Amiri says “really took a liking to me”—the kid stayed in the picture. And he’s already wrapped his second film, Reservation Road with Joaquin Phoenix and Terry George (Hotel Rwanda).