An unassuming tourist type at an unassuming football bar tells me this: "New York restaurants are crazy! There's a club in every basement!" I nod my head. He means RdV, the bass-thumping club below Bagatelle. "No," says the unassuming tourist, "We were in some East Village pizza restaurant or something!" Jesus, it can be tough keeping up with the NYC Jones. There seems to be tons of hidden gems that try to stay away from the people like me who can write about them, Twitter about them, Facebook about them, and ultimately ruin them. Some things are worth keeping a secret, but when the party is in the basement of Coffee Shop or some media lunch spot that regularly gets off on decent press, it's easy to broadcast. Some other things will remain a mystery, until I can fully understand if it's an actual basement party or simply a couple of bus boys getting high between shifts.

As the holidays near, it's fun to roll the dice on what former hotspot will have a revival, or what invitees may finally get a glimpse of the most exclusive space by way of special event invitation. This week alone the The Bowery Hotel had a major resurgence, proving it's a party player by hosting the annual Humane Society’s Cool vs. Cruel benefit, back-to-back with tonight's Art Rocks! event. Same with the six-thousand-foot "local hang'" -- The Ainsworth -- which was ground zero for Stylecaster's Short Films Premiere Party. Sienna and Savannah Miller hosted a dinner to celebrate their spring 2010 collection at the Royalton (not exactly the downtown scene we'd imagined for them). Party palaces also revive with extreme makeovers' the closed 105 Rivington space -- a splinter off of the Rivington Hotel -- is getting a redux. It will be called CV, and it had a little show-and-tell this past Tuesday. All in all, the holiday times bring a little nightlife cheer in the form of new beginnings at old places, reminding people how awesome some of our nighttime landmarks can be.

Once again, the landscape of nightlife is a'changing. Sometimes, you have to stir up the water to catch a few fish, which is exactly what happened to us. East Village Monday-night favorite Le Souk lost its liquor license, forcing patrons to take their business to Le Souk Harem, but it's the neighborhood that's the real loser. Wandering aimlessly in search of something new and good on Sunday night, we found a new party at White Slab Palace. Places we'd long since wrote off somehow hit the spot if not filled the void. An object lesson on wandering outside your comfort zone.

In the end, I end up at subMercer because it is reliable, well-run, intelligent, classy, unpretentious, and adult. My goodness, I could go on forever, but of course goodness has nothing to do with it -- subMercer is sexy. Doormaster Richard Alvarez and I exchanged a dozen "oh my gods" and "you look greats" and we both said "fierce" and "fabulous" and "work" a few times before I went subterranean. A sea of familiar faces greeted me and mine. Gabby Mejia, who rules this gem, got me my usual -- a glass of water -- and stunned me with conversation and a slinky black cocktail dress. Greg Brier of Brier Group's Aspen, Aspen Social, Highbar, Amalia, and D'or fame was celebrating his birthday, and he didn't look nearly as old as people said he was. DJs Justin Strauss and Tommy James were hanging out to support by being even a bit older than Greg. One of mine said Greg was "charismatic and handsome and fun and it was amazing that he was as old as he was." I reminded her that I have shoes as old as him. She asked, "How long have you guys known each other?" and I said, "I can't tell you how we met or where or how long ago, or I would be dating myself," and then looked her up and down and realized I already was.

● Boom Boom Room (Meatpacking District) - Eighteen floors above the Thigh Line, Eyeful Tower’s Boom Boom Room layers on even more sexual innuendo. Sex, too: nothing like floor to ceiling windows revealing the glittering city at your feet for getting you in the mood. Most now spot in town. (For now.)
● Jane Hotel and Ballroom (West Village) Latest smash from Sean MacPherson and Eric Goode gets all Edwardian on the WVill. Nights can run a little wild out this way, but that’s copacetic with the kinds of guests that the Jane Hotel attracts.
● Above Allen (Lower East Side) - Lush Life, indeed. Lofty Thompson LES rooftop heated up fast. Stephen Sprouse prints harken to downtown ghosts, while shmancy $15 cocktails shout out to hood’s posher present.

David Macklovitch makes up half of the Montreal-bred, synth pop duo Chromeo, with his counterpart, P-Thugg (a.k.a. Patrick Gemayel). In the music world, he's known as Dave 1: A dude who's simultaneously studying for his PhD at Columbia, and getting read to drop an album next summer as a follow-up to 2007's majorly-hyped album Fancy Footwork. Chromeo is playing one show this fall on October 16th at Irving Plaza to promote the mix they put together for the !K7 Records' DJ-KiCKS series. And fortunate for Chromeo fanatics who simply cannot wait around until next summer, eager for some new tunes, the single "Night By Night" will be release through Green Label Sound on Wednesday, September 23rd for free download. We caught up with Dave 1 during mandatory study hours while he took a quick break from the books to talk about chicks and muzak (smooth rock, if you will).

This year's Costume Gala at the Metropolitan Museum in New York will go down in history as one of the more memorable. Kate Moss showed up in a matching turban and toga, Madonna made headlines for her LV-approved bunny ears, while supermodels boycotted on behalf of Azzedine Alaïa; not to mention, Rodarte's after-party at subMercer produced one of the most high-profile fashion feuds in decades: Kiefer Sutherland head-butting Proenza Schouler's Jack McCollough. But don't expect the fashion faux pas or feuds to be replicated next year, says Fashion Week Daily. "According to two well-placed insiders, one very closely involved with the Museum, the 2010 Costume Institute Gala will be a much less splashy affair -- a move the museum is said to welcome. The guest list will consist mostly of trustees and benefactors who purchase full-priced tickets instead of the designers, models and Hollywood types who once sat at their comped tables."

Few writers strike as much fear in the hearts of wayward starlets and errant politicians as Paula Froelich, who has been bludgeoning boldfaced names with her “Page Six” pen for almost nine years. But, when she arrives at Employees Only in Manhattan’s West Village one rainy morning in late April, the New York Post gossip columnist immediately dispels any concerns that the devil might, in fact, wear YSL. “I didn’t know if I should get too dressed up,” she says, smiling as she steps into her designer heels. A born storyteller, Froelich pouts and laughs for the camera while sharing anecdotes about celebrities and their silly scandals -- a culture she has immersed herself in since quitting her job at Dow Jones to work under “Page Six” editor Richard Johnson nearly a decade ago. This June, Simon & Schuster will release Mercury in Retrograde, Froelich’s debut novel about three women from very different backgrounds who share the same address. With wit and charm -- and at least one reference to real-life tabloid fodder -- Froelich taps into Candace Bushnell territory, creating a world where women love their Blahniks as much as the next Bradshaw. A few days after the photo shoot, we caught up with convivial social-vault to discuss the rag trade, the sweetest revenge, and the wrath of wronged front-page personalities.

I felt like that little mouse in the lab maze as I traveled past the cabinets of bar supplies and wine lining the winding entrance to subMercer. I was visiting my newest, beautiful friend, Jennifly, who had cordially invited me.

Manny Ramirez and Kiefer Sutherland are American heroes. The Dominican-born Ramirez is one of twenty-five major leaguers ever to hit over 500 home runs, and he has the most grand slams of any active player. And although he's Canadian, Sutherland has become the definitive action hero of the terrorist era, taking names and torturing with glee every week on 24. But my how quickly plates can shift when you're at the top of your game. Yesterday, Ramirez got slapped with a 50-game suspension for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs, and Sutherland was charged with assault for a headbutt incident at SoHo hotspot subMercer early Tuesday morning. So between these two glory boys, who falls hardest?