DOH Confirms Increase in Late-Night Smoking RaidsOn the Beatrice Inn: “The Department may consider actions to revoke or suspend the establishment’s permit should it continue to allow patrons to smoke.”
Court Rules That World Yacht Stripped Waiters of TipsEver pay the mandatory 20 percent tip for $17 drinks at GoldBar and wonder how much of it actually goes to the bartender? We’re not sure how it works at GoldBar (we assume some of that money goes to golden-skull upkeep), but the New York State Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of fourteen servers who claimed that the World Yacht, a dining cruise, illegally withheld from them a 20 percent fee that was added to banquet costs. The World Yacht argued that the fee wasn’t actually a gratuity, but the court found that the company led patrons to believe it was just that, and so was obligated to distribute it to servers. Or did they think the nice view was enough of a work perk?
Opinion: Arnel Samiento, et al., Appellants v. World Yacht [PDF]
House Mix
Lenny Kravitz Neither Seen Nor Heard at GoldBar Last NightJonathan Ames, self-described “journalist with bad breath, bad teeth, bad hair, and bad debt,” penned a hilarious essay for Spin about infiltrating GoldBar with the likes of Lenny Kravitz, who despite living a few blocks away takes a Town Car to the club (what, no Escalade?). Ames is blown away by the fact that Cameron Diaz isn’t even the prettiest girl in the place, which is “loaded with perfume, emanating from the dozens and dozens of beautiful girls” (hm, nothing about the smell of cigarette smoke). Kravitz, meanwhile, has been there, done that, hence this lyric from one of his new songs: “The night is young, GoldBar’s the place to be.” With that in mind, we slipped in last night for a $17 drink and a plate of his favorite truffle fries, to see if Kravitz’s name check has earned him a place on GB’s playlist.
Neighborhood Watch
Don’t Be an Ass, You’ll Be Made to Wait; Park Slope Gets Its BeerClinton Hill: John’s Donut Shop & Restaurant looks like an unassuming diner, but a recent visit revealed an actual wait. Do people know something we don’t know? [Clinton Hill Blog]
Dumbo: Water Street Restaurant is promoting $3 Draft Beers and a 2-for-1 Cheeseburger Special on Sunday. [Dumbo NYC]
Flatiron: If you get to Hill Country at 8 p.m. on a Saturday and come 9 p.m. you’re still waiting for a table, you’ve now struck “Shot o’clock,” according to GM John Shaw, “gratis shots for all at the bar.” [Eater]
Little Italy: This is proof that the city’s nightlife is still hot: “Degenerates of nyc in full swing at gold bar. 19 yr old Brazilians having makeshift photo shoots as the party floods into the D.J. booth to play with the new mac computers.” Only Bangkok could be hotter than that! [Down by the Hipster]
Park Slope: Beer Table, whose SLA woes were chronicled by the Times this week, will open Saturday. [Eat for Victory/VV]
Tribeca: A bit of diner rudeness has been spotted around town lately — stool-swiping, line-cutting, table-hogging — but there’s a bit of consolation (and warning to offenders): Nobu co-owner Richie Notar revealed “they get secretly punished with extra-long waits.” [Mouthing Off/Food & Wine]
NewsFeed
GoldBar Causes Citywide Escalade Shortage
We’ve already advised you to wear a GoldBar T-shirt if you want to get beyond the club’s gilded rope so badly that you’re willing to sacrifice any sense of style. But what ride should you roll up in? You might just find your answer in this tally of cars we saw outside of the club between 12:10 a.m. and 12:20 a.m. this morning.
Celebrity Settings
Tom and Gisele Lock Lips at Nobu, ‘Full House’ Cast and the B-52sEarlier this week we linked to a Daily News item claiming Padma Lakshmi rudely refused complimentary dishes from Fiamma’s chef. A commenter wrote, “I was at Fiamma the night Padma was dining there and it absolutely did NOT go down that way. When the dishes arrived at the table, she thanked them profusely and apologized for being too full to eat any of them!” Whatever happened, Padma was just one of many celebs to chow down (or at least show up) at local restaurants this week, and here’s our gossip-column compendium of just who went where.
Celebrity Settings
Ben Stiller Crashes a Party at Fiamma, Penélope Cruz Makes Out at
Every Friday a notable New Yorker tells us where they’ve been eating, but where are the rest of them chowing down? Starting this week we’ll sort through the gossip columns à la Ils Vont (RIP) to tell you who’s been seen where (casual sightings only — boring galas, vodka launches, and pluggy appearances don’t count). We’ll eventually compile a ranking of restaurants most often visited by celebs. Not that you care about that sort of thing! Oh, but if you do, won’t you please leave your own sightings in the comments?
NewsFeed
What to Wear If You Really Want to Get Into GoldBar
The clubwear trend of plastering skulls all over everything to make it “edgy” simply will not die. In fact, it has just reached the height of absurdity thanks to some D.J.’s-cum-designers at GoldBar. Per Down by the Hipster, they’ve slapped the club’s name and an image of one of its super-cool golden skulls on a limited-edition T-shirt. Apparently, this piece of low couture is being given only to the club’s “elite,” which makes us wonder: After being banned from the place thanks to our less than favorable opening-night musings, is sporting one of these the only way we’ll be able to get past the venue’s golden ropes? Either way, we’re sticking to our stodgily skull-free Wo Hop shirts.
Related: Golden Years [Down by the Hipster]
Earlier: GoldBar Finally Emerges from the Vault
The New York Diet
In DJ Cassidy’s Mix: Cookie Crisp, Fruity Pebbles, and Balthazar
As the go-to party spinner for the likes of Jay-Z, Diddy, and Russell Simmons, DJ Cassidy, who recently cut tracks with J-Lo and Jessica Simpson, has seen some lavish food spreads in his 25 years. For instance, the time he was flown to Naomi Campbell’s birthday bash in Dubai. “It was in the middle of the Arabian dessert,” he remembers. “It was a never-ending buffet with the most amazing stations — every kind of meat being carved for you, every dessert you could think of, every kind of seafood at the raw bar. I don’t like to work with a heavy stomach, but I couldn’t resist. I stuffed my face.” We asked him what he caved into this week.
Neighborhood Watch
Old Frenchmen Pass Facial Inspection at GoldBar in Little ItalyBrooklyn Heights: “Closed by the Commissioner of Health” clearly taken lightly at Heights Cafe where diners have been spotted munching the mediocre fare. [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
Chelsea: Richard Ruben, author of The Farmer’s Market Cookbook, will host classes at the Institute of Culinary Education starting June 1 that begin with an ingredient hunt at Union Square’s Greenmarket. [Blog Chelsea]
East Hampton: Restaurants open seven days starting this weekend, including Nick & Toni’s and Harbor Bistro. [Hamptons.com]
Fort Greene: Locals search for answers to the fate of the space at Lafayette and Cumberland Avenues, have high hopes for Thai but as yet no answers. [Brooklyn Record]
Little Italy: A two-way mirror intensifies the door policy at GoldBar, but if you have a face like an old Frenchman, you shouldn’t have a problem. [Down by the Hipster]
Prospect Heights: Flatbush Farm hosting another barbecue this weekend. [Eater]
Neighborhood Watch
Buy Steaks Out of a Van Near Flatbush AvenueBrooklyn Heights: Jack the Horse Tavern now serves brunch. [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
Chelsea: Checking in on Balducci’s: “If Marilyn Monroe were to come back as a cupcake, this is probably what she would look like.” [Blog Chelsea] Also, Cain bails on clubland for downtown, near GoldBar. [NYP]
East Village: Seder storytelling happening at Mo Pitkin’s tonight and tomorrow at 7 p.m.; a ticket also gets you gefilte fish and hard-boiled eggs. [Mo Pitkin’s]
Fort Greene: Sordid tale of greed may have forced Christian Dennery to sell Liquor’s restaurant, but whatever: Where will we get our Bloody Marys? [Clinton Hill Blog]
Harlem: Café Largo has reopened after an exhausting four-year renovation; the space is sexier, and new brick oven? Could serve three restaurants. [Uptown Flavor] Meanwhile, could a former Associated supermarket become a W Hotel? [Harlem Fur]
Lower East Side: Chef Shane Coffey will leave his head post at Alias Restaurant by the end of April and move to … Aspen. [Eat for Victory/VV]
Prospect-Lefferts-Gardens: “You like meat?”: Omaha steaks now available from unmarked vans near the Associated! [My Life in Brooklyn via Gowanus Lounge]
NewsFeed
GoldBar Doesn’t Want You to Steal Its Soul
We thought we had witnessed the height of GoldBar’s arrogance when we peeped the oil paintings of the owners opening night, but walking by recently, we noticed something else: The de rigueur velvet ropes have been replaced by gold chains barely fit for blinging out a sucka MC. We would’ve photographed them, but according to not one but two plaques, there is NO PHOTOGRAPHY PERMITTED. What does this place think this is, the Vatican? And what’s next, a no flip-flops rule? —Daniel Maurer
Openings
GoldBar Finally Emerges from the Vault
You might have heard a little bit about GoldBar lately. It’s the hottest thing since Death & Co. two weeks ago and until Star Lounge goes into soft launch … this weekend. We were pretty confident the décor of this Cain offshoot would be gold, and the involvement of skulls seemed likely. But until last night’s opening to “friends and family,” all details were little more than informed speculation. Now, finally, the truth can be told.
NewsFeed
Is GoldBar Readying Its Blowtorches for Cain’s Biggest Spenders?The plot grows thicker in the curious case of Little Italy hot-spot-to-be GoldBar: A tipster says the owners of Cain (who are joined in the secretive opening by David Tetens, former operator of Lotus) have been tracking that bar’s biggest spenders so they can give them VIP cards for the new place. (“As for Cain tracking top clients, of course they do …” e-mails a publicist. “But are Cain clients getting VIP cards to GoldBar? NO.”) So what can we expect when it opens on February 1?
NewsFeed
Cain’s Not Moving, Just Expanding to the BahamasEarlier this week a broker revealed to us that GoldBar, the new project from Cain’s Robert McKinley and Jamie Mulholland, would resemble Pangea, prompting a PR rep to vehemently disagree. “Whoever said anything about bottle service?” the rep writes. “Couldn’t be farther from what this project is about.” (No word, of course, on what it is about.) Meanwhile, Mulholland himself refuted industry rumors that Cain is considering a move from West 27th Street, saying business is stronger than ever and he looks at three or four spaces a week only because “it’s good to have your ears to the ground.” One move we can tell you to expect: If all goes as planned, a Cain Beach Club will be opening in the new Cove luxury hotel complex on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. Now we know where Bobby Flay, who’s opening a Mesa Grill on the island, will be throwing down. —Daniel Maurer
Earlier: Cain’s Secret Project to Bring a Whole Lotta Bling to Little Italy
