LeBron James and Anna Wintour Cozy Up at Waverly; Moby Makes Out at R BarWe weren’t surprised to read in “Page Six” today that Anna Wintour dined with LeBron James at the Waverly Inn. We passed their table on Tuesday, and when the ceilings are that low, it’s impossible to miss a six-foot-eight baller extracting himself from the center of a corner booth. James was patiently sitting next to the bathroom when we emerged, causing our waiter to remark, “You made LeBron James wait!” We couldn’t tell whether he was chastising us or congratulating us for no doubt costing the man a Benjamin of his time, but either way we felt a sense of accomplishment unknown since Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand queued up behind us at the Spotted Pig. The rest of this week’s sightings are heavy on the PDA.
Openings
Suzie Wong Promises to ‘Love U Long Time’We’ve been razzing Suzie Wong for its familiar logo, so we thought you might want to see what the city’s first bottle-service club concentrating in sake will actually look like when it opens for a private party tonight and then Baby Phat’s sure-to-be-nuts party tomorrow. Sake bottles will range from $150 Muroka Nama Genshu to $400 Kakunko, and you get free dirty fortune cookies with them!! The waitresses won’t be dressed as geishas as originally planned, but there will be a Geisha cocktail on the menu as well as a Madame Butterfly. The chef is Junnajet Hurapan, who has served time at Ruby Foo’s, Pre:Post, Hue, and — ahem — Lotus. The menu and another interior shot, if you care to see them, follow.
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David Rabin Says Tenjune Will Join in Lotus, Finds Suzie Wong Logo Odd
Lotus partner David Rabin has confirmed rumors that Tenjune’s Mark Birnbaum and Eugene Remm will be involved in the club. “The plan for the new venue and the timing are not set yet,” he writes in an email to us, “but it’ll be a JV [joint venture]. We are enthused about Mark and Eugene’s involvement. Fortunately, Lotus is still holding its own.” So much so, in fact, that as we pointed out yesterday, new nightclub Suzie Wong might just have taken inspiration from Lotus’s logo. “The similarity in logos is more than a bit odd,” Rabin says. “Maybe they want to buy our old Suzie Wong neon sign at a discount? I hope they have better luck with the concept than we did.” Adding to the intrigue, Down by the Hipster e-mails to point us to the logo of popular cocktail bar Suzy Wong in Amsterdam, shown above. Cue “Double Vision.”
Earlier: Suzie Wong Gives Us a Case of Déjà Vu
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Club to Open in (Rather Than Flee) West ChelseaThought West Chelsea was dead? John “JE” Englebert and his partners at Pre:Post, Retox, and Myst (where Flava Flav hosts a party this Saturday!) apparently disagree: In October they’ll open a 4,000-square-foot lounge called Suzie Wong’s (no relationship to the restaurant, also serving light Asian fare, in London, or the late-night cafe that used to be in Lotus). They’re not saying where in the neighborhood it’ll go, but we’re thinking it won’t be the Cain space: We wouldn’t be surprised if it replaced Pre:Post just like Myst and Retox replaced their onetime club Quo. The fact that the waitresses will be dressed as geishas is nothing new — remember the ones at G Lounge? (Probably not) — but there is one relative novelty: JE is avoiding the bottle-service route by simply charging a $50 table fee that will include a bottle of sake and a platter of appetizers. Call it bottle service 2.0.
