205 Club’s new hooker mascot isn’t a classy choice but it’s not entirely unfounded either. According to a forthcoming Radar Magazine story, “hipster hookers” go to the same clubs we go went to—they’re just like us! (Update: the article is out)
I first met Heather (her working name) about a year ago. We were sitting at the same VIP table at a tony New York nightclub called 205 along with some pro hockey players and big-time artists. I had seen her at various parties and recognized her sleek, dark hair and honey-colored skin. I introduced myself, and it turned out we had a lot of friends in common. Heather moves in both fashion and media circles and refers to herself as a “quasi party girl.”
[NY Mag]
Perhaps hoping to draw the moneyed clientele that $4000 per hour hookers attract, Serge Becker’s 205 Club is using Ashley Dupré’s image for their promotions. The prostitute to disgraced ex-Governor Spitzer was given a cheap Warhol-style treatment and plastered on posters which you can see outside the club.
After a nightlife expose of Flatiron clubland the NY Post turns to Lower East Side nightlife and navigates the obstacle course of velvet ropes, cover charges, bottle service and stripper poles. Kicking off the rundown of problems with the “new Lower East Side scene” is word that A-Ron did too well as “creative director” of 205. His network of friends made the place too popular with the moneyed and boring set and they don’t want to hang out there anymore. Added to the fact they felt like bait and it’s not hard to see why.
But don’t pour out your forty just yet. Doug and Bobby say the LES is still the real deal.
“The Lower East Side is the real deal – it’s not pretentious,” says R Bar patron Doug (”they call me ‘the Bus’ “) Corbus, 24. “And there’s lots of tail.”
“Whores!” corrects his pal Bobby Reynolds. “Whores!”
“I work in advertising in Midtown,” Corbus explains. “This is, like, real New York,” he says.
“Midtown has too many JAPpy girls,” says Reynolds.
“It’s maybe not cooler, but it’s more raw,” says Corbus. “People here will order a drink that no one’s drinking instead of what’s popular, or wear clothes that are the hip s—.”
And further proof that not all is lost: the R Bar (formerly Pioneer) did not install stripper poles in the front window. They already had four in back, and thought six would be “overkill.” Moderation is key.
“The idea was that we found some old speakeasy that burglars would use to store their gear before fencing it.” So says Simon Hammerstein, great great grandson of the ballroom’s namesake and proprietor of The Box. Although it’s been active since December 2006, the theater and nightclub dinner theatre 189 Chrystie Street is not expected to be “officially” open until June. That’s because Hammerstein is busy schooling dancers’ routine and searching out new acts to dazzle the crowd.
“Three nightly shows will be put on, and Hammerstein and his team have been scouring circus schools and the like in France and Russia for guest stars. One of his favorites is a twenty-inch-tall woman named Firefly whom he wants to live in a glass house suspended above the bar and read aloud from her diaries.”
Is that even legal? If you can’t wait, head over to Brooklyn to hear teenage diaries read aloud at Freddy’s Back Room.
Photo by Mike Duva.
You can change your name, change your look and change your friends, but you can’t change your past. It’s too bad that 205 Club, the downtown collaboration between A-Ron, Serge Becker, and Guy Jacobson may find this out the hard way. In August, in its previous incarnation as 6’s and 8’s, the club received some violations for underage drinking and drug use and must go to State Supreme Court on Tuesday to fight a possible closure. Earlier in November, the New York State Liquor Authority imposed two fines totaling $5,500 to 205 Chrystie Street for unspecified violations.
Considering the club’s legal troubles, it was quick thinking to keep out Keanu Reeves, aka FBI Special Agent Johnny Utah. It doesn’t matter that he let Bodhi surf that last wave. He’s still a narc.
205, the rumored “bar-lounge-restaurant” alliance of Serge Becker (nightlife impresario of La Esquina fame) and Aaron “A-Ron” Bondaroff (cool kid of aNYthing fame) was confirmed last week. Who cares that New York Magazine broke the news back in August.
On Friday night, 205 hosted the after party for ThreeAsFour’s fashion week show. Rub N Tug fueled the danceparty, free drinks flowed, people got sweaty on the floor, and Vincent Gallo was skeezy as ever (pushing up on Mark, the Cobra Snake’s girlfriend).
Silver walls, tinfoil covered fixtures, exposed pipes, and disco balls on the upstairs level suggest ThreeAsFour’s own loft a few blocks away (and the Factory of some dude named Andy Warhol). Downstairs, the shady carpets and rec room vibe of 6’s and 8’s are replaced by hand lettered plywood and stacks of broken televisions. It’s the aftermath of a night dumpster diving and robbing construction sites.
