Gotham - 2014 - Issue 1 - Winter by Niche Media Holdings, LLC

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F ront Runners A rendering of New York’s first annual dog show, held in 1877.

Dog Days THE FIRST WESTMINSTER DOG SHOW DREW THOUSANDS, JUST AS IT DOES TODAY. BY MURAT OZTASKIN

he First Annual New York Bench Show of Dogs, forerunner to what is now known as the Westminster Dog Show, was held in 1877 at the Hippodrome, at Gilmore’s Garden (a predecessor to Madison Square Garden, where the evening sessions are still performed). Billed as “a fashionable new amusement” in The New York Times, the show drew a roster of 1,201 dogs, including two staghounds listed as having belonged to the late General George Custer, as well as two deerhounds bred by Queen Victoria herself. The show was organized by the new Westminster Kennel Club, “an organization of gentlemen interested in the improvement of the strains of hunting dogs,” who named their group after the old Westminster Hotel, on Irving Place and 16th Street, which attracted the likes of Charles Dickens and William Dean Howells and whose bar these gentlemen would frequent. The first show was such a hit that it was extended to four days from its originally scheduled three. The estimated gate tally for the first day was as high as 8,000. On the second day, 20,000 spectators attended. It was when 20,000 arrived again for the third day that the Westminster club decided to add a fourth. A share of the proceeds from the first show was given to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to establish a home for stray and disabled dogs, and contributions to that organization have continued every year since. Still run under the auspices of the Westminster Kennel Club, the show will present its 138th annual event February 10 –11. westminsterkennelclub.org G

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Winter 2014 20 From the Editor-in-Chief 22 From the Publisher 24 â&#x20AC;ŚWithout Whom This Issue Would Not Have Been Possible 26 Invited 34 The List

70 For the Global Bride

People 36 On Stage Jed Bernstein takes the helm of Lincoln Center, the largest nonprofit performing arts center in the world.

40 Rent Stabilizers Robert Reffkin and Ori Allon of Urban Compass want to revolutionize how New Yorkers find apartments.

42 Smart Alex Manhattan native Alexandra Daddario joins the all-star cast of HBOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new show True Detective.

44 Up in the Air Real estate investor Joseph Sitt leads the charge to improve New York City airports.

46 Bringing Music Home Philanthropist Adrienne Arsht and star violinist Joshua Bell discuss their support of a unique concert series held this month to benefit AIDS charities.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIC RYAN ANDERSON

8 Front Runners

Naeem Khan applies his costume talents to bridal. 10

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Winter 2014

Culture 50 Long Shot Rocky Balboa beat the odds. Alex Timbers, Broadway’s hottest director, hopes to as well with his new musical Rocky.

52 Return Engagement With Jimmy Fallon at the helm, The Tonight Show moves back to New York this month after 42 years. Top performers look back at how the program changed their careers.

56 A High-Tech Past Futurism, an art movement whose spirit matched the dynamism of early 20th-century New York, gets its first major showing at the Guggenheim.

58 Seeing Red RH Contemporary Art showcases hot new artists from China.

Taste 60 Roots The Cecil, Dick Parsons’s new restaurant in Harlem, celebrates the Afro-Asian origins of American cuisine.

64 Out at Night New bars and supper clubs add to Harlem’s nightlife cool.

66 Harlem on His Mind

68 North Stars Willie Suggs, the “queen of Harlem real estate,” and real estate maven Lovelynn Gwinn discuss their neighborhood’s ongoing evolution, as well as its incomparable comfort food at venerated supper club Londel’s.

60 Roots

Spiced Nyangbo Crema, one of The Cecil’s exotic desserts.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY EVAN SUNG

Award-winning chef Marcus Samuelsson highlights his favorite spots in a neighborhood he helped revive.

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F E AT U R I N G A M A N DA H E A R S T W E A R I N G T H E A RT I E , P H OTO G R A P H E D AT T H E H E A R S T C A S T L E

w w w. o p t y x . c o m Manhattan 228 Second Ave / 14th St 599 Lexington Ave / 52nd St 1225 Lexington Ave / 83rd St 1076 Third Ave / 64th St

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Connecticut 2384 Broadway / 87th St 2009 Broadway / 69th St 655 6th Ave / 21 St 862 Lexington / 65th St

229 Greenwich Ave/ Greenwich CT Hamptons 10 Main Street / East Hampton

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Winter 2014

42 Smart Alex

Manhattan native Alexandra Daddario stars in HBO’s True Detective. Mela dress, Preen ($1,357). Scoop NYC, 1275 Third Ave., 212-535-5577; scoopnyc.com. Serpent druzy wire cuff, Isharya ($148). Intermix, 1003 Madison Ave., 212-249-7857; isharya.com

Style 70 For the Global Bride Naeem Khan introduces a new bridal collection and draws on places from New York to Versailles for inspiration.

72 Crystal Clear Designer and author Cornelia Guest knows a great pair of shoes when she sees them. This season, Alejandro Ingelmo’s Swarovski-encrusted pair is at the top of her list.

74 Only in New York Exclusive shop-in-shops shine at Bergdorf Goodman’s revamped men’s store.

For image-obsessed New Yorkers craving the latest skincare treatments, there’s a new product available that takes antiaging solutions in a new direction.

78 Vintage Inspired New York’s midwinter antique shows highlight the elegance of other-era styles, which are now a source of inspiration for luxury watch brands.

Features 80 Taking the Lead Rebecca Hall, who’s won raves for film roles with Ben Affleck and Robert Downey Jr., talks with Ethan Hawke about starring in Machinal, her first Broadway play. Photography by David Slijper

86 Couture and the City One-of-a-kind luxury, and it’s all made in New York. By Gary Walther Photography by Evan Sung

96 The Smart Set New York socials team up with Rockefeller University in the quest for a cure—for everything. By Betsy F. Perry

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ELISABETH CAREN; STYLING BY ANGEL TERRAZAS FOR AIM ARTISTS; MAKEUP BY LOTTIE USING CHANEL FOR THE WALL GROUP; HAIR BY AVIVA PEREA FOR SPORNETTE. SHOT ON LOCATION AT THE LIBRARY BAR, DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES

76 Optical Effects

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Winter 2014

104 The Family Manse

Home & Design 102 An Ever-Greener Home New standards for healthy lifestyles bring holistic wellness solutions to condo living.

104 The Family Manse Large luxury townhouses with celebrity provenance go up for sale.

106 Set in Stone How Calacatta became the Manhattan marble of choice.

The Guide 109 Sugar Rush Ladurée opens a flagship tea salon in Soho.

110 Sweet Talk Enjoy these treats on Valentine’s Day—and every day of the year.

111 The Daily Grind Where New Yorkers get their java fix.

And Finally… 112 Now Hear This Mix cold weather with cell phone ubiquity and you get the perfect recipe for eavesdropping.

ON THE COVER: REBECCA HALL Photography by David Slijper Styling by Laura Jones Cashmere coat, Akris ($4,990). Bergdorf Goodman, 754 Fifth Ave., 212-753-7300; bergdorfgoodman.com. Romper, Valentino ($2,790). 821 Madison Ave., 212-772-6969; valentino.com. Earrings, Finn Jewelry ($4,750). Barneys New York, 660 Madison Ave., 212-826-8900; finnjewelry.com. Small Cordelia necklace in sterling silver, David Yurman ($1,950). 712 Madison Ave., 212-752-4255; davidyurman.com. Rosette ring, Anna Sheffield ($4,200). 47 Orchard St., 212-925-7010; annasheffield.com

ON THE COVER: MANICURE BY TRACYLEE USING SALLY HANSEN NAIL COLOR. HAIR BY BEN SKERVIN FOR VIDAL SASSOON PRO SERIES AT THE MAGNET AGENCY. MAKEUP BY HUNG VANNGO FOR CK ONE COLOR COSMETICS AT THE WALL GROUP

Large townhouses change hands.

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CATHERINE SABINO Editor-in-Chief Senior Managing Editor KEN RIVADENEIRA Editor-at-Large SAMANTHA YANKS Art Director ANASTASIA TSIOUTAS CASALIGGI Photo Director LISA ROSENTHAL BADER Entertainment and Bookings Editor JULIET IZON Fashion Editor FAYE POWER Copy Editor DALENE ROVENSTINE Research Editor MURAT OZTASKIN

SUZANNE RUFFA DOLEN Publisher Associate Publisher KAREN LEVINE Account Executives THOMAS CHILLEMI, MORGAN CLIFFORD, VICTORIA HENRY, JIM SMITH, GABRIELLA ZURROW Director, Event Marketing JOANNA TUCKER Event Marketing Manager CHRISTIAMILDA CORREA Sales Assistant JAMIE HILDEBRANDT

NICHE MEDIA HOLDINGS, LLC Editorial Director MANDI NORWOOD Creative Director NICOLE A. WOLFSON NADBOY Executive Fashion Director SAMANTHA YANKS

ART AND PHOTO

Senior Art Director FRYDA LIDOR Associate Art Directors TIFFANI BARTON, ADRIANA GARCIA, JUAN PARRA, JESSICA SARRO Senior Designer JENNIFER LEDBURY Designers ELISSA ALSTER, GIL FONTIMAYOR Photo Editors JODIE LOVE, SETH OLENICK, JENNIFER PAGAN, REBECCA SAHN Associate Photo Editor KATHERINE HAUSENBAUER-KOSTER Photo Producer KIMBERLY RIORDAN Senior Staff Photographer JEFFREY CRAWFORD Senior Digital Imaging Specialist JEFFREY SPITERY Digital Imaging Specialist JEREMY DEVERATURDA Digital Imaging Assistant HTET SAN

FASHION

Senior Fashion Editor LAUREN FINNEY Associate Fashion Editor ALEXANDRIA GEISLER Fashion Assistants CONNOR CHILDERS, LISA FERRANDINO

COPY AND RESEARCH

Manager, Copy and Research WENDIE PECHARSKY Copy Editors DAVID FAIRHURST, NICOLE LANCTOT, JULIA STEINER Research Editors LESLIE ALEXANDER, JUDY DEYOUNG, AVA WILLIAMS

EDITORIAL OPERATIONS

Director, Editorial Operations DEBORAH L. MARTIN Director, Editorial Finance and Digital Operations ERIK NETCHER Editorial Relations Manager MATTHEW STEWART Online Managing Editor CAITLIN ROHAN Online Editor APRIL WALLOGA Social Media and E-Newsletter Editor ANNA BEN YEHUDA Digital Media Developer MICHAEL KWAN Digital Media Specialist ANTHONY PEARSON Senior Managing Editors DANINE ALATI, JILL SIERACKI Managing Editors JENNIFER DEMERITT, KAREN ROSE, JOHN VILANOVA Associate Managing Editor/Beauty Coordinator KAITLIN CLARK Fashion Editor-at-Large LAURIE BROOKINS Shelter and Design Editor SUE HOSTETLER Timepiece Editor ROBERTA NAAS

ADVERTISING SALES

Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing NORMAN M. MILLER Account Directors SUSAN ABRAMS, MICHELE ADDISON, TIFFANY CAREY, CLAIRE CARLIN, KATHLEEN FLEMING, MEREDITH MERRILL, ELIZABETH MOORE, GRACE NAPOLITANO, DEBORAH O’BRIEN, SHANNON PASTUSZAK, VALERIE ROBLES, RAYLENE SALTHOUSE Account Executives SUSANA ARAGON, LYNN CHAFFIER, MICHELLE CHALA, AMY DESILVA, JANELLE DRISCOLL, ALICIA DRY, VINCE DUROCHER, DINA FRIEDMAN, SARAH HECKLER, CAROLYN LANDES, SHAMBRY MCGEE, MARY RUEGG, LAUREN SHAPIRO, CAROLINE SNECKENBERG, KACIE TURPENEN, TERA WASHBURN, JESSICA ZIVKOVITCH National Sales Coordinator HOWARD COSTA Sales Support and Development EMMA BEHRINGER, ANA BLAGOJEVIC, DANA BROCKWAY, EMILY BURDETT, CRISTINA CABIELLES, BRITTANY CORBETT, OLIVIA DAVIS, DARA HIRSH, KELSEY MARRUJO, MICHELLE MASS, NICHOLE MAURER, RUE MCBRIDE, STEPHEN OSTROWSKI, MARISA RANDALL

MARKETING, PROMOTIONS, AND PUBLIC RELATIONS

Vice President, Marketing and Public Relations LANA BERNSTEIN Vice President, Integrated Marketing EMILY MCLINTOCK Integrated Marketing Director ROBIN KEARSE Integrated Marketing Manager JIMMY KONTOMANOLIS Creative Services Director SCOTT ROBSON Promotions Art Designers CHRISTOPHER HARDGROVE, DANIELLE MORRIS Event Marketing Directors AMY FISCHER, HALEE HARCZYNSKI, MELINDA JAGGER Event Marketing Managers LAURA MULLEN, LAUREN OLSON, CRISTINA PARRA Event Marketing Coordinator ANI GAFKA Event Marketing Assistant SHANA KAUFMAN

ADVERTISING PRODUCTION

Vice President, Manufacturing MARIA BLONDEAUX Positioning and Planning Director SALLY LYON Assistant Production Director PAUL HUNTSBERRY Production Managers BARBARA SHALE, BLUE UYEDA Production Artists MARISSA MAHERAS, TARA MCCRILLIS Distribution Manager MATT HEMMERLING Fulfillment Manager DORIS HOLLIFIELD Traffic Supervisor ESTEE WRIGHT Traffic Coordinators JEANNE GLEESON, MALLORIE SOMMERS Circulation Research Specialist CHAD HARWOOD

ADMINISTRATION, FINANCE, AND OPERATIONS

Director, Executive Operations MICHAEL CAPACE Executive Assistant ARLENE GONZALEZ Human Resources Director STEPHANIE MITCHELL Controller DANIELLE BIXLER Advertising Business Manager RICHARD YONG Financial Analyst AUDREY CADY Credit and Collections Manager CHRISTOPHER BEST Senior Credit and Collections Analyst MYRNA ROSADO Senior Accountant LILY WU Junior Accountant NATASHA WARREN Senior Billing Coordinator CHARLES CAGLE Desktop Administrator ZACHARY CUMMO Infrastructure Administrator MOHAMMED HANNAN Facilities Coordinator JOUBERT GUILLAUME

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

J.P. ANDERSON (Michigan Avenue), SPENCER BECK (Los Angeles Confidential), ANDREA BENNETT (Vegas), KRISTIN DETTERLINE (Philadelphia Style), ERIN LENTZ (Aspen Peak), LISA PIERPONT (Boston Common), JARED SHAPIRO (Ocean Drive), ELIZABETH THORP (Capitol File), SAMANTHA YANKS (Hamptons)

PUBLISHERS

JOHN M. COLABELLI (Philadelphia Style), LOUIS DELONE (Capitol File), ALEXANDRA HALPERIN (Aspen Peak), DEBRA HALPERT (Hamptons), GLEN KELLEY (Boston Common), COURTLAND LANTAFF (Ocean Drive), ALISON MILLER (Los Angeles Confidential), DAN USLAN (Michigan Avenue), JOSEF VANN (Vegas)

Vice President and Chief Financial Officer JOHN P. KUSHNIR Chief Technology Officer JESSE TAYLOR President and Chief Operating Officer KATHERINE NICHOLLS Chairman and Director of Photography JEFF GALE Copyright 2014 by Niche Media Holdings, LLC. All rights reserved. Gotham magazine is published eight times per year. Reproduction without permission of the publisher is prohibited. The publisher and editors are not responsible for unsolicited material and it will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication subject to Gotham magazine’s right to edit. Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, photographs, and drawings. To order a subscription, please call 866.891.3144. For customer service, please inquire at gotham@pubservice.com. To distribute Gotham at your business, please e-mail magazinerequest@nichemedia.net. Gotham magazine is published by Niche Media Holdings, LLC (Founder, Jason Binn), a company of The Greenspun Corporation. NICHE MEDIA HOLDINGS: 100 Church Street, Seventh Floor, New York, NY 10007 T: 646-835-5200 F: 212-780-0003 THE GREENSPUN CORPORATION: 2275 Corporate Circle, Suite 300, Henderson, NV 89074 T: 702-259-4023 F: 702-383-1089

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FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

With Dior Beauty’s Christy McCuaig and Allison Cea at the private dinner held to celebrate the launch of American Cut in Tribeca.

live as close to the office as possible. It was something I learned from my time in Italy, the sanity of living “above the store,” so to speak, near the job—as many Milanese designers and industrialists did, refusing to waste precious time getting to where they needed to be each day. As I live in Midtown and work near the World Trade Center, I have the longest commute of my career, but I’m surprised by how much I enjoy it. Each morning, as I travel down the FDR Drive—okay, no one will mistake it for the Amalfi Coast—I’m mesmerized by the river views and all the to-ing and fro-ing of helicopters, ferries, transport barges, and pleasure craft. My 15-minute-or-so ride provides a constant reminder of the city’s maritime past—something easy to forget when you’re in the thick of the concrete jungle. New Yorkers once had a more intimate connection to the sea: From the Revolutionary to the Civil Wars, Gotham functioned most importantly as a seaport. In the 18th and 19th centuries, houses were built on property that ran down to the river—my great-grandmother lived in one near Gracie Mansion, enjoying the sort Follow me on Twitter of bucolic idyll I can only dream about @csabino and on when I stroll along the East River gotham-magazine.com. promenade. The Mount Vernon Hotel and Museum on East 61st was once an inn on the water; New Yorkers living in crowded downtown would head north to this oasis in the “country” during the summer to escape the city’s heat. Summer heat sounds like a delightful concept—it’s snowing as we put this issue to bed. Despite the tricky weather, it was particularly busy here with end-of-year and beginning-of-the-new events and parties. Recently, I was delighted to meet Sarah Wendt, the incoming president of Step Up Women’s Network, the nonprofit that helps young women with educational opportunities, at its fundraiser at Le Poisson Rouge; and to chat with Lauren Bush Lauren about her work with FEED during a Gotham party with Links of London. Right before the holidays, it was fun to toast Sant Ambroeus’s 30th anniversary at a cocktail party held at its Madison Avenue locale, chat with John DeLucie during the opening of the revamped The King Cole Bar & Salon, and meet Susan Henshaw Jones, director of the Museum of the City of New York when “Gilded New York,” its Belle Époque exhibit, debuted. Next up: celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Winter Antiques Show in late January. Have a good winter!

ABOVE: Chatting with Sarah Wendt, the new president of Step Up Women’s Network. LEFT: At the Gotham magazine and Links of London celebration of FEED’s new collection with Lauren Bush Lauren.

CATHERINE SABINO

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SLAVEN VLASIC/GETTY IMAGES FOR GOTHAM MAGAZINE (LAUREN); ANNA WEBBER/GETTY IMAGES FOR GOTHAM MAGAZINE (MCCUAIG); MARC HALL (WENDT)

It’s hard to look forward to a daily commute, which is why for most of my working life I’ve tried to

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When it comes to navigating the muni market right now, your most valuable asset is perspective “Risk management is central to our practice. We strive to avoid exposing clients to more risk than they can afford or they need to meet their goals. With superior client communication and service, we rise above the competition.” –Jonathan Kleiman As an investor, however, it’s more important than ever to separate the rhetoric from the reality with a balanced, informed perspective. As experienced UBS Financial Advisors, we can offer insight and advice based on proprietary research to help individual investors like you make clearer decisions about the role munis should play in your portfolio. Together, we’ll craft a plan that can bring greater confidence to your investment decisions and that helps ensure you’re always on track to meet your financial goals. Advice you can trust starts with a conversation. Kleiman Wealth Management Group UBS Financial Services Inc.

To read this report, visit our website at ubs.com/team/kleimanwmg Jonathan Kleiman Senior Vice President– Wealth Management 631-420-6475 jonathan.kleiman@ubs.com

Ryan Einig Financial Advisor 631-454-3224 ryan.einig@ubs.com

Tina M. Somma Senior Client Service Associate 631-454-3204 tina.somma@ubs.com

Kimberly A. DeSantis Senior Client Service Associate 631-454-3222 kimberly.desantis@ubs.com

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We will not rest

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FROM THE PUBLISHER

With LDV cofounder John Meadow at Gotham’s VIP dinner at American Cut, Marc Forgione’s new Tribeca steakhouse. With J.P. Versace Jr. and Brian Wodar of Bernstein Global Wealth Management at Gotham’s Business of Philanthropy breakfast.

Bowl will be played in an open-air venue, this year at MetLife Stadium, on Sunday, February 2, at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey. We at Gotham magazine are thrilled to see visitors flowing into the city to attend the game. The presence of so many out-of-towners will undoubtedly bring additional revenue to local retailers, hotels, and restaurants. But Super Bowl XLVIII is not the only happening this month. The Westminster Dog Show (February 10 –11) will again have its evening programs at Madison Square Garden (with day programs at Piers 92/94). Stop by to cheer on entries Follow me on Twitter for Best in Breed and Best in Show. And @suzanneruffa and on be sure to make it to the Winter gotham-magazine.com. Antiques Show ( January 24–February 2). The most prestigious antiques show in America is celebrating its 60th year. Proceeds from the event benefit the East Side House Settlement. As we begin our new year, Gotham magazine’s calendar is already filled with events supporting notable charities. On February 12, the East End Hospice will host its Valentine’s Day Salon, raising funds for programs that support grieving children. Support these and other noteworthy causes (see this issue’s “Charity Register” on page 49) by attending their events or donating through their websites. What better way to start the new year than with charitable giving? Hope to see you around town, ABOVE: With Johnny Cooper of the American Red Cross and Sharon Patrick (LEFT), founder of Patrick Partners and cofounder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, at Gotham’s Business of Philanthropy breakfast.

SUZANNE RUFFA DOLEN

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNA WEBBER (MEADOW)

This winter will be unlike any other in the city. For the first time in its history, a cold-weather Super

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...WITHOUT WHOM THIS ISSUE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE WINTER 2014

Eric Ryan Anderson Anderson left a career in finance to pursue photography nearly 10 years ago. He works primarily with record labels and fashion brands. Anderson shot Naeem Khan for this issue’s “Tastemaker” on page 70 and “Sidewalk” on page 40. How was the Naeem Khan photo shoot?

As luck would have it, a cold front hit the day before our shoot. So we had these three poor models in ski jackets for lighting tests, who then tossed the coats aside so we could snap the pictures as quickly as possible. What makes a bridal shoot unique? Naeem’s dresses are incredibly detailed, so it’s important to keep the embellishments visible in the image.

Judith H. Dobrzynski Judith H. Dobrzynski is a leading cultural reporter, contributing to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. She wrote this month’s “View from the Top” on page 36 and “Art Full” on page 56. What’s the most interesting fact you learned about Jed Bernstein? He spoke

Evan Sung Evan Sung is a Brooklyn-based photographer focusing on food and lifestyle. His work appears regularly in The New York Times, Art Culinaire, and Vogue. He shot this issue’s “Power Cuts” feature (page 86) and “So Many Dinners” (page 60).

What did you enjoy about Macbeth?

I found the physicality of that role incredibly exhilarating. A play like this penetrates your imagination, but keeping yourself relatively sane for your family was the biggest challenge. After playing a monarch, do you have any advice for world leaders?

Abraham Lincoln used to carry a copy of Macbeth around with him as a warning of the corruption and the corrosive nature of power, how destructive it is to people’s humanity.

What did you enjoy most about shooting “Power Cuts”? Each of the craftspeople was

totally in love with what they made. As a photographer who feels fortunate every day to make a living doing what I enjoy, I felt a real connection. Is there a moment that stands out? Paul Moorefield of Oliver Moore Bootmakers spoke about how hard it is to find parts and replacements nowadays. I saw how all of these people might be part of a vanishing world.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY RYAN MCCUNE/PATRICKMCMULLAN.COM (DOBRZYNSKI)

Ethan Hawke Film and stage actor Ethan Hawke has been nominated for two Oscars, as best supporting actor in the crime drama Training Day and for best adapted screenplay for Before Sunset. Hawke recently appeared on Broadway in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. He interviewed fellow thespian Rebecca Hall for Gotham’s cover story (page 80).

with real nostalgia about growing up in a family that so appreciated the arts. What makes him a good fit for Lincoln Center? Enthusiasm— he clearly loves what he’s doing, and that’s a prerequisite for the demands on his time the position entails. Of course, I interviewed him before he officially took the job. Maybe we have to go back in six months and see.

24 GOTHAM-MAGAZINE.COM

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Invit ed THE SEASON’S PRESTIGIOUS EVENTS AND SMARTEST PARTIES

A Swirl of Soirées M

ichelle Williams, Sofia Coppola, Wes Anderson, Marc Jacobs, Alexander Wang, and Robert Duffy are just some of the megawatt names that dazzled at late-fall fêtes, like the Whitney Gala & Studio Party and the FGI Night of Stars. Other power players popping up on the social circuit included Mayor Michael Bloomberg and philanthropist Amanda Hearst, who appeared at the Humane Society of the United States’ To the Rescue! New York Gala, always a well-attended event. Anne S. Harrison, president of the Women’s Committee of the Central Park Conservancy, had a surprise for guests at the group’s annual Fall Luncheon with a special appearance by fashion icon Isaac Mizrahi.

Michelle Williams, Sofia Coppola, and Riley Keough sparkled at the Whitney Gala & Studio Party in Louis Vuitton.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILLY FARRELL AGENCY

EVENTS THAT CELEBRATED THE BEST IN FASHION, DESIGN, INTERIORS, AND PHILANTHROPY. BY CHRISTINA PELLEGRINI

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INVITED Lauren Santo Domingo

Rainer Judd

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILLY FARRELL AGENCY

Paul Arnhold, Wes Gordon, and Chloe Malle

Georgina Bloomberg

Whitney Gala & Studio Party

David Byrne and Ed Ruscha

The Whitney Museum of American Art raised more than $2.75 million dollars at its annual fall fête, held in conjunction with Louis Vuitton at the glass-enclosed Skylight at Moynihan Station on October 23. A-list creatives like author Joan Didion, comedian Steve Martin, and director Sofia Coppola were present to honor American artist Ed Ruscha. A surprise performance by the Talking Heads’ David Byrne provided a lively conclusion to the evening.

Colbie Caillat

Amanda Hearst

The party scene at Moynihan Station.

Katrina Bowden

A view of the gala at Cipriani 42nd Street.

To the Rescue!

On November 15, the Humane Society of the United States threw its glitzy annual event at Cipriani 42nd Street and raised $1.6 million for its Animal Rescue Programs. Hosted by Ali Wentworth and supported by co-chairs Amanda Hearst, Georgina Bloomberg, and Kimberly Ovitz, the gala featured a memorable vegan dinner by the Upper East Side’s Candle Café and Candle 79, and a performance by singer/songwriter Colbie Caillat.

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Kimberly Ovitz

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INVITED

Hamish Bowles and Alexander Wang

Leslie Blodgett

Lew Frankfort, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Nadja Swarovski

FGI Night of Stars

Kimberly Thurston and Adelina Wong Ettelson

Clive Davis and Aretha Franklin

Anne Harrison and Tom Kempner

Fiona Rudin and Isaac Mizrahi

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILLY FARRELL AGENCY, MARYANN GRISZ, FGI (LEW) (FGI); BENJAMIN LOZOVSKY/ BILLY FARRELL AGENCY (WOMEN’S)

Carine Roitfeld and Kate Upton

Fashion Group International hosted its 30th annual Night of Stars on October 22 at Cipriani Wall Street, bestowing the coveted Superstar awards to Marc Jacobs and Robert Duffy. Design luminaries including Alexander Wang, Angela Missoni, and Christopher Kane also received honors from industry luminaries Alexa Chung, Stefano Tonchi, and Hamish Bowles.

Marcia Mishaan, Fe Fendi, and Felicia Taylor

Kamie Lightburn and Paige Hardy

Women’s Committee Fall Luncheon

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The Women’s Committee of the Central Park Conservancy assembled for its annual Fall Luncheon on October 21 at the Mandarin Oriental hotel. This year’s event, with Van Cleef & Arpels as a sponsor, turned out 350 guests, thanks to the efforts of President Anne S. Harrison and co-chairmen Suzie Aijala, Paige Hardy, and Sharon Jacob, A highlight of the luncheon program was a discussion with fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi. The afternoon raised more than $165,000 for the preservation and beautification of Central Park.

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INVITED

Jarrett Livingston

Christy McCuaig Bryan Jones and John Rice

Jared Epstein, Mindy Zwiebach, Caroline Hane-Weijman, and Jared Matthew Weiss

American Cut Dinner

On November 7, Gotham’s Editor-in-Chief Catherine Sabino and Publisher Suzanne Ruffa hosted a private dinner to help introduce Tribeca’s new American Cut steakhouse by LDV Hospitality to up-andcomers in finance, tech, beauty, and real estate. Guests included Overture’s Jared Matthew Weiss, Applico’s Alex Moazed, Aurora Capital’s Jared Epstein, and Dior Beauty’s Christy McCuaig.

Eric Lee, Silda Wall Spitzer, and J.P. Versace

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SLAVEN VLASEK/GETTY IMAGES

Cynthia McKee, Sharon Patrick, Jayni Chase, Mariko Tada, Johnny Cooper, and Sharna Goldseker

The dining room at American Cut.

Alex Moazed

James O’Hoppe and Jonathan Freedman

Kelley Faulkner and Mark Leeds

Brian D. Wodar

Business of Philanthropy Breakfast

Gotham hosted its first thought leader breakfast devoted to philanthropy on November 13 at AllianceBernstein headquarters in Midtown. A stellar panel of executives and experts from a wide range of charities and not-for-profits took part in a panel discussion, among them SVP of Development for Conservation International Cynthia McKee, Senior Corporate Development Officer of American Red Cross in Greater New York Johnny Cooper, President of Patrick Partners and Cofounder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Sharon Patrick, and UrbanAssembly New York and Harbor School board member Jayni Chase. Alliance Bernstein’s Director of Wealth Management Research Brian D. Wodar moderated the discussion.

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INVITED

Gaetano Sciuto and Margaret Russell

Analisse Taft, Aamir Khandwala, and Betsy Murphy

Valerie Acampora and Carolina Albiso

Luxury Living Showroom Opening

Paul Dumont and Alberto Vignatelli

Luxury Living, the exclusive design retailer for Fendi Casa, Bentley Home, and Alberto Vignatelli’s Heritage collection, celebrated the opening of its first New York showroom at 153 Madison Avenue on October 23. Vignatelli, Luxury Living’s founder and CEO, along with president Raffaella Vignatelli, clinked glasses with an exclusive design-savvy set that included Fendi Casa Contemporary designer and collaborator Toan Nguyen and Fendi Americas President Gaetano Sciuto.

Toan Nguyen and Giovanna Golnelli

PHOTOGRAPHY BY PATRICK MCMULLAN (FENDI); EUGENE GOLOGURSKY/GETTY IMAGES (PRINTMAKING)

Franco Nannucci, Raffaella Vignatelli, and Kamuti Kiteme

Anita Cooney

Spencer Bailey Modern prints by Finnish design house Marimekko. Mika Piirainen and Aino-Maija Metsola

Kevin Walz

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Celebrating the Art of Printmaking

On November 8, Finnish design and fashion house Marimekko hosted an evening that highlighted the art of printmaking at its New York flagship at 200 Fifth Avenue. Industry influencers met the brand’s textile designer Aino-Maija Metsola and fashion designer Mika Piirainen for a cocktail reception and moderated discussion led by editor and writer Spencer Bailey.

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INVITED

Penny Grant, Kathleen Giordano, Victor de Souza, and Dawne Marie Grannum Miki Bauer, Mario Villamar, and Uliana Parkhomei

EUGENE GOLOGURSKY/GETTY IMAGES (PRINTMAKING)

Mario Buatta and Margaret Russell

Jen Laird White and Caroline White

Ellie Cullman

Mario Buatta & Ellie Cullman Book Signing

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILLY FARRELL AGENCY (MARIO); CRAIG BARRITT/GETTY IMAGES (ROY)

1stdibs founder Michael Bruno and New York Design Center President Jim Druckman hosted a book signing party to celebrate star designers Mario Buatta’s and Ellie Cullman’s recent book releases at 1stdibs’ NYDC showroom on October 29. A crowd of design aficionados gathered to meet Cullman and Buatta; a percentage of sales from the showroom was donated to the New York School of Interior Design.

David Sprouls and Jim Druckman

Gretchen Mol

Chris Calkins and Bebe Neuwirth

Nancy Braun

Keara Sauber and Edgar Vaudeville

Roy Teeluck , Eve Ensler, Pat Mitchell, and Tony Montenieri

Roy Teeluck Salon 10th Anniversary

Paul and Catherine Shaffer

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Stylist to Brooke Shields, Sigourney Weaver, and Jane Fonda, Roy Teeluck celebrated the 10th anniversary of his eponymous salon on November 4 at Midtown’s Le Colonial. Chef Ronald Wingwee Hsu served his authentic Vietnamese canapés with the restaurant’s refurbished French Colonial setting serving as backdrop. Guests included Gretchen Mol, Eve Ensler, and Bebe Neuwirth.

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INVITED

Lou Hammond and Laura Pyzer

Tony Carnevale

Rotella Gallery Opening Ashley Haas, Chloe Hooton, Brandon Yankowitz, and Gina La Piana

Rotella Gallery, known for showcasing artworks that celebrate the natural world, toasted the debut of its first New York location with a grand opening on October 16. Striking photography by Art Wolfe and Robert Rotella was on exhibit, as top collectors mingled with artists and sampled hors d’oeuvres by Elegant Affairs catering.

The new Soho space.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROBIN MARCHANT/GETTY IMAGES (ROTELLA); SEAN FITZHUM PHOTOGRAPHY (MASERATI)

Art Wolfe and Robert Rotella

Models complemented the debut of the Maserati Ghibli.

Roman Popescu and Stephanie Valenti Paolo Luciano, Davide Luciano, and Claudia Ficca

Jill Zarin Paul Chapman

David Nelson

Maserati Showroom Opening

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On November 7, the New York Jets’ David Nelson hosted the grand opening soirée for Maserati of Manhattan’s new showroom, located at 619 West 54th Street. It is Maserati’s first stand-alone showroom in the US. Former Giant Carl Banks and Bravo stars chef Roblé Ali and Jill Zarin were among the tastemakers who bid in the silent auction and previewed the line’s newest model, the Maserati Ghibli.

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INVITED Peter Facinelli and Jaimie Alexander

A look from the Armani Privé collection.

Martin Scorsese, Giorgio Armani, and Leonardo DiCaprio “Eccentrico” showcased Armani’s most prized designs.

Armani One Night Only

BILLY FARRELL AGENCY/ JOE SCHILDHORN (ARMANI); BILLY FARRELL AGENCY/NEIL RASMUS (JIMMY)

SEAN FITZHUM PHOTOGRAPHY (MASERATI)

Naomi Watts

Hilary Swank

October 24 was designated “Giorgio Armani Day” in New York to honor the designer’s contribution to the city’s fashion industry. Armani celebrated the occasion with One Night Only New York at the SuperPier in Hudson River Park, where he displayed “Eccentrico,” an installation of his most influential haute couture. Celebrity guests such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Watts, Hilary Swank, Renée Zellweger, and Martin Scorsese also enjoyed a runway show of Armani Privé, which was followed by an exclusive cocktail party with a DJ set by Mark Ronson.

Harley Viera-Newton on the decks.

Hannah Bronfman

Max Osterweis, Leandra Medine, and Kate Foley

Jonathan and Erika Bearman A piece from the Jimmy Choo 2014 Cruise Collection, on ice.

Jimmy Choo 2014 Cruise Collection Garrett Neff, Bryce Thompson, Chad White, Henry Watkins, Dorian Reeves, and Gianluca Di Sotto

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Jimmy Choo Creative Director Sandra Choi celebrated the brand’s 2014 Cruise Collection at No. 8 in the Meatpacking District on November 14. Pieces from the collection were displayed on ice as DJ Harley Viera-Newton spun tunes and fashionable guests such as Nicky Hilton, Erika and Jonathan Bearman, Max Osterweis, and Hannah Bronfman sipped cocktails.

Nicky Hilton and Sandra Choi

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T he List winter 2014

Sam Mendes

Peter Sarsgaard

Al Sharpton

Nicole Kidman

Beyoncé Knowles

Hugh Dancy

Melania Trump

Mark Consuelos

Woody Johnson

John Mara

Herb Boyd

David Bowie

Jason Terry

Iman

Amar’e Stoudemire

Alfred F. Kelly Jr.

Vaughn Taylor-Akutagawa

Thelma Golden

James Dolan

Jonathan Adler

Geoffrey Canada

Samuel L. Jackson

Mikhail Prokhorov

Walt Frazier

Bernard Beal

Farah Jasmine Griffin

Michael Meyers

Stephen Gaghan

Catherine Zeta-Jones

Jason Kidd

Ronald B. Sobel

Lauren Santo Domingo

D. Steve Boland

Majora Carter

Ertharin Cousin

Loren Schoenberg

Eddie Brown

Marc Mezvinsky

Maya Angelou

Cedric Bobo

Edith Cooper

Minnie Mortimer

Charles Rangel

Alexandra Chong

T. Troy Dixon

Ivanka Trump

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

Johannes Huebl

Kevin Garnett

Steve Tisch

Diane Sanders

Nicole Hanley

Vicki Fuller

Simon Doonan

Andrés Santo Domingo

Matthew Mellon

Harrison Ford

Tyson Chandler

Olivia Palermo

Martin Shafiroff

James Reynolds

Ryan Callahan

Arva Rice

Lorraine Adams

Ursula Burns

Francisco Borges

Karen Boykin-Towns

Kenneth Chenault

Eli Zabar

Jean Shafiroff

Sam Rosen

Richard Parsons

Hazel Dukes

Henrik Lundqvist

Joe Micheletti

Gayle King

Jay Z

Charles Barron

Mike Fratello

Tracy Reese

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Jed Bernstein became president of Lincoln Center on January 27.

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Superlatives PEOPLE, CULTURE, TASTE, STYLE

VIEW FROM THE TOP

On Stage JED BERNSTEIN TAKES THE HELM OF LINCOLN CENTER, THE LARGEST PERFORMING ARTS ORGANIZATION IN THE WORLD. BY JUDITH H. DOBRZYNSKI PHOTOGRAPHY BY SARI GOODFRIEND

“I

“I am completely passionate, and I have a crush on talent,” he says. ’m a 24/7 person,” says Jed Bernstein, sitting down for coffee at Alice Tully Hall one recent day. That’s a good thing, since on January 27 of “Whether it’s a prima ballerina or the greatest knitter in the world, I love this year, Bernstein, 58, takes on one of the most demanding jobs in the the challenge of helping support them in the creation of art.” Bernstein inherits a financially sound Center whose challenges differ city: president of Lincoln Center. The position requires not only daily attention to a host of intricate management issues but also frequent atten- from those Levy faced. The campus is thoroughly modern, thanks to a $1.2 dance at the many offerings of the world’s largest performing arts center. billion renovation that was completed in 2012, except for Avery Fisher There’s a full schedule of after-work business events and dinners to tend to Hall, which is due for change in 2017 or ’18. Bernstein has to take “Linc. as well—courting donors is an integral part of the job, and a critical one for Inc.,” as his realm is called, to the next level, drawing new, younger audiences, deploying technology to reach people someone following in the footsteps of the legendary around the globe, expanding arts education, and Reynold Levy, a tireless promoter, renovator, and persuading its 11 historically independent constituents fundraiser extraordinaire who held the job since 2002. (like the New York Philharmonic, the New York City “I feel like Babe Dahlgren,” Bernstein says. “He’s the Ballet, and The Juilliard School) to collaborate in areas guy who replaced Lou Gehrig” when the great Yankees like marketing and signage. “They’ll be the rallying first baseman ended his 2,130-consecutive-game streak points,” he says. “That’s the ‘something new.’” because of his debilitating disease. “But I have With a degree in psychology from the University of confidence,” he adds. “You play the best you can.” Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Yale School of Bernstein can certainly draw on a wealth of Management, Bernstein is smart enough to know that experience. He’s a Tony-winning independent —JED BERNSTEIN he didn’t arrive with all the answers. So in September, Broadway producer (with credits for the revivals of he began what he calls “a grand listening tour,” meeting Hair and Driving Miss Daisy, among others) who most recently helped restore and reopen the Bucks County Playhouse. For 11 with everyone from security guards to his most senior staff, from trustees years, he led and totally reinvigorated the Broadway League, and before to key funders to the leaders of the constituent organizations. In his that he developed marketing campaigns for clients like American Express typically folksy manner—“Boy, is it cool, in every way,” he says of his new at three major advertising agencies. Add to the mix an interest in the arts job at one point—he explains his approach with the adage about having that began at age 6, when his parents took him to the old Metropolitan two ears and one mouth and the need to use them proportionately. What he won’t be doing is producing. Programming is mainly the Opera house to see Aida. He first visited Lincoln Center for a Young People’s Concert at Philharmonic Hall (now known as Avery Fisher Hall). continued on page 38

“I’ve always seen my role as someone whose job is to allow artists to make great art.”

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VIEW FROM THE TOP “Boy, is it cool in every way,” says Jed Bernstein of his new job.

BASIC BERNSTEIN A new president talks favorites, off the job. *last vacation: A year-end trip to South Africa and then a five-day visit “to lie on the beach in the Seychelles.”

*on his reading list: “Biographies and history.” He took The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin on his year-end vacation. “But I also love Stephen King, and his Doctor Sleep went along, too.

*favorite restaurant: Café Luxembourg. “I like everything on the menu. You can go late, and yet it’s a place you can go for breakfast.”

*fond memory: Until September, “I hadn’t been to the New York State Theater since it was redone [and renamed the David H. Koch Theater]. I almost burst into tears. When we went to the New York City Opera there, my brother and I [used to go] out opposite sides of the old, continental seating, and we would race to the water fountain in the back. It was the same, untouched water fountain.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK BUSSELL (FOUNTAIN); RICHARD TERMINE (CONCERT)

continued from page 37 purview of the constituents, though Bernstein has two staff members who organize Live from Lincoln Center, Midsummer Night Swing, and other Linc. Inc. festivals. “No one needs me to pick the music for Mostly Mozart or the performing groups for Lincoln Center Festival,” he says, with no trace of wistfulness. “Where I can add value is reaching different audiences, suggesting different marketing ideas, and so on. I’ve always seen my role as someone whose job it is to bring together resources, like intellectual capital and money, to allow artists to make great art.” Since young people in New York no longer go to the opera, the ballet, or the philharmonic the way he did growing up on the West Side, courtesy of his parents, Bernstein believes that Lincoln Center must provide the background he received at home, possibly with technology, to make the performances more understandable and enjoyable. He also believes that it must have more events that are akin to “appointment TV,” like Monday Night Football or Downton Abbey on PBS. At Lincoln Center, that might mean a one-off performance by violinist Joshua Bell in the Center’s atrium on a Thursday. “If you want to see him, that’s where you’d have to be.” And he plans to use technology to “deliver performances in new ways and send them to new places,” just as Peter Gelb, general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, has done with HD simulcasts to theaters around the world. Lincoln Center under Bernstein will also be exporting its full BELOW: Lincoln Center’s range of management expertise, from strategic planning to Josie Robertson Plaza, Revson Fountain, and construction of performing arts facilities to fundraising and audience Grand Stair. BOTTOM: building, an initiative tested by Levy in Tianjin, China. Bernstein Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra at views this consulting business as “a way of expanding the Lincoln Avery Fisher Hall. Center brand” as well as adding to the Center’s revenues. But he declines to say more, citing client confidentiality. There’s one big drawback to his job: “You have to get used to four meals a day,” he notes, to do all that wooing of donors and, increasingly, corporate sponsors. By late November, he was well on his way to getting in fighting trim—he’d lost “30 pounds in the last three months, and I have 15 more to go.” G

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SIDEWALK

Rent A Stabilizers ROBERT REFFKIN AND ORI ALLON OF URBAN COMPASS WANT TO REVOLUTIONIZE HOW NEW YORKERS FIND APARTMENTS. BY KEN RIVADENEIRA PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIC RYAN ANDERSON

nyone who has ever searched for a home in Manhattan knows the process can be a nightmare. Even if money is no object, there are bidding wars to endure, mountains of paperwork to fill out, and mercurial landlords, brokers, and co-op boards to contend with. It’s Social Darwinism at its best. “I’ve never heard anyone say they enjoyed the apartment search,” says Robert Reffkin, CEO of Urban Compass. “It should be fun.” He and Ori Allon, the start-up’s executive chairman, founded the company less than a year ago with one mission: to help New Yorkers find a great place to live in the fastest and most enjoyable way possible. Combining business and technology—Reffkin was previously chief of staff to the president and COO of Goldman Sachs, and Allon held senior roles at Google and Twitter (both companies purchased and implemented technology he developed)—the longtime friends created a formula they believe works. The company’s site and mobile app guides users through the city’s many neighborhoods,

displays only active inventory (“It is the most accurate database in New York City,” Reffkin says), and allows them to schedule appointments and apply for apartments online, all the while being helped by in-house or independently contracted brokers. In December, the firm modified its business model, doing away with agent commission caps to attract well-known brokers and top listings. The company is also moving into home sales after its initial focus on rentals. Gotham recently caught up with Reffkin, 34, and Allon, 33, to talk about revolutionizing the notorious NYC home search, city living, and why their business became a success. (Less than six months into existence, Urban Compass was valuated at $150 million, after a Series A fundraising round.)

“People didn’t invest in us just because we’re nice.” —ORI ALLON

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FROM LEFT:

Longtime friends Robert Reffkin and Ori Allon teamed up to simplify NYC apartment hunting; Allon’s neighborhood, the Lower East Side; Urban Compass describes the LES as affordable, with prewar walk-ups mixed with luxury high-rises; the entrepreneurs recently opened a second office near Union Square.

How long have you each lived in New York? ROBERT REFFKIN: I’m from Berkeley, California. I moved here to go to college and have been here ever since. I’ve been in the West Village for three years now. It’s a really good place to raise a family—I got married a little over a year ago, and I have a 5-month-old baby girl. ORI ALLON: I was born in Israel, did all my studies in Australia, and now New York is my main residence. I’ve been in the Lower East Side for about three years. This neighborhood traditionally was Jewish. You can still see the roots—the synagogues, Katz’s [Delicatessen].... I feel at home here. And there’s a really good vibe with the bars and restaurants. What led to the founding of Urban Compass? RR: Ori and I have known each other for about eight years. We wanted to do something together that combined his engineering talents with my business talents, and we wanted to focus on a big problem for New Yorkers. OA: I said, “If he’s going to leave Goldman Sachs and I’m going to leave Twitter, it will not be just for another company.” And we realized that people are very unhappy with the current situation of finding an apartment in the city. That’s worthy of

fixing—that’s something worth doing right. That’s a tall order. OA: We analyzed why the traditional way doesn’t work. And basically, there’s a lack of technology. Technology has invaded every aspect of our lives. But in real estate, not so much. You have websites where you can search properties, and that’s pretty much it. From there, you have to trust the broker to do the rest of the job, and the broker himself doesn’t have the right tools. That was very obvious to us. We can improve that. RR: Our goal is so people don’t have to visit countless apartments and deal with many brokers. Our inventory is updated multiple times a day, much of it instantly by our technology. Our agents also have an app with a tremendous amount of data that helps them give customers access to apartments and [helps them] apply much faster. What did the $150 million valuation mean to you? OA: It was a good deal for investors, because I think the value is actually higher. People didn’t invest in us just because we’re nice. RR: But we are nice. OA: Unlike other tech start-ups, we make money. This is a real business, as opposed to

another tech dream that could one day be monetized. But we don’t think in terms of money. We think of impact—how many people we actually help. Money is important, but it is not a measure of our success. Speaking of impact, you’re both very involved with different causes. RR: At Urban Compass we have Charity Miles. Our agents walk a certain amount of miles, and for every mile they walk, their friends donate toward it. It’s pretty cool. Like a marathon effort, but walking through the city doing your job. OA: I’m involved with Shalva, one of the largest nonprofits in Israel that helps children with mental disabilities. RR: I also founded New York Needs You five years ago (soon to be America Needs You as we expand nationally). It’s an intensive career-development mentorship program specifically for first-generation college students, because they are paving the way for their entire families. I had a wide network of young professional friends who wanted to give back to the community with their time and knowledge, not just their money. Too often people are asked for just their money, when New Yorkers have so much more to give. urbancompass.com G

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TALENT PATROL Alexandra Daddario plays a court reporter on her new TV series. “She’s flawed in a way that’s kind of fun.” Blouse (price on request) and skirt ($795), Anthony Franco. anthonyfrancodesigns.us. Shoes, Jimmy Choo ($675). 645 Fifth Ave., 212-593-0800; jimmychoo.com

Brearley, which is an all-girls school,” she explains. It was only after she landed her first professional role, on All My Children at age 16, and decamped a few blocks south to the Professional Children’s School, once a haunt for stars like Scarlett Johansson and Yo-Yo Ma, that she found herself “being around boys! That was an interesting change. They were totally unique for me.” For those who recognize Daddario from her breakout turn in the film Percy Jackson Favorite restaurant: “La & The Olympians, it’s more than evident Esquina (114 she’s learned how to deal with men along Kenmare St., the way: She played Annabeth Chase, the 646-613-1333; beguiling romantic interest of the title esquinanyc.com). character. “Percy was a huge, life-changing It’s just so cool to go down through thing,” she says. And not just because she the kitchen [to nailed the part of a love interest. Before the dining room].” landing that role, Daddario was cramming Dream director: auditions between bartending sessions at “I would love to Pop Burger in the Meatpacking District. “I work with Todd had a rough few years not knowing what Field. Little I was going to do,” she admits. “It took a Children is one of my favorite lot of growing up, learning, and working movies ever.” hard to get past whatever difficulties I was struggling with.” Her determination and perseverance have paid off— the actress’s latest role, in the much-anticipated HBO series True Detective, premiering in January, puts her in the company of heavyweights like Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey. In the film noir – style show, Daddario plays Lisa Tragnetti, a court reporter who becomes entangled, personally and professionally, with Detective Martin Hart, played by Harrelson. MANHATTAN NATIVE ALEXANDRA DADDARIO JOINS THE “It was amazing working with him,” she says. “He’s a ALL-STAR CAST OF HBO’S NEW SHOW TRUE DETECTIVE. huge inspiration. And I loved playing a character like BY JULIET IZON Lisa. She’s so flawed and bad—in a way—which is kind of fun,” she adds with a smile. The series, which is filmed in New Orleans, and her current project, lexandra Daddario is a head-turner. With her hair a cascade of russet waves and her eyes a striking swimming-pool blue, it’s no Burying the Ex, a zombie comedy shooting in Los Angeles, keep her away wonder the 27-year-old actress has quickly become a staple in from her hometown, but Daddario relishes frequent trips back to see family. “One of the reasons I’m an actor is because I had access to audimen’s magazines like Maxim and Esquire. The Manhattan-bred Daddario finds that somewhat ironic, considering tions,” she says of living in the Big Apple. “I was able to fall into it, as young how she once regarded the opposite sex as totally mysterious. “I went to as I was. New York provides me with endless opportunity.” G

Smart Alex

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INSIGHT

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THOUGHT LEADER

Up in the Air REAL ESTATE INVESTOR JOSEPH SITT LEADS THE CHARGE TO IMPROVE NEW YORK CITY AIRPORTS. BY SUZANNE CHARLÉ

oseph Sitt is known for smart, high-end real estate investments, stretching from his original stomping grounds in Coney Island to Manhattan (think the Scribner Building, 680 Madison Avenue, 530-536 Broadway in Soho). Recently his company, Thor Equities, bid $2.1 billion on the Empire State Building. Now Sitt is making a big investment of his own time and money ($1 million) to address the sad state of New York’s airports. In his words, “They stink.” In January 2013, he launched the Global Gateway Alliance, along with leaders in business, labor, and government, in hopes of improving JFK, Newark, and LaGuardia airports. One year later, Gotham caught up with the 49-year-old developer and asked him about progress on his latest endeavor.

metropolitan airports to meet the tremendous passenger demand. It should also explore the use of mobile applications to convey information about lines and help minimize wait times. Of the three metropolitan airports, which one needs the most work? LaGuardia. It has an obsolete Central Terminal Building and no viable mass transit options. GGA’s recent survey of passenger amenities at the 20 largest US airports ranked LaGuardia last. Last fall you released a report about how New York City area airports lag far behind in regard to traveler comforts.

Given how many passengers travel through our airports and the fact we suffer some of the worst delays in the country, we should lead the way with cutting-edge amenities. United, Delta, and JetBlue have stepped up to give passengers some of what we want at our airports, but this is only a starting point. What are you doing to wake up New York? GGA is creating research and reports to help people understand the needs. For example, we need $600 million for NextGen air traffic technology, so that flights can come in faster and safer. What are your long-term objectives? Modernize terminals, runways, and transportation infrastructure to and from airports. Lobby the federal government to give the New York area our fair share. Roll out NextGen air traffic technology in New York first, since we have such an impact on the rest of the nation’s air traffic. G

Joseph Sitt at JFK airport.

“Airports are the first impression people have of the city, the last they take when they head home.”—JOSEPH SITT 44

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ZEV STARR-TAMBOR

What made you start Global Gateway Alliance? I was on a trip from New York to Dubai when I realized the dichotomy between Dubai’s airport and what we have in New York. I did some research and was shocked what I discovered: Fifty years ago, [LaGuardia] was the best airport in the country; today it ranks as the worst [and has for some years]. Airports are the first impression people have of the city, the last they take when they head home. Why have city airports fallen behind? They serve 110 million passengers each year, and that number will go up—by 2030 we estimate there will be 130 million passengers. There just isn’t enough capacity to serve that volume. What are you focusing on now? Getting more awareness of the situation. We’ve also given the TSA a list of initial ideas for improvements, including expansion of PreCheck to all terminals at the three airports and opening PreCheck enrollment centers. The TSA should add agents to New York

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SPIRIT OF GENEROSITY

Adrienne Arsht and Joshua Bell team up this month for the Michael Palm Series.

Bringing Music Home PHILANTHROPIST ADRIENNE ARSHT AND STAR VIOLINIST JOSHUA BELL DISCUSS THEIR SUPPORT OF A UNIQUE CONCERT SERIES HELD THIS MONTH TO BENEFIT AIDS CHARITIES. BY KEN RIVADENEIRA

PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILLIAM GEDDES

ach year Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS raises funds for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS by hosting the Michael Palm concert series, which brings some of the foremost acts in classical music into private homes. The late Michael Palm, a financier and ardent supporter of Classical Action, spearheaded the concept of AIDS fundraising with private house concerts—which Chris Kenney, the organization’s current director, says “make you feel as if the artists are performing just for you alone.” On February 3 in New York, about 80 people will gather to hear violinist Joshua Bell, accompanied by pianist Sam Haywood, perform a concert for this season’s Palm series in a Tribeca loft. Philanthropist Adrienne Arsht, who underwrites the Palm concerts, says her interest in the arts “has been with me since I was a child.” In addition to being on the boards of Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Opera, Arsht also supports numerous performance programs, such as the American Songbook festival at Lincoln Center ( January 22–April 5). Gotham recently caught up with Arsht and Bell in his Flatiron apartment to discuss the upcoming Palm concert. continued on page 48

46 GOTHAM-MAGAZINE.COM

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continued from page 46 ADRIENNE ARSHT: I learned about Classical Action from its founding director, Charles Hamlen, who was then head of IMG. He created it 21 years ago to make it possible for great artists to give back. Since I can’t play an instrument, can’t sing, and can’t dance, the best I can do is help fund those who can. JOSHUA BELL: Thank goodness for people like you. For me the connection was also Charles Hamlen. He was my first manager when I was 16 years old. He had very good friends who had suffered from AIDS, and I remember him feeling like he needed to do something. From the beginning, he asked me if I could play at some of his events—it’s a cause I feel very strongly about. Over the years I’ve done several things for Classical Action. Whenever there are philanthropic or charitable events, there is always some kind of music or entertainment, ABOVE: Joshua Bell performing a and that’s where I come in. holiday concert, AA: I find the Michael Palm series unique streamed live from his home in because the experience of being in a home November. LEFT: with Joshua Bell... for people who love the arts, Bell and Arsht, longtime that is highly meaningful. Plus, the fact that collaborators, you see 80 people versus 2,000 people at the discuss his February 3 New York Philharmonic. performance. JB: I’ve always loved doing small, intimate house concerts. I actually built a space in my apartment so I could have this sort of thing. I have friends who had never been to a classical concert before they met me. They go to Carnegie Hall and enjoy it, but when they’ve seen things up close in a home or in the intimate environment of chamber music— these bankers and friends of mine—they’re blown away. It’s special when you’re close with the artist and have the music surround you. That has value, and many people appreciate it. That, in turn, translates hopefully into money for the cause. AA: To put it in context: You’re performing at the Lincoln Center Spring Gala. Now, everybody can go, pay the ticket price, and it’ll be wonderful to see you from far away, and afterward have dinner in a big room. A person can hear you that way, or they can hear you here. And this is better. How —ADRIENNE ARSHT do you choose what you play? JB: When I do an event like this, I treat it as if I were playing at Carnegie Hall. I do the same program I would do for 2,500 people, but for 60 or 80 people in the house. AA: But also, you do what you wouldn’t necessarily do in Carnegie Hall. Artists can use this forum to do something personal or that they really love. For example, Fred Hersch, the fabulous pianist, played for Renée Fleming. With a

“Artists can use this forum to do something personal.”

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Charity Regist er OPPORTUNITIES TO GIVE.

NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY

PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEVE J. SHERMAN (HAMLEN); DIANE BONDAREFF/IINVISION FOR THE NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY/AP IMAGES (AUDUBON); DIMITRIOS KAMBOURIS/WIREIMAGE (AMFAR); CYNDI SHATTUCK (ST. JUDE). OPPOSITE: PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILLIAM GEDDES (ARSHT); CLINT SPAULDING/PATRICKMCMULLAN.COM (PERFORMANCE)

ABOVE: Charles Hamlen, Renée Fleming, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Adrienne Arsht at the Classical Action 20th Anniversary Gala.

house concert, they perform what they’re doing [professionally] and one thing that nobody ever asks them to do but they want to do. JB: That’s what people want in these intimate evenings. They want it to feel more casual, and they get to talk to the artist afterward. So the program might be a little looser and a little more personal, maybe even experimental. I know I’ve tried out pieces and played with pianists I hadn’t worked with. In some cases, it’s a way to get artists together who don’t normally have a chance to play together. AA: The recent TV special for your holiday album, Musical Gifts, which was streamed in December live through Medici.tv, is that type of situation. Renée Fleming and Michael Feinstein sang with you, so you had the opportunity to give the public something to see and hear that they otherwise would not have had the chance to experience. And that’s what’s special. JB: My dream is someday to have a standing salon from my house, rotating with artists coming in and performing. Maybe it can become a thing that people subscribe to. There are many possibilities. House salon concerts are sort of a 19th-century idea; they don’t really happen anymore. Why not make it an evening for charity? For a situation that unique, people would pay good money. G

INSIGHT When: Joshua Bell’s concert for the Michael Palm series will take place on February 3, 2014. Where: A private home in Tribeca. For more information and to purchase tickets, call 212-997-7717 or visit classicalaction.org.

What: The National Audubon Society, one of the nation’s oldest conservation organizations, will honor Dan W. Lufkin and Patrick F. Noonan at its annual gala awards ceremony. This year the awards will be presented by former Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus and former Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Nathaniel P. Reed. When: Monday, January 27 Where: The Plaza Hotel, 768 Fifth Avenue Contact: audubon.org

AMFAR

What: Amfar’s black-tie gala, one of the city’s most anticipated charity events, will kick off New York Fashion Week festivities this year. The star-studded evening with Kenneth Cole, chairman of the Amfar board, will honor those who’ve contributed to the fight against AIDS.

THE ARMORY FOUNDATION

What: The most recognized names in professional, college, and high school track and field will compete in the Millrose Games, celebrating its 107th year. Partial ticket sales benefit Armory College Prep, a program providing city studentathletes with academic and college-readiness support programs. When: Saturday, February 15 Where: The Armory, 216 Fort Washington Avenue Contact: armorytrack.com

ST. JUDE CHILDREN’S RESEARCH HOSPITAL

What: Since opening in 1962, St. Jude has gained international renown for treating severely sick children regardless of their financial situation. Its life-saving work will be celebrated at the third annual Gold Gala, which brings the city’s young professionals together for an evening of cocktails, dancing, and fundraising.

When: Wednesday, February 5

When: Saturday, February 22

Where: Cipriani Wall Street, 55 Wall Street

Where: The Bowery Hotel, 335 Bowery

Contact: amfar.org

LINCOLN CENTER

Contact: stjude.org

CATHOLIC CHARITIES

What: Support this world-renowned arts venue by attending Lincoln Center’s American Songbook Gala, which this year honors celebrated talent agent Bryan Lourd. The evening includes a cocktail reception, dinner, and performance.

What: Catholic Charities’ work in aiding New Yorkers of all faiths ranges from feeding and sheltering the homeless, to providing support for the physically and mentally challenged, to helping immigrants adapt to their community. This gala will raise funds for the group’s extensive programs.

When: Monday, February 10

When: Wednesday, February 26

Where: Alice Tully Hall, Broadway at West 65th Street

Where: The Waldorf Astoria, 301 Park Avenue

Contact: aboutlincolncenter.org

Contact: catholiccharitiesny.org

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Culture HOTTEST TICKET

Long Shot ROCKY BALBOA BEAT THE ODDS. ALEX TIMBERS, BROADWAY’S HOTTEST DIRECTOR, HOPES TO AS WELL WITH HIS NEW MUSICAL, ROCKY. BY PATRICK PACHECO

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MORRIS MAC MATZEN (ROCKY ); JOAN MARCUS (TIMBERS)

hen Sylvester Stallone first mentioned to Thomas Meehan that he’d like to turn Rocky into a Broadway musical, the veteran playwright thought, This is an absurd idea. Then Stallone and Meehan sat down to watch the iconic 1976 movie about the smalltime Philadelphia boxer with the hangdog face who, against all odds, gets a chance at a world championship—and love. Recalls Meehan, “The more I studied it, the more I realized that the story had all the things you look for in a musical: a larger-than-life character who takes a journey, who wants to be somebody. And, more than anything, it’s a love story.” Just how good an idea it is will be tested this spring when Rocky, the musical, opens on Broadway. Stallone is one of the producers of the show, directed by Alex Timbers (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson), the hottest director on Broadway today, with a book by Meehan (Annie, Hairspray, The Producers) and Stallone, and songs by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty of Ragtime fame. Both Meehan and Timbers say that Stallone was “very supportive” of the creative team, especially when it came to casting the demanding lead roles. Andy Karl will play Rocky, and newcomer Margo Seibert will play Adrian, the mousy pet-store worker who wins his heart. “Stallone just fell in love with Andy, recognized a kinship with him,” says Timbers, “and he was impressed with Margo’s malleability. She really can do anything.” The director says that key to translating Rocky to the stage was to toggle deftly between the “emotional intimacy” of two damaged souls finding redemption in each other and “the gladiatorial spectacle” that gave the movie its visceral power. Timbers’s initial concern was how the songwriters were ever going to make the inarticulate Rocky sing. But those fears were immediately allayed once he heard the songs. “There is a sort of rough poetry to them that stays true to the character while allowing us to go into his heart and soul in the expansive way that musical theater does best.” At the same time, Timbers and fight choreographer Steven Hoggett were determined to evoke the sweat-stained, gritty, dangerous world of boxing. They were helped by the inclusion of kinetic songs from the film, such as the iconic “Gonna Fly Now,” and a full-size regulation boxing ring that will descend for Rocky’s final bout with Apollo Creed. But these elements are in service to the story of an underdog that captivated the public in 1976 and continued to do so through five sequels. Citing the fact that Rocky was released after the traumas of Vietnam and Watergate, Timbers believes that the damaged hero was a metaphor for a country seeking to right itself. “He was an important character for the country at that time,” the director says. “Rocky not only redeems himself but wants to prove that he’s worth something, that he’s not, as he puts it, ‘a bum.’ That’s a really simple but moving idea.” Rocky will begin previews at the Winter Garden Theatre on February 11. Opening night is March 13. For tickets call 212-239-6200 or visit rockybroadway.com. G FROM LEFT:

A production of Rocky in Germany, with Wietske van Tongeren and Drew Sarich, opened to rave reviews; director Alex Timbers.

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HOTTEST TICKET

The once and future kings of late-night comedy: Jimmy Fallon and Jay Leno on The Tonight Show last September. BELOW: Johnny Carson broadcast from New York for the show’s first 10 years.

THE TONIGHT SHOW MOVES BACK TO NEW YORK THIS MONTH AFTER 42 YEARS, WITH JIMMY FALLON AT THE HELM. TOP PERFORMERS TALK ABOUT HOW THE PROGRAM CHANGED THEIR CAREERS. BY JERYL BRUNNER

n February 24, The Tonight Show returns to its 30 Rock roots, with Jimmy Fallon as host. It will mark the first time since 1972 that the legendary late-night program will be based in New York. For 10 years, from its debut on October 1, 1962, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson called Gotham home. (In 1972 it moved to Burbank, where it was produced until moving to Hollywood in 2009.) Carson’s guests on that first show included Joan Crawford, Groucho Marx, Rudy Vallée, Mel Brooks, and Tony Bennett. After 30 years, 23,000 guests, and nearly 5,000 shows, the King of Late Night retired in 1992, when he was succeeded by Jay Leno. To commemorate the iconic show’s move east, we asked top performers to weigh in on how The Tonight Show impacted their careers.

Tony Bennett: “The Tonight Show changed my life. Johnny Carson had me on as the musical guest the very first night, the premiere of the show. Through the years, Doc Severinsen and his great orchestra cheered me on, over and over. The Tonight Show made me a national and an international star and a part of American musical history.” David Brenner (who holds the record for the most appearances on The Tonight Show, 158): “The first appearance I ever had on television, January 8, 1971, was on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. When I got back to my little one-room apartment in Manhattan, an agent had left a lot of messages. I had over $10,000 worth of job offers from the first appearance. I’d made $8,800 in continued on page 54

PHOTOGRAPHY BY NBC/NBCU PHOTO BANK VIA GETTY IMAGES (CARSON); PAUL DRINKWATER/NBC/NBCU PHOTO BANK VIA GETTY IMAGES (LENO)

Return Engagement

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HOTTEST TICKET Johnny Carson greets Joan Crawford during the first show on October 1, 1962.

continued from page 52 a little over a year as a comedian. The next thing I knew, thanks to Carson, I made close to $400,000. And the next year, made about $750,000 and then I hit the seven figures. That’s what Johnny did for me and for all the other guys in my little crowd.” David Letterman: “Truthfully, no stretch of the imagination, I owe everything in my professional career, whatever success we’ve attained, to Johnny Carson, because he was nice enough to give me the opportunity, and throughout my career, was always very supportive.” (From the Late Show With David Letterman, 2005)

“He didn’t care if you had done Letterman or God knows who else. It was, ‘Do what you want.’”

The Amazing Kreskin: “Johnny based a character on me in his program (Carnac the Magnificent). He helped add to the integrity of what I do. Johnny didn’t have me on strictly to perform. Once we talked about hypnosis on the show. He was very protective and made it very clear to audiences that what I did was not rigged or prearranged. Sometimes Johnny’s office would call and say, ‘Kreskin, Johnny is annoyed about a guest he just had on. Would you just look in on the show and tell me if you think the story that he told was true or not?’”

only he and the band were laughing. Also, he didn’t care if you had done Dick Cavett, or Merv Griffin, or Mike Douglas, or Della Reese, Letterman, or God knows who else. It was, ‘Do what you want.’”

Robert Klein: “My first appearance was January 19, 1968, and I was on about 82 times as a guest and guest hosted at least 10 times. Johnny may have been a hard man in certain aspects of his life. I saw him lose his temper in rehearsal for a sketch we were doing. He had an edge to him. But he was the most generous to comedians. When you were a young comedian and tried to be good on the show, he was generous with his laughter. There were times that what I was laying down was a little too hip for the room,

Elayne Boosler, comedian (Comic Relief, The Cosby Show, Sisters): “The Tonight Show was all there was in the 1970s for a comedian. There was simply no other gate into actual show business, fame, making a living, being recognized. The night after my first Tonight Show I was hired to tour with Helen Reddy at $5,000 a week. I cannot think of a better host than Jimmy Fallon to present new talent to America and to keep us entertained with his genius.”

—ROBERT KLEIN

Richard Lewis, comedian and actor (Leaving Las Vegas, Curb Your Enthusiasm): “It was ingrained in us to get monologues together so when they came to see you in a club, you had to be ready. Carson was it. You had to have him like you. “The first Tonight Show I did was about two and a half years into being a stand-up, and the show was 90 minutes. Usually a comedian went on the last five and a half minutes of the show. It was the first time I was on national television. I followed George Peppard, rest his soul, who was talking about lung cancer. And I’m listening to all this behind the curtain, and I am freaking. “I had forgotten advice I had gotten from many comedians. When you looked at that red light, you’re looking at 8 to 10 million people lying in bed, and if a joke doesn’t go over, just keep going and smile. It’s not really caring about the 300 people in Burbank sitting there. You’re thinking about the entire country.” G Carson with Ronald Reagan, on March 13, 1975, five years before the former actor became president.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY NBC/NBCU PHOTO BANK VIA GETTY IMAGES (CRAWFORD); RON TOM/NBC/NBCU PHOTO BANK VIA GETTY IMAGES (REAGAN)

Jay Leno: “In the mid-’80s I started working as a guest host for Johnny. And it’s strange, after all these years, I still feel like a guest in his house... because he really built this place, everyone who does this for a living owes it to him. Johnny was the best—plain and simple.” (From Jay Leno’s Tonight Show tribute to Johnny Carson after Carson’s death, 2005)

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ART FULL Giacomo Balla’s The Hand of the Violinist, a seminal work exploring depictions of movement.

A High-Tech Past FUTURISM, AN ART MOVEMENT WHOSE SPIRIT MATCHED THE DYNAMISM OF EARLY 20TH CENTURY NEW YORK, GETS ITS FIRST MAJOR SHOWING AT THE GUGGENHEIM. BY JUDITH H. DOBRZYNSKI

f ever an art movement’s spirit matched New York’s, futurism would be it. Ignited in Milan in 1909 with a manifesto by poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, it esteemed technology, power, speed, industry, dynamism, and youth. Member artists, such as Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severini, attempted to smash existing notions of space and time with bold, often colorful works. Yet “Italian Futurism, 1909 –1944: Reconstructing the Universe,” which goes on view at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on February 21, is the first comprehensive exhibition of Italian futurism not only in New York, but in the United States. “The futurists celebrated the modern metropolis and never forgave themselves for not participating in an American show,” says curator Vivien Greene, who organized this sweeping survey. “And yes, they were invited— to the 1913 Armory show.” Greene’s exhibit rectifies their mistake by uniting more than 300 of their works—not just painting and sculpture but also ceramics, design elements, architecture, fashion, film, photography, advertising, free-form poetry, publications, music, as well as theater and performance. Among the many not-to-be-missed items on view are early paintings by Giacomo Balla, like The Hand of the Violinist, from 1912, and Abstract Speed + Sound, from 1913 –14. In them, Greene says, he’s working out a

key element of futurism: how to show movement. “Here he was clearly influenced by motion studies of [the English photographer] Eadweard Muybridge,” she points out. Greene declines to single out other works but does have advice for visitors. “Don’t be seduced by the paintings in the show,” she says. “Some of the other works—the manifesto, the graphics in the journal, the design objects—are incredible. Balla made a beautiful coffee or tea set, and we have the sketches for it.” The Guggenheim plans to add projections and sound to enliven the documentary photographs, oral accounts, writings, and musical compositions. Today’s multitasking audiences, used to overstimulation, should feel right at home. By World War I, futurism had attracted interest across the world, Greene says, leading to exchanges between its disciples and those of other avantgarde movements, like Cubism and Vorticism, a short-lived British style that extolled industry and geometric abstraction. This exhibit doesn’t venture into those side currents; the Italian futurists, Greene believes, deserve—no, require—a show of their own. “Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe” will be on display from February 21 through September 1 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Ave., 212-423-3500; guggenheim.org. G

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Modern on Bull Path

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ART TALK

Seeing Red RH CONTEMPORARY ART SHOWCASES EDGY NEW ARTISTS FROM CHINA BEGINNING THIS MONTH.

ary Friedman, founder of RH (formerly Restoration Hardware), jumped boldly into the contemporary art world this year, first by acquiring Rain Room, the installation piece that became a cultural sensation when it was showcased at MoMA last summer. In November he announced a new initiative, RH Contemporary Art, a multiplatform channel designed to increase the visibility of newsmaking international artists. To coincide with the launch, Friedman opened the RH Contemporary Art gallery, a six-floor, 28,000-squarefoot space in south Chelsea, which will serve as a cornerstone for the company’s art programs. For the gallery’s second show, Friedman and RH Contemporary VP Holly Baxter chose to look East, with an exhibit of next-generation Chinese artists called “Outside the Lines,” running from January 31 to April 12.

How was the current show conceived and realized? Holly Baxter: We are dedicated to finding the best artists across the globe, and China’s next-generation artists have incredible talent. Their willingness to push boundaries reflects the title, “Outside the Lines.” What were you looking for in the artists chosen to participate? HB: As part of the selection process, we went to Beijing and Shanghai to personally meet with many artists and discuss their concepts, philosophies, and practices. The 12 artists we selected are all very innovative in their fields and represent a diverse array of mediums. For example, Li Hui is one of the most important young artists working in the medium of light. Artist Ni Youyu developed his own painting process that involves using one ton of water to wash each layer of an acrylic landscape he painstakingly painted. Gao Weigang uses [everything from] mirror shards and burnt books to marble to produce his conceptual art. What is the most exciting element of this show? HB: The fact that we are either commissioning works from the artists or showing major/new pieces that have never been exhibited in New York. In addition, I believe that getting to know the artists and in this process, gaining greater understanding about China, has helped alter some preconceived notions. When people think about Chinese contemporary art, images of big faces come to mind, and artists from the Political Pop/Cynical Realism era have become staples of every big Chinese contemporary art exhibition in the US. But there is a whole new wave of Chinese artists who have broken free of this style and iconography. Each body of work in this exhibition is a time capsule. China is going through monumental change. We’re providing a platform for artists to present their opinions on this evolving society. This is the true importance of the art. 437 W. 16th St.; rhcontemporaryart.com G LEFT: Yan Bing’s Five Cows No. 3 (2011). TOP: Conceptual artist Li Hui’s 2009 work,

uses lasers, mirrors, and smoke.

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND RH CONTEMPORARY ART

BY MATTHEW STEWART

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THIS ISSUE: HARLEM

Roots THE CECIL, RICHARD PARSONS’S NEW RESTAURANT, CELEBRATES THE AFRO-ASIAN ORIGINS OF AMERICAN CUISINE. BY GARY WALTHER PHOTOGRAPHY BY EVAN SUNG

“I

have always contended that the two things black and white people don’t do together is eat and pray,” says restaurateur Alexander Smalls in his soothing tenor. (In a former life, he sang with the Houston Grand Opera.) At The Cecil, the 150-seat Harlem restaurant that he and Richard Parsons—former chairman of Citigroup and chairman and CEO of Time Warner, and currently head of the Jazz Foundation of America—launched in September, Smalls is well on his way to whittling that list down to one. In 35 years of dining out in Manhattan, I’ve never seen such a diverse crowd. “It’s not the first time I’ve heard that,” Smalls tells me buoyantly when I relate this. But this is also how things used to be in Harlem. “Back in the day—I have old photographs—blacks and whites would come up here,” says Parsons, who was instrumental in the revival of Harlem. As head of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone in the mid’90s, he helped bring back the Apollo, reestablish 125th Street as the neighborhood’s commercial aorta, and got the area to what he calls “the tipping point,” which he says was Marcus Samuelsson’s founding of the Red Rooster. “Since then, it’s been a jailbreak.” continued on page 62

Spices used in various dishes at The Cecil. INSET: The restaurant’s exterior at 118th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue.

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TASTE CLOCKWISE FROM BELOW:

The restaurant draws a diverse crowd, including names like Caroline Kennedy and Oprah Winfrey; spicy crispy ginger squid; chef de cuisine Joseph “J.J.” Johnson.

“No other continent has changed the cooking conversation the way Africa did.” —ALEXANDER SMALLS continued from page 60 For Parsons, The Cecil and its next-door jazz supper-club companion, Minton’s, are the fulfillment of a long-held dream. When he was 18, Parsons took his prom date to Hickory House, a Harlem jazz club that he says made him feel like a grown-up for the first time. Since then, he’s wanted to own some kind of supper club up here. He describes his role in the combined project as “the M&M guy— money and music.” He laughs when I say that half of the job sounds like fun. For Smalls, who was known for Southern regional cooking at Cafe Beulah (where he and Parsons met), The Cecil is a chance to create a menu that highlights the role Africa has played in American cuisine. “No other continent has changed the cooking conversation the way Africa did through slavery,” says Smalls, meaning that slaves brought culinary traditions that took root in numerous ways. That’s not to say the menu is a culinary history lesson. Smalls wears his learning lightly and roams widely, drawing from India and Trinidad (grilled vegetable roti platter—with West African spicy jollof rice), Jamaica (citrus jerk wild bass), and Portugal and its former colonies Mozambique, Angola, and Brazil (in the feijoada, a rich black-bean and meat stew, here done with oxtail). He isn’t averse to whimsical fusion—mini hot dogs come topped with

veal in yassa, the spicy marinade from Senegal, and other condiments—or plain old crowd-pleasing fusion, as in the spicy crispy ginger squid and the creamy-andcrispy okra fries. If there’s one dish that’s a must-order, it’s the guinea hen (Parsons’s favorite). “It’s goooorgeous,” says Smalls, making the vowels roll like ball bearings. Chef de cuisine Joseph “J.J.” Johnson says that they had considered doing fried chicken, “but I refused. Everybody does it.” The hen, from D’Artagnan, is brined in cinnamon and salt for two days and then flash-fried for 12 minutes. The result is a skin that’s pins-and-needles spicy and flesh that melts in your mouth. When Smalls found the space, which is on the ground floor of the Cecil Hotel, it had been abandoned since 1974. “It was a shooting gallery,” says Parsons. The décor hits an African note here and there, notably in the lights, which resemble African baskets, but the space is modern jazzy, a low-key hover between lounge and restaurant. The Cecil has become a celebrity hot spot. Friends of Caroline Kennedy threw a going-away party for her when she was announced as the new continued on page 64

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TASTE

Cecil mixologist Tim Cooper’s cocktails mix spices around a single spirit. Here, the restaurant’s daiquiri, toasted sesame highball, and Blood & Fire.

Out at Night

NEW BARS AND SUPPER CLUBS HELP REVIVE HARLEM’S NIGHTLIFE COOL. BY SUZANNE CHARLÉ

Minton’s

COCKTAIL BOOST “We’re bringing the kitchen to the bar and liquefying it,” says mixologist Tim Cooper, who developed the cocktail program at The Cecil and Minton’s. That means a lineup of eight spicy cocktails that wrap tangy tastes around a single spirit, such as the toasted sesame highball, which plays sesameinfused vodka off of cucumber. Blood & Fire is a hibiscus tea infused with allspice, cloves, orange peel, black pepper, and piri piri, on a base of Don Julio blanco tequila. The daiquiri is a spin on the classic recipe nipped and tucked with kaffir lime leaves. Any of these will be a fine partner to the ginger squid and the guinea hen.

Vinatería sources wine from Spain and Italy.

Last fall, Richard Parsons and Alexander Smalls opened Minton’s, a jazz supper club housed in the site of the former Minton’s Playhouse, a slim space where the big sounds of bebop were born. Striking portraits of the greats who played here—Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, and Billie Holiday—grace the walls, and a house band of veteran musicians play compositions from the golden jazz era. The food matches the luxurious décor—what Smalls calls his “Southern revival cooking with Low-Country notes.” Before opening the supper club, Smalls took Banks White, chef de cuisine, on a tour. “We ate our way through Charleston,” he says. The resulting menu is a sophisticated cornucopia of seasonal offerings. At the bar, cocktails are named for the greats who played here. “We want you to think of this as your other living room,” says Smalls. 206 W. 118th St., 212-243-2222; mintonsharlem.com

Ginny’s Supper Club Offering an abbreviated menu from Red Rooster with a few additional offerings, this subterranean hot spot showcases musical talent Thursdays and Saturdays. Marcus Samuelsson Group Director of Business Development Derek Fleming says, “We focus on bringing out the roots of Harlem: the jazz component, as well as African, Caribbean, Latin American, and world music.” Alicia Keys, Ron Carter, and John Legend have performed here, as well as up-and-comers. A

DJ is on hand all nights. 310 Lenox Ave., 212-421-3821; ginnyssupperclub.com

Barawine Harlem Fabrice Warin, whose pedigree includes La Goulue and Orsay, moved to Harlem in 2001. Impressed with the neighborhood’s vitality, Warin decided to join in the dining scene and late last year opened Barawine, a modern wine bar/restaurant, with a wine list of over 200 small producers and 40 wines by the glass. Warin developed the menu with chef Christophe Bonnegrace, most recently of La Villette; François Payard supplies the desserts, including a rich vegan chocolate mousse (Payard’s wife is a vegan). Says Warin: “I want to spoil my customers—to give them the best product for the best price.” 200 Lenox Ave., 646-756-4154; barawine.com

Vinatería The chic and repurposed décor of this bar/ trattoria shimmers in the soft light of antique milk-glass shades. Crafted cocktails mixed with small-brands (think Old Scout bourbon from Smooth Ambler in West Virginia) and wines primarily from Spain and Italy are paired with chef Gustavo Lopez’s Mediterranean dishes, seasoned with herbs grown in the window. Yvette Leeper-Bueno—Harlem-born and raised—says she wants the spot “to be a marriage of food, fashion, and design, with a neighborhood vibe.” 2211 Frederick Douglass Blvd., 212-662-8462; vinaterianyc.com

PHOTOGRAPHY BY EVAN SUNG (DRINKS)

continued from page 62 ambassador to Japan. “Oprah Winfrey just walked in one night,” Smalls says. The Sunday night after I was there, Charlie Rose and Amanda Burden turned up. Mariah Carey, Harry Belafonte, and Carole King have been in. But I thought it was more telling that The Cecil, according to Parsons, has made a commitment to hire 70 percent of the employees from the community and give them the necessary training, and that The Cecil and Minton’s provide the residents of the Cecil Hotel, which is still an SRO, free meals. They’re planning a regular meal program for this year, too. It’s part of Parsons’s vision that “a neighborhood can undergo gentrification and you don’t have to move everyone out.” 206 W. 118th St., 212-866-1262; thececilharlem.com G

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TASTE Harlem chef Marcus Samuelsson outside the landmark Apollo Theater.

Harlem on M His Mind AWARD-WINNING CHEF MARCUS SAMUELSSON HIGHLIGHTS HIS FAVORITE SPOTS IN A NEIGHBORHOOD HE HELPED REVIVE. BY SUZANNE CHARLÉ PHOTOGRAPHY BY SARI GOODFRIEND

arcus Samuelsson is a busy man: In the past two years, the award-winning chef has published a memoir, Yes, Chef; opened American Table Cafe and Bar in Alice Tully Hall and Uptown Brasserie at JFK Airport; appeared on numerous TV shows; and worked with philanthropies like Unicef—as a celebrity ambassador—and Three Goats Organization, a nonprofit he and his wife started to aid families in Ethiopia. In February, he’s hosting a special musical tribute to jazz great Carmen McRae, at his supper club, Ginny’s. Recently, Gotham asked Samuelsson for a tour of his Harlem, pointing out favorite spots in an area he helped revive. He started at his restaurant, Red Rooster (310 Lenox Ave., 212-792-9001; redroosterharlem.com). “It’s my studio, constantly evolving: the food, the music, the art on the walls,” he says. “It’s an artistic journey, part of a shared narrative. I want people to walk in and know that this is for the community—by you, of you, and for you.” In the three years since he opened Red Rooster—named for a storied Harlem bar frequented in the ’70s by Willie Mays and James Baldwin—the restaurant has become a Harlem classic in its own right. That’s

Samuelsson’s Red Rooster is a Harlem classic in its own right.

largely due to Samuelsson’s hospitality and his ability to elevate comfort food to an art, borrowing from cuisines that chart Harlem’s history and his own: Southern, Swedish, Ethiopian, Caribbean, Mexican. “The menu tells a story, and acts as a guide,” he says. “There’s an incredible diversity in Harlem; it’s a mixed melody: Jewish, Italian, African-American, Latin. I see it on my morning runs or just strolling the avenue.” Samuelsson points to a one-of-a-kind quilted map at the restaurant that features important sites in Harlem, including the Apollo Theater, where he serves on the board, and the Studio Museum. Paris Blues (2021 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd., 212-864-9110; parisbluesnyc.com) has been a local favorite ever since Samuel J. Hargress Jr. opened the lounge in 1969. “A great jazz scene—I particularly like Tuesday nights when Rakiem Walker plays.” When he has time, Samuelsson stops in at Lenox Coffee (60 W. 129th St., 646-8337839; lenoxcoffee.com), tucked in a narrow storefront a few streets north of Red Rooster, because he “loves their cappuccino.” For a quick break from work, Samuelsson likes to go to Sylvia’s, the iconic restaurant nearby, “and sit at the counter, just thinking about the history. It’s my little getaway.” (328 Malcolm X Blvd., 212-996-0660; sylviasrestaurant.com) Signs of Harlem’s new vibrant spirit are everywhere: To the east, says Samuelsson, “Ricardo (2145 Second Ave., 212-289-5895; ricardosteakhouse.com) is a mainstay in El Barrio—fun and vibrant. I usually order the mojitos.” To the west is 67 Orange Street (2082 Frederick Douglass Blvd., 212-662-2030; 67orangestreet.com), an updated speakeasy started by Karl Franz Williams in 2008. “67 Orange was one of the first in the New Harlem Renaissance. Karl’s cocktails are fantastic. Try anything with bourbon.” The Grange Bar and Eatery (1635 Amsterdam Ave., 212491-1635; thegrangebarnyc.com) opened last June. With a farm-to-table menu the neighborhood bistro “has great energy.” G

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ON THE TOWN

CLOCKWISE FROM BELOW:

Willie Suggs, right, and Lovelynn Gwinn toast to Harlem’s revival at Londel’s; the restaurant’s wall of fame; a quiet moment before the evening’s rush.

INSIGHT Where: 2620 Frederick Douglass Blvd., 212-234-6114; londelsrestaurant.com Why: “Great comfort food.” —WILLIE SUGGS

North Stars WILLIE SUGGS, THE “QUEEN OF HARLEM REAL ESTATE,” AND BROKER LOVELYNN GWINN DISCUSS THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD’S ONGOING EVOLUTION, AS WELL AS ITS INCOMPARABLE COMFORT FOOD AT FAMED SUPPER CLUB LONDEL’S. BY JULIET IZON PHOTOGRAPHY BY DOUG YOUNG

avvy New Yorkers hunting for homes in northern Manhattan know there is one name to have on speed dial: Willie Kathryn Suggs. Famously dubbed the “Queen of Harlem Real Estate,” Suggs has lived in the neighborhood since 1985, and her firm, Willie Suggs Harlem, is largely credited with transforming the area into one of the hottest locales in the five boroughs. Lovelynn Gwinn is a close friend of Suggs’s and fellow Harlem resident—their homes are practically next door to each other; she is the principal broker at property management firm MixonGrace. It was at Suggs’s suggestion (and helped by her expertise) that Gwinn moved north in 2000. Gotham joined the power duo for cocktails at one of their favorite Harlem institutions, Londel’s, to discuss the ever-changing identity of the neighborhood and where to find the best comfort food in the area.

[Drinks are served, a Cosmopolitan for Gwinn and white wine for Suggs] WILLIE SUGGS: We love Mr. Londel [Davis]. I’m basic—give me my fried chicken and the baby back ribs and I’m in heaven. We’ve had our staff meetings, farewell parties, and Christmas parties here. It’s like coming home, except I don’t have to do the cooking and I don’t have to clean! And I can walk here from my house. [Garden salad is served] LOVELYNN GWINN: This is a great salad. WS: If you want soul food, comfort food, this is the place to come because you can get your chicken and waffles. If you have that meal, you don’t eat for the rest of the week. You’re always searching for the favorite foods you had as a child. This restaurant has them—my granny’s and auntie’s food. It’s got the chicken and baked crab cakes the way my mother used to make. [But]

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Sylvia’s is as close as you’re going to get to my mother’s banana pudding.... LG: Around the corner, there’s a new place that just opened up called Il Caffe Latte. There’s a really nice salad with grilled chicken—and coconut pie! WS: I used to live on 406 West 46th Street, on Restaurant Row. Every night I was eating out; it’s not the same here. Not only is it a lot cheaper, there’s just a different feel to it. I love to walk around the neighborhood. I’m an architecture freak, so I’m in heaven. LG: I love to walk. And ride, too. Recently, they completed the bike path from the George Washington Bridge all the way to Battery Park, so if you want to ride your bike [you can]. There are places to stop and have snacks along the way. Snacking is very important. [Laughs] WS: If you’re looking for the suburban lifestyle in the city, this is the only neighborhood to get it in, because it is a suburb. Everybody really does know everybody. [With] the mix of incomes, one neighbor could be retired,

“Harlem’s never going to go back to the bad days.” —WILLIE SUGGS

living on $30,000 a year, and the guy next door is worth $30 million. Everybody’s getting along, because they’ve always gotten along. And everybody sits out on the stoop, not only the wealthy homeowners, but the kid whose mom is on welfare; there is no class distinction. LG: When you walk down the street, people say hello to you. And they mean it! A lot of them know your name and it’s interesting that the businesses are the same way. I enjoy having that day-to-day relationship with people in the neighborhood where you’re not anonymous. WS: Harlem’s never going to go back to the bad days. [Working in real estate] is really a lot of fun because you’re dealing with people who are happy. LG: The hot area right now is Hamilton Heights in West Harlem. We’ve got Columbia University coming in, new businesses are popping up in the area. There is room to grow in what has already grown. WS: Hamilton Heights is actually named for Alexander Hamilton. His country estate was named The Grange, and the house is still here. He had about 30 acres! It’s called Heights, because we’re up on the hill. LG: When I first started selling townhouses in Harlem back in 2001, it was mostly young families. It made sense for them to come here, because where else are you going to find the room? The people who are coming in now are paying more money. They still have big families, but they tend to be in the banking industry and finance. WS: We have front and backyards for our homes here. You have four floors, plus the cellar. You can do your own roof deck. You’ve got a house as opposed to an apartment. It’s a whole different lifestyle. [Chicken wings are served] LG: These are crispy, which I like. WS: They have just the right amount of kick to them. You know, the last time I saw Bill Clinton, he was coming out of this restaurant. We were selling a condo across the street and I’m standing in the lobby, waiting for my customer to show up, and there was Bill! LG: Clinton was always eating at Amy Ruth’s (113 W. 116th St., 212-280-8779; amyruthshar lem.com), and I thought, “He is going to need a heart transplant if he keeps eating there.” Lo and behold, he did have a little work done. G

LEFT:

Londel Davis, owner of Londel’s supper club. RIGHT: The restaurant’s popular Cosmopolitan, Gwinn’s recommendation.

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LEFT: Valencia gown, Naeem Khan ($15,995). Bergdorf Goodman, 754 Fifth Ave., 212-8728700; bergdorfgoodman.com. Pearl earrings with diamonds in yellow gold, David Yurman ($1,100). 712 Madison Ave., 212-752-4255; davidyurman.com. 18k gold champagne diamond and moonstone ring, Suzanne Kalan ($6,000). Fragments, 116 Prince St., 212-334-9588; fragments.com. CENTER: Florence gown, Naeem Khan ($10,550). Bergdorf Goodman, SEE ABOVE. RIGHT: New York gown, Naeem Khan ($15,995). Mark Ingram Bridal Atelier, 110 E. 55th St., 212-319-6778; markingramatelier.com. White-gold ring with white diamond, Djula ($5,235), and 18k white-gold ring with white diamonds, Yeprem ($6,315). Fragments, SEE ABOVE.

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TASTEMAKER

Sleek Opulence NAEEM KHAN INTRODUCES A NEW BRIDAL COLLECTION AND DRAWS ON PLACES FROM NEW YORK TO VERSAILLES FOR INSPIRATION. BY KARI MOLVAR PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIC RYAN ANDERSON

HAIR BY BENJAMIN THIGPEN FOR ABTP.COM; MAKEUP BY MARI SHTEN USING TOM FORD BEAUTY. MODELS: YULIYA AT MC2 MODEL MANAGEMENT, ELENA FOLEY AND NICOLE DOYLE AT MAJOR MODEL MANAGEMENT

here are dresses. And then there are dresses—those catch-your-breath, devastatingly beautiful creations that float around the body, leaving delicate ripples in the air. Indian-born, New York–based designer Naeem Khan specializes in the latter, turning out intricate, handworked pieces that manage to look sublime from every angle. First Lady Michelle Obama famously set off thousands of flashbulbs when she wore his champagne strapless gown adorned with sterling silver-plated appliqués to a state dinner with the prime minister of India in 2009. Since then, she’s turned up in Khan’s designs on 10 other occasions, including a sleeveless silver dress for this year’s Oscars. Beauties like Penélope Cruz and Eva Longoria have also walked the red carpet in Khan. And who can forget Beyoncé shimmering in his metallic sheaths on-screen in Dreamgirls? The designer knows how to make a woman feel regal (quite literally in the case of one client, Queen Noor of Jordan), so his next step—launching a bridal collection—makes perfect sense. “There’s been so much buzz and momentum around the label, now was the time to do it,” Khan says. “I dug into my past experiences and all the success I’ve had with my ready-to-wear, and thought, How could I make bridal more current, more fashion?” His new 14-piece bridal collection answers the question with sleek silhouettes that marry rich embellishments and technical mastery with couture styling. Khan is renowned for his talents in each area. The gowns, named for destinations where a bride might hold her nuptials—from New York to Majorca to Versailles—draw inspiration from city, island, or country locales with

refined touches, such as sequins that subtly form a skyline pattern or floral lace dégradé embroidery, referencing a garden’s blooms. In lieu of the pure white characteristic of most wedding dresses, Khan incorporated a palette of soft blues, grays, creams, and blush shades that flatter a more diverse range of skintones. Ever since the Duchess of Cambridge ignited a craze for bridal gown sleeves, designers have been looking for inventive ways to cover the arms that won’t read old-fashioned. Khan’s solution: transparent chiffon sleeves capped at the elbow, not the wrist, which allow more freedom and movement. As Khan says, “The new way brides want to look is easy, comfortable, and chic.” Other practical concerns were treated as stylishly. For those who want the look of strapless without the worry of slippage, Khan engineered an “illusion bodice” that offers weightless support with a sheer layer of silk around the shoulders, whereas another dress conveniently includes pockets to stash a few little essentials, which for now are unlined but Khan muses, “Wouldn’t it be so chic if we did —NAEEM KHAN them in cashmere?” His factories produced a special silk that achieves romantic volume without needing a seam or layers of crinoline underneath, while his lace is sewn by hand to create a graceful pattern that wraps around the body. Rather than cluster embroidered flowers in the front of a dress, Khan often chooses to place them on the sides, where they work to elongate the silhouette and catch the eye when the bride stands in profile for photographs. Khan’s early collections (he launched his line in 2003) garnered him praise and a swift following. But versatility is what’s kept him in demand over the past 10 years. “We make pieces that are amazingly decorative and opulent, and others that have intricate techniques, but there’s not a piece of diamond or glass anywhere,” he says. His bridal collection takes a similar tack, providing women with both outré and more understated options. Still, certain styles never fail. As Khan puts it, “A beautiful dress is a beautiful dress.” naeemkhan.com G

“I thought, How could I make bridal more current, more fashion?”

Geneva gown, Naeem Khan ($17,995). Mark Ingram Bridal Atelier, 110 E. 55th St., 212-319-6778; markingramatelier.com. TOP: Khan’s sketches for upcoming collections. LEFT:

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SHOP THE CITY

TO-DO

List

Invest in a classic top-handle tote like Longchamp’s Le Pliage bag. The oversize carryall, which debuted 20 years ago this month, is the ultimate stylish and superpractical accessory. longchamp.com Elevate your winter wardrobe with a statement cuff from Saint Laurent’s first fine jewelry collection. The minimalist designs feature 18k polished gold and brilliant-cut white diamonds. ysl.com

With notes of mandarin, coriander, patchouli, and basil, John Varvatos’s new men’s fragrance, Artisan Acqua, is the perfect antidote to the season’s chilly weather. johnvarvatos.com Artisan Acqua eau de toilette, John Varvatos ($64).

Cornelia Guest and friends, shoeless.

WISH LIST

Crystal Clear NEW YORK DESIGNER AND AUTHOR CORNELIA GUEST KNOWS A GREAT PAIR OF SHOES WHEN SHE SEES THEM. THIS SEASON, ALEJANDRO INGELMO’S SWAROVSKIENCRUSTED PAIR IS AT THE TOP OF HER LIST. BY ALEXANDRIA GEISLER

“M

y mother always used to say, ‘Be careful what you put on your feet. Invest in them!’” says New York City style expert Cornelia Guest. “I look for classic shoes that are comfortable and have great lines.” With Stuart Weitzman and Manolo Blahnik among her go-to designers, Guest prefers sophisticated pumps and slingbacks in versatile neutral shades. But Alejandro Ingelmo and Swarovski’s limited-edition collection of statement heels, out this month, instantly caught Guest’s eye. “I love a man who can design a great shoe,” she says. “The collection is elegant, but with a little bit of fun.” Cast in polished black leather, the assorted pumps, slingbacks, and open-toe heels are decorated with metallic accents and Swarovski crystals. “Black and silver go with everything,” she adds. “The shoes are classic, with a twist.” Guest likes the open-toe and cutout heel design in particular. She would pair the shoes with a black dress, a great jacket, and one of her ultrachic Cornelia Guest clutches for a night out with friends. Saks Fifth Avenue, 611 Fifth Ave., 212-7534000; alejandroingelmo.com G

Culebra heel, Alejandro Ingelmo ($1,175).

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRUCE WEBER (GUEST)

Treat yourself to a staycation at The New York Palace and book The Jewel Suite, designed by Hollywood jeweler Martin Katz. It features a cascading diamond chandelier and artworks inspired by Katz’s jewelry designs. 455 Madison Ave., 212-8887000; newyorkpalace.com

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“HANDS DOWN, THE BEST GYM IN NYC” — FRANZ H.

More reviews on than any other New York City gym!

JOIN NOW: GET FEBRUARY FREE. THE SPORTS CENTER AT CHELSEA PIERS chelseapiers.com/inspire 212.336.6000 Offer valid through 1/31/14. Restrictions apply. Photography: Scott McDermott

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STYLE FILE

1 Jour, Berluti ($3,250). Available exclusively at Bergdorf Goodman.

Only in New York NEW SHOP-IN-SHOPS HIGHLIGHT BERGDORF GOODMAN’S REVAMPED MEN’S STORE. BY ALEXANDRIA GEISLER

ergdorf Goodman Men has had a huge influence on how the city’s most successful men dress since it debuted in 1990—it was the first retailer to carry such renowned brands as Brunello Cucinelli, Tom Ford, and Berluti, for example. But what men wanted when the store opened is different from what they want today, says Joshua Schulman, president of Bergdorf Goodman. “Men have changed the way they dress and their lifestyles.” Because of that shift in tastes and needs, the store recently completed its first major renovation, adding a new accessories department, a shoe library, and exclusive designer shop-in-shops. “The men’s business is increasingly important,” he notes. On the ground floor, a new leather goods area stocks carryalls from Prada, Bottega Veneta, and Tod’s. “It used to be a man would buy a briefcase and carry it for 20 years,” Schulman says, “but today, men look at their bags and accessories as fashion items.” Nearby is Goyard’s accessories-only shop, its sole location outside of Paris, featuring belts, gloves, and watch boxes exclusive to Bergdorf Goodman. The back of the store hosts an expanded shoe library with classic dress shoes and modern styles, like studded Christian Louboutin loafers. Shop-in-shops for Ralph Lauren, Berluti, Ermenegildo Zegna, and Tom Ford anchor the second floor’s suiting department. Formalwear is in a separate area with a made-to-measure service and on-site tailor, while a special room houses Neapolitan designers Kiton and Attolini, a new and exclusive brand for the retailer. On the top floor, you’ll find posh sportswear from John Varvatos, Thom Browne, Belstaff, and Saint Laurent. “Our Saint Laurent shop-in-shop is the first and only one in America,” Schulman adds. “We also have the only Dries Van Noten shop-in-shop and Bottega Veneta, too, so we’re really quite proud of the mix.” 754 Fifth Ave., 212-753-7300; bergdorfgoodman.com G

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COAT

DRIVE Now – December Now - February 31 7th

Keeping New Yorkers warm for 25 years. Donate at any New York City Police Precinct or other locations citywide. For a full list of collection sites, dates, and times, visit newyorkcares.org.

Text iCARE to 85944 to donate $10 to keep a fellow New Yorker warm this winter.*

The Coat Drive is a program of New York Cares, New York City’s leading volunteer organization.

Special thanks to JWT for photography and statue imagery. For Coat Drive collection sites in New Jersey, visit jerseycares.org. *A one-time donation of $10 will be billed to your mobile phone bill. Messaging & data rates may apply. Donations are collected for New York Cares by mobilecause.com. Reply STOP to 85944 to stop. Reply HELP to 85944 for help. terms, seebywww.igfn.org/t. New York CaresFor Day is run New York Cares, the city’s leading volunteer organization, and the New York City Department of Education. Photo: Craig Cutler © 2012 New York Cares, Inc.

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YOU, EVEN BETTER

Optical Effects FOR IMAGE-OBSESSED NEW YORKERS CRAVING THE LATEST SKINCARE TREATMENTS, THERE’S A NEW PRODUCT AVAILABLE THIS MONTH THAT TAKES ANTIAGING SOLUTIONS IN NEW DIRECTIONS. BY CATHERINE SABINO powders and pigments for immediate, visible color imperfection results. But those with a lot of pigments don’t always allow for deep absorption.” Noé and her team tried hundreds of combinations, while studying how facial skin absorbs and reflects light. Under the microscope, it appears as a collection of small colored dots. The reason we all don’t look like pointillist renderings? The epidermal cell structure is unique in how light interacts with it, according to Edouard Mauvais-Jarvis, scientific communications director for Dior. Epidermal cells provide a natural optical filter, their diffusive properties helping to even out color and texture. “But aging impacts cells that act as filters,” he adds. For its new product, Dior scientists sought to mimic how healthy cells filter by adding special mineral powders found in Japan—one with mica platelets, another with silica particles—to the flower extracts. The powders tested well for their light diffusion properties, minimizing redness and other age-related textural imperfections. As importantly, they didn’t prevent the longoza essences from deep absorption. What’s interesting about Dreamskin is how it appears creamy pink (from the color-correcting mineral powders), but applies transparently. It’s designed to be worn during the day, or under makeup. So there’s a clever bit of trompe l’oeil at work in this latest wearable magic from Dior. You can experience Dreamskin ($110) at the Dior Beauty Counter in Bergdorf Goodman by booking a complimentary Dior Institut Express Facial. 754 Fifth Ave., 212-872-8980; dior.com G

SETTING THE TONE With Dior researching skin tone and aging, we asked Dr. Stephen Greenberg to speak about skin texture as we grow older. Extrinsic aging due to sun exposure and environmental factors causes everything from “brown spots and enlarged pores to loss of elasticity,” says Dr. Stephen Greenberg, a noted cosmetic plastic surgeon in New York and on Long Island. “Melatonin protects skin from textural damage,” he says, “so the fairer the complexion, the more likely you’ll see imperfections over the course of time. Oily skin types fare better in the long run, he notes. “The oil helps skin retain moisture and appear smooth.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY AUDREY BAYDOU (STREET); COURTESY OF PARFUMS CHRISTIAN DIOR (MODEL, FLOWERS, SERUM)

“A

fter women, flowers are the most divine creation,” said Christian Dior, who used them to inspire his fabrics and collections. The legacy of Dior’s flower passion may be the reason his couture house is likely the only one with its own gardens—eight flower plots scattered around the world. Today, the rare and exotic varieties grown in these gardens aren’t just for fashion inspiration; they provide the active ingredients for the company’s line of skincare products and can also be found in its fragrances and cosmetics. The extracts from two recently discovered plants, longoza and opilia, harvested in Madagascar and Burkina Faso, respectively, form the basis of Dior’s new skincare product Dreamskin, the natural extracts from one (longoza) added for antiaging benefits; the other (opilia) to help correct the skin’s color imperfections. It’s unusual for a skin product to be both corrector and wrinkle treatment. But antiaging skincare, perennially a white-hot product category, had to evolve from just treating wrinkles—with numerous varieties of injectable fillers, there are many ways to get good, quick results. Recent studies showed consumers wanting products that mitigate aging’s other side effects—uneven texture and pigmentation, for example—as much as they want over-the-counter wrinkle solutions. Brigid Noé, director of Product Development and Innovation for Dior, says developing a product that improves tone and minimizes wrinkles was no easy task: “Usually formulas must contain a significant amount of

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ALLEGRIA HOTEL Discover Long Island’s Only Luxury Oceanfront Hotel, where the summer never end’s. Weather you are indulging in gourmet cuisine, enjoying a cocktail, or slumbering in elegance the Allegria is the place to be in every season. 80 West Broadway Long Beach, NY 11561 516.889.1300 | allegriahotel.com

EMPIRE CITY CASINO The tri-state has been brewing with excitement over the completion of a $50 Million expansion at Empire City Casino at Yonkers Raceway. The expansion includes two new restaurants, along with a craft cocktail lounge featuring retro bowling lanes, 30,000 square feet of new gaming space and an expansive new casino entrance. 810 Yonkers Ave. Yonkers, NY 10704 | 914.968.4200 | empirecitycasino.com

NOT TO BE MISSED events • happenings • promotions

TACHE ARTISAN CHOCOLATE SAVANNA Chelsea’s newest destination for creative office space is at 245 & 249 West 17th Street, adjacent buildings recently transformed by Savanna. Stunning lobbies, exposed soft-loft ceilings and open architecture make 245 & 249 West 17th Street a must-see for collaborative and entrepreneurial minds looking for a new home in Chelsea. For inquires call 212.229.0101

PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR FOR LET’S GOGH ART! Let’s Gogh Art, the mobile art and event provider, brings the fun to you! Convenient locations all over New York City entertain and enrich your child with: Creative Art Projects, Incredible Birthday Parties, Glitter Tattoo Artists, Face Painters, and Story Art and Dance.

At Tache Artisan Chocolate, our master chocolatier creates divine confections from an apple cinnamon milk chocolate jam to an innovative spiced chai dark chocolate truffle, and many more- which make the perfect gifts for the holiday season! All of our selections on offer are hand crafted in our mini chocolate factory where of our chocolates are handmade from the finest ingredients in the world. Tache Artisan Chocolate 254 Broome Street NY, NY 10002 Call 212.473.3200 | Visit tachechocolate.com

Call 917.704.0102 | Visit nyletsgoghart.com

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12/20/13 10:28 AM

TIME HONORED

Vintage Inspired NEW YORK’S MIDWINTER ANTIQUES SHOWS HIGHLIGHT THE ELEGANCE OF STYLES FROM OTHER ERAS, WHICH ARE NOW A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION FOR LUXURY WATCH BRANDS. BY ROBERTA NAAS PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFF CRAWFORD

aybe it’s the prices that antique watches bring at auction. Perhaps it’s the Downton Abbey effect. But as the interest in classic styles spikes, luxury watch brands are looking back as they look forward. A variety of companies, leveraging the richness of their heritages, have been searching their archives and mining the past for design inspiration. And there’s no better time than midwinter to appreciate period style, with the city playing host to numerous antiques shows, auctions, and collectibles fairs. Not surprisingly, watch companies, when researching the past, have turned their attention to the post –World War I era. It was then, during the 1920s, that wristwatches for men became popular. Doughboys recently returned from the front had become used to having a watch on their wrist rather than in their pocket. The choice of timepiece in the trenches could also be a matter of life and death—soldiers couldn’t pull out a shiny pocket watch to check the time and risk giving away their location to enemy combatants. Watches produced following the war often referenced the Art Deco style popular at the time, with rectangular, square, and tonneau case shapes. Today’s vintage-inspired watches are being crafted accordingly. They exquisitely recall the modernity of another era and a time when New York was boldly moving forward toward becoming the dynamic city we know today. For more watch features and expanded coverage, visit our website at gotham-magazine.com/watches. G FROM TOP: This Baume & Mercier steel Hampton watch ($4,700) draws its inspiration from a timepiece made in the 1940s. The rectangular chronograph houses an automatic movement featuring small seconds and the date. Saks Fifth Avenue, 611 Fifth Ave., 212753-4000; baume-et-mercier.com

From Hamilton, this gently curved rectangular Boulton watch ($625) is crafted in steel with a white dial and gold vintage-inspired numerals. It houses a Swiss quartz movement. Hour Passion, 112 W. 34th St., 212-904-1002; hamiltonwatch.com

This Frédérique Constant Carree watch ($1,950) houses an automatic FC-315 movement with a “heartbeat” aperture at 12 that allows the caliber to be viewed. Tourneau TimeMachine, 12 E. 57th St., 212-758-7300; frederique-constant.com The Works of Plato, 1st edition ($8,000), are courtesy of The Manhattan Rare Book Company, at 1stdibs.com.

STYLING BY TERRY LEWIS

Inspired by 1920s-era design, this Links of London Driver watch ($495) with open-worked lugs is crafted in a stainless-steel square case and fitted with a quartz movement. The dial features an outer minutes track and a date indication. 200 Park Ave., 212-867-0258; linksoflondon.com

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Jumper, Reed Krakoff ($1,890). 831 Madison Ave., 212-9880560; reedkrakoff.com. Elsa Peretti snake necklace, Tiffany & Co. ($3,950). 727 Fifth Ave., 212-755-8000; tiffany.com. Cable Collectibles Heart Lock bracelet in sterling silver and 18k yellow gold, David Yurman ($525). 712 Madison Ave., 212-752-4255; davidyurman.com. Shoes, Prada, stylistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own

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Taking the Lead REBECCA HALL, WHO’S WON RAVES FOR FILM ROLES WITH BEN AFFLECK AND ROBERT DOWNEY JR., TALKS WITH ETHAN HAWKE ABOUT STARRING IN MACHINAL, HER FIRST BROADWAY PLAY.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID SLIJPER

“I’d like to tell you why I wanted to do this interview,” says actor and director Ethan Hawke, a two-time Academy Award nominee who recently starred in a Lincoln Center production of Macbeth. “A couple of years ago, I had the chance to do Shakespeare and Chekhov around the world with Rebecca,” he says. “I walked away from the experience feeling as if I had worked with a young Katharine Hepburn or Vanessa Redgrave. It’s very rare to run into somebody who is as smart, humble,

and gifted as she is.” Hawke and Hall had teamed up for a 10-month road tour for the Bridge Project that took them from New Zealand to London and Athens. Hall is best known in this country for her roles in Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Ben Affleck’s The Town, and Iron Man 3. But the theater is her natural birthright— her father is famed director Sir Peter Hall, founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company. She is currently seeing another theater maestro, Sam Mendes.

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Hawke says his friend “has everything it takes to be a really serious artist. I think it’s really lucky she’s coming to New York and doing this play.” Hall plays the lead in the stark drama Machinal, written by Sophie Treadwell, inspired by the case of convicted and executed murderer Ruth Snyder. Hall stars as the young woman charged with the crime. Here, Hawke speaks with his friend about the shocking play, compares notes about acting, and finds out how Hall convinced her very discerning father that she had the chops to be an actress.

“MACHINAL WAS RADICALLY AHEAD OF ITS TIME. IT WAS VERY SHOCKING. IT’S SHOCKING NOW.” —REBECCA HALL

ETHAN HAWKE: First up Rebecca, what’s brought you to New York? REBECCA HALL: I’m here doing a play called Machinal, written by Sophie Treadwell. It was last performed on Broadway in 1928. EH: Why do you think it hasn’t been done since then? RH: I would guess it was radically ahead of its time. At the time it was very shocking. It’s shocking now, lord knows. EH: Do you know who played your part in the ’20s? RH: The only famous person in the production was Clark Gable—it was his first job. EH: Really? Forgive me, Rebecca, have you been on Broadway before? RH: The last time I was in New York was with you at BAM [Brooklyn Academy of Music]. EH: So this is your Broadway debut? It’s kind of like a debutante ball, right? RH: Is it? Does that mean I have to wear a dress and corsage?

EH: I think it does. It means you have to pay attention to what you wear on opening night. You should be the toast of the town. Who’s directing you? RH: Lyndsey Turner. She’s a British director—amazing, actually. I met her a year ago, and she said I’d love to do something with you. She suggested this play, which I’d heard of but not read. EH: I did my first play when I was 12 years old and my first movie when I was 13, and I have never been directed by a woman. RH: That doesn’t surprise me, which is sad, frankly, that it doesn’t. This production is a play about a woman, and it has a female director, a female designer, a female lighting designer. The fact that that’s an anomaly.... EH: People would never even notice if it were all men. RH: Of course not! But I think it’s important because [with women in key roles for Machinal] it’s very much what the play’s about. It’s based on Ruth Snyder, who killed her husband and was the second woman to be executed in the electric chair in New York. [The playwright] Sophie Treadwell was a journalist. Although she didn’t write about the trial, she did attend it. On the day of Ruth Snyder’s execution, a guy from the Daily News strapped a camera to his ankle and got a photo of her seconds before they pushed the button on the chair. It was on the front page of the paper. When you look at it, it’s still shocking. Treadwell basically wrote an angry, visceral outpouring, that this woman became a sensationalized

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Shirt, Burberry ($995). 444 Madison Ave., 212-707-6700; burberry.com. Sterling silver, diamond, and onyx pyramid cube earrings, Lynn Ban ($750). lynnban.com

celebrity. She wrote a play that’s not about Ruth Snyder, but every woman, someone not heroic, not particularly outspoken, but a fragile regular woman. What are the circumstances in which society can be pushed to a limit? Where a woman has no voice? What are the circumstances by which she commits a murder? What Treadwell writes is full of rage and anger, about the lack of voice for people who are oppressed. EH: Your father, [Sir Peter Hall], is a highly regarded theater director—one of the best of his generation. What I didn’t know was what an interesting artist your mother is. RH: My mom, Maria Ewing, is an American opera singer. She sang at the Met and in opera houses all over the world. There was an artistry to everything she did, an utter dedication [to finding] the truth to the role. Growing up, a sense of “don’t ever make compromises” was instilled in me; always maintain truth and stick to the integrity of the piece. Be bold— otherwise, what’s the point? EH: A certain amount of inevitable compromise creeps in—there’s kind of a grayness to adult life. If you’re totally uncompromising, you end up getting stranded by yourself and don’t get to work. I could understand how you would excel in the theater, but you’ve also been excelling in movies. You grew up around the theater, but the movies are your own thing. What do you make of that? RH: When I first started out, it was kind of exciting territory because it was the area where my family could not have a reaction entrenched with experience, and that was kind of refreshing for me. Instinctively, I knew it would be something that was mine. I always aspired to do movie acting. Movies, particularly black-and-white movies, were a

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big part of my growing up. My mom had a sort of Golden Age of Hollywood obsession. My heroes were film actresses like Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Katharine Hepburn. EH: How are you liking New York? RH: I’m loving it. And the snow is very beautiful today. I’ve got my boots. Everything’s okay if you’ve got snow boots, right? EH: I love when it snows, and I love going to see a play on a cold winter night, and I love being in one. For the Bridge Project, we traveled around the world for nine to 10 months, when we did Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale and Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. What do you remember of that year now? RH: The standout memory is Epidavros, the ancient open-air theater just outside of Athens. As long as I live, I’ll never forget that. It seats, what, 11,000 people? EH: Yeah, almost 12,000. And it’s unamplified. RH: The acoustics are extraordinary. It’s an experience that every actor should go through. I remember seeing everyone file in and thinking the same people made this journey and sat on those stones 2,000 years ago. Nothing much has changed, and we’re just serving a purpose by telling a story here. EH: I had a similar experience—I felt so much like a part of an ancient tradition. There are some great actors who have a different relationship to the cinema than they do to the theater. I would say it’s pretty easy to be okay in a movie and it’s really hard to be great in a movie. But it’s very hard to be okay on stage. The stage is merciless. Was it too intense an experience to work with your father [Hall was directed by him in a number of British productions], or was it something that brought you closer together? RH: I don’t know, we were always close, we always had a good relationship around work. He took me into plays and asked my opinions, and I was quite vocal about them. We had this sort of healthy banter. So working together was a no-brainer because it just felt like a natural extension of that part of our relationship. EH: Did he direct you when you were younger? RH: One day when I was 8, I went to his office to wait for him to finish work—he was directing a TV series. And that was the day that they were casting the part of the little girl in the series. None of the 300 little girls had been quite right. And the producer walked past and looked at me and

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made a strange face. Then I saw them go into the office room, where my dad was sitting, and my father started gesticulating wildly, “NO.” Later he came out and said, “The producer has some crazy idea you look like the little girl we need for this part and maybe you would be interested in auditioning.” And this bit I can’t remember at all, so it could be family legend— but apparently I said, “Yes, yes, absolutely. I’ve always wanted to be an actress.” But whether or not I did that is really— EH: Might be your father’s retelling?

RH: That might just be a little bit of embellishment. Nonetheless, I did audition, and apparently must have done well enough to get the part. When I was working with him, it was very professional. It was nice to be around him; it was lovely to get to do something that was genuinely exciting and have my dad there to hold my hand. When I was a teenager, it was slightly different because a large part of me rebelled against it all. I didn’t want to admit I was probably an actor deep down inside. So I pretended I wasn’t and wouldn’t let anyone come and see the shows I was in. I was sort of silent on the matter so that nobody would tell me to stop. Then I went to college and did a bunch of stuff and finally I let my dad come and see me in a college production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, where I played Martha, hilariously. EH: Wow. RH: He came, and I suppose I did a bit of “Okay. Here’s me really having a crack at this. If you want to tell me now that I’m no good, you can do it.” I don’t think I would have listened to him, but I did give him that option. Afterward he was like, “No, I think you can do this. If you want to do it, you should do it.” I

carried on at Cambridge for a while, and when I left, my dad was none too pleased with me dropping out of college a year early. Time passed, he got over it and offered me a job. I refused the job for a while, thinking that was the worst thing I could do in the world, and then came around. He’s a great director who is offering me a great part, and I’m only turning him down because he’s my father. What am I doing? EH: What are you reading now? RH: The Luminaries [the novel by Eleanor Catton that won the prestigious Man Booker Prize last year.] I have to have a book on the stand no matter what. But the amount of words in this play and the noise and the tempo keeps me up at night and makes me go bananas, so I have to be reading something. But Luminaries might be a little too much to have bitten off. I think I need something lighter. EH: I can never read anything when I’m in rehearsals for plays. We’re six weeks into our run, and I’m just now able to read something else. Every time I start reading, I think I should be looking at Macbeth. For the past month I would just sit on the subway and look at my lines. For some reason I feel guilty every time I look at something else. The trouble with those plays, with Shakespeare, is that you can always do it better. You’re never as good as the play is. Did you hear [President] Obama’s speech about Nelson Mandela today? RH: No, I didn’t. EH: You were probably at rehearsal, but he gave a great speech. What I thought was beautiful about it—is how he really challenged apathy. So many of us know that so much wrong is happening in the world, but it’s so easy to sequester yourself from it. One of the really remarkable parts of Mandela’s legacy is the challenge to care. I think it is incredibly hard for all of us. I find it easier to care about my block than when I think about all the things, you know, the polar ice caps are melting, the fighting in Darfur. I mean, it’s just overwhelming. RH: I agree with you. In England, the younger generation is often fed this sort of tune—we’re all apathetic and we can’t do anything. It’s nonsense, and I think people are much more interested and vocal than they let on. While I’ve not presented my name to any charities as of yet, I’m looking into it. EH: One of the things [you’re] getting very serious about is my mother [Leslie Hawke’s] organization Ovidiu Rom, working with Gypsy rights in Eastern Europe. But we’ll talk about that another day. EH: You’re coming to the show this week? If you are, just shoot me an e-mail and we can have a drink afterward. RH: Perfect, I’m coming tomorrow. G

“Growing up, a sense of ‘don’t ever make compromises’ was instilled in me.”

Dress ($5,200), Christian Dior. 21 E. 57th St., 212-931-2950; dior.com. Elsa Peretti Sevillana chain earrings, Tiffany & Co. ($450). 727 Fifth Ave., 212-755-8000; tiffany.com Styling by Laura Jones Manicure by Tracylee using Sally Hansen Nail Color Hair by Ben Skervin for Vidal Sassoon Pro Series at The Magnet Agency Makeup by Hung Vanngo for CK One Color cosmetics at The Wall Group

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couture and the

CITY ONE-OF-A-KIND LUXURY, AND IT’S ALL MADE IN NEW YORK. BY GARY WALTHER PHOTOGRAPHY BY EVAN SUNG

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CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Spano’s custom-made shirts, ties, and suits have a ’30s and ’40s feel; the Breanish tweed jacket is hand-woven; an old-fashioned shuttle for hand-weaving; final measurements.

LEADING MAN

Domenico Spano references film-world style. “See this jacket,” Domenico Spano says, holding up a houndstooth-overwindowpane model with bellows pockets and a bi-swing back. “It’s the same one Gable wore in It Happened One Night.” The jacket is the key to Domenico Spano: bespoke jackets and suits in the style of the ’30s and ’40s that reflect his lifelong infatuation with movies of the era. Those decades were when Hollywood had a huge impact on style both here and abroad, says Spano, who came to this country at age 26. “I always wanted to look like Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca,” he admits. That means strong shoulders (crisply squared and slightly roped), wide lapels, and a slightly nipped-in waist. Trousers are high-rise and pleated, cut full in the leg (no pegged pants here), and fitted with side straps rather than belt loops, a classic ’30s Hollywood motif. Spano is a stylist—he leaves the sewing to his tailors up on Lexington Avenue—one who is partial to chalk stripes, pinstripes, houndstooth, and

windowpane patterns. He adores flannel, which is perfect for his look, and loves to pair a suit with a contrasting vest. In bespoke tradition, he cuts a paper pattern for every suit and jacket. The lapels and collar are hand-sewn, and the shoulder is set and sewn in by hand. His double-breasted models incorporate a very slight drape at the shoulder front “because it looks very elegant.” Spano also offers custom shirts done with a split yoke to conform to the client’s shoulders, a high armhole, and hand-tailored touches such as perfectly matched stripes and an arrow-shaped gusset of shirting material to close the side seams. “My style is very masculine, even if there’s pink in the jacket,” he says, no doubt a reason why his suits and shirts appeal to both the financial set and highearning creatives. Spano, like his pieces, has a touch of the dandy in him, which is why he has so often ended up in Bill Cunningham’s “On The Street” column. 12 W. 57th St., Ste. 1002, 212-265-7848; domenicospano.com

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RIGHT:

Ward and Nico Landrigan, Verdura president, inspecting archival renderings. BELOW, FROM LEFT: Vintage sapphire and diamond brooch; the Marlene Dietrich Lily bracelet; Nico Landrigan developing new pieces based on heritage design.

THE VERDURA PEDIGREE

Ward and Nico Landrigan revived a legendary brand. The legacy of Fulco di Verdura (1898–1978), whom The New York Times dubbed “America’s crown jeweler” for his aristocratic and film-world clientele (he was also Chanel’s head jewelry designer in the late ’20s and early ’30s), lives on in a 12th-story penthouse showroom across from Bergdorf Goodman. Here’s where you’ll find a reproduction Lily bracelet, based on the original gold cuff with pavé diamond petals designed for Marlene Dietrich, who wore it while recording “Lili Marleen.” There’s also the Curb-Link bracelet, which Verdura thought up for Greta Garbo. Ward Landrigan, who has owned the rights to the Verdura archives and name since 1985—and who breathed new life into the Verdura legacy—produced both of them in family-owned, Manhattan workshops that make 85 percent of his reproductions and are the same ones that Verdura himself used. (The locations are a state secret.) The shop that made the original Curb-Link bracelet crafted the one in the showroom, and some of the artisans who work on Landrigan’s reproductions knew Verdura in his heyday. How’s that for a couture pedigree?

Landrigan says Verdura, who held a ducal title in his native Italy, designed 5,000 pieces of jewelry during his career. Since taking over the Verdura archive, Landrigan and his team have reproduced approximately 500 of the items. The technical challenges—the average piece goes back and forth from workshop to Landrigan 10 or 12 times—are formidable, as Verdura left only two-dimensional drawings of his works. Sarah Jessica Parker is a major Verdura client; she became enamored of his work through Sex and the City. Sofia Coppola likes the cuffs. Princess Diana once borrowed pieces for a Manhattan gala, among them a baguetteand-pavé diamond bracelet of interlocking Cs that Verdura originally made for Marjorie Merriweather Post. At the end of the evening, the princess formed a receiving line of one to thank everyone for coming. Landrigan stood by wondering why so many people were chuckling. It turned out that Diana was telling them that the interlocked Cs stood for Charles and Camilla. 745 Fifth Ave., Ste. 1205, 212-758-3388; verdura.com

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Dara Lamb, in her 57th Street showroom and workshop.

CEO favorite

Dara Lamb knows how women who run companies want to dress. Dara Lamb is an unlikely bespoke woman’s tailor. She studied multimedia and then engineering, but her real passion has always been fabric—her stepfather was in the upholstery business, so she grew up learning about textiles. Along the way she mastered tailoring and dressmaking, picking up skills from “old, crotchety tailors,” she says. Courtesy of her engineering training, Lamb today runs a high-tech atelier on 57th Street. Her patterns are based on an average of her clients’ measurements and proportion in a given size, “so we start from a realistic sample.” From there, she cuts a paper pattern for each customer and employs an arsenal of tailoring and sewing techniques to elevate each garment: a floating canvas, which allows the garment to move with the wearer; hand-sewn lapels, armholes and pockets; and princess darts that curve the garment to fit the bust, which she considers her specialty. The workshop, at the back of the showroom (“farm-to-table,” she says), has two walls of paper patterns. It hums intermittently with sewing machines and is

divided into specialists: for example Susa makes jackets, Flora specializes in embroidery and other decorative stitching. Diana Taylor, Managing Director at Wolfehsohn Fund Management and longtime companion of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is a Dara Lamb client, as is Amy Kule, executive producer of the Macy’s Day Parade, but Lamb’s base is the C-Suite female professional. “A high-level woman can’t look out of date,” says Lamb. “It says her thinking is out-of-date.” On the other hand, in many industries she can’t look trendy either. Bespoke detailing and the classic nature of her designs generally appeal to women “in their late 40s on up,” explains Lamb, but she says she’s starting to see new clients in their late 30s as well. A woman from the banking industry who was in for a fitting when I visited the Lamb studio explained why she’s a customer, “People look at me and know what I’m wearing is from someplace extraordinary, but they don’t know where. And that’s just what I want.” 37 W. 57th St., Ste. 1001, 212-935-2344; daralamb.com gotham-magazine.com 89

Eye on perfection: Robert Lee Morris inspects a prototype in his workshop. OPPOSITE PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Morrisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first block necklace; prototype sketches; archival designs; at work.

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DESIGNS ON THE RED CARPET

Robert Lee Morris creates special custom pieces for collectors. “If you get in here, you’re either a shareholder or a movie star,” Robert Lee Morris tells me in a tiny showroom adjacent to his office-workshop just above Fifth Avenue and 36th Street. I don’t know about the first group; but as for the second, here’s the red carpet: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Natalie Portman, Sarah Jessica Parker, Victoria Beckham, and Salma Hayek. Okay, perhaps not all of them came here, but you know what I mean. Morris’s office and workshop is in the headquarters of Miriam Haskell, a jewelry holding empire. While Morris doesn’t offer a bespoke line per se, he creates custom pieces for collectors he knows well, among them Cher (a single long earring), Iman (necklace for the CFDA awards), Bianca Jagger (gold link bracelets for her extremely small wrists). Morris is not that fond of bespoke, courtesy

of a bad experience with Madonna, who asked him to make—he doesn’t say it, but the word that comes to my mind is “tchotchkes” to give her staff as gifts. “I made them, but....” and then his voice trails off. The prototypes for Morris’ pieces are turned out on the 12th floor (room 512, in fact), a two-room mouse hole with a drill press, grinding wheel, torches, a ventilator that almost precludes conversation, and a dentist’s sweetdream of little grinding wheels. It’s the one-of-a kind prototypes that actually go on sale in the bespoke vitrine at the back of the Soho boutique—unless you’re a shareholder or a movie star. They are, in effect, the first sketch of a piece that will later be tailored for the mass market. Which to me is a nice retro touch—you’re buying the inspiration, not the calculation. 400 W. Broadway, 212-431-9405; robertleemorris.com

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Martin Greenfield’s clients range from movie costume designers to presidents.

PRESIDENTIAL CONNECTIONS

Martin Greenfield takes the measure of the city’s power crowd. The male cast of Boardwalk Empire and Leonardo DiCaprio in The Great Gatsby. Michael Douglas in Wall Street I. Michael Bloomberg and Ray Kelly. Brooks Brothers, Paul Stuart Custom. Oh yes, and the forthcoming Wolf of Wall Street, which will carry a “Clothes by Armani” credit. What they all have in common is that the menswear is made in a 97-yearold East Williamsburg factory that still has gas jets protruding from the walls. You might say that Martin Greenfield is the Zelig of suitmakers. He oversees a sophisticated production line that can meet TV’s short deadlines—as little as two weeks to make clothes for a Boardwalk Empire episode—while providing the hand-tailoring eye and hand that individual clients want. (Among the tailors who supervise production is Mario Avitable, who started at age 7 in Naples.) “We can make any shoulder required,” says Tod Greenfield, who oversees the floor. “That’s our capability—to make anything.” To be strict about it, Martin Greenfield is made-to-measure in its high-end suits, working off four basic patterns. It then customizes those models to a degree that approaches bespoke, including the creation of a basted try-on 92

garment for the first fitting, which is then taken apart and altered as needed. Greenfield hand-sews the collar inside and out and hand-sets and sews the shoulder, but dispenses with some bespoke flourishes such as hand-sewn lapels. Other parts of the garment are made on sewing machines, but antique pedal-driven ones allow the operators to stitch deliberately. That the factory is in East Williamsburg at all is because of Martin Greenfield, who is an American success story. He came to this country with the proverbial $10 in his pocket, started in the factory as a floor-sweeper when it was owned by a clothing maker called GGG Clothes, rose to run and then buy the place. He has personally measured Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, Ted Kennedy, and Bill Clinton. He dug in through the bad years after the 2001 blackout, when the factory had to provide security for employees walking to the L train three blocks away, and was instrumental in organizing the business community to dig in, hold out, and lobby the city for help. When I ask him why he didn’t throw in the towel, he says matter-of-factly in his Czech-accented English, “You’re talking to a Holocaust survivor.” 239 Varet St., Brooklyn, 718-497-5480; greenfieldclothiers.com

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LEFT:

Steven Scott Kokin fitting a new hat. BELOW, FROM LEFT: Vintage-style headpiece; a key to hat sizes; hats on display at the Lexington Avenue store.

CELEBRITY MILLINER

Hat off to Steven Scott Kokin and his artful designs. The day of the Central Park Conservancy luncheon, also known as the “Hat Luncheon” for the Ascot-like millinery attendees don for the occasion, the Kokin boutique at 73rd and Lexington opens early to accommodate women who risk losing their heads by having left their hat to the last minute. “Some buy two or three and choose the one to wear on the basis of the weather,” says owner Steven Scott Kokin. Kokin’s success spans an astonishingly broad celebrity and ladies-wholunch spectrum, from Jennifer Lopez and Queen Latifah, to Barbara Walters and Julia Koch. Despite his clientele, Kokin is refreshingly blasé about his boldfacers. Sharon Stone’s PA, fishing for a free hat for her boss, once reminded him of Stone’s head size. “Oh, it’s much bigger than that,” he retorted. As for Naomi Campbell, who despite her hopping off a yacht in Capri to buy six of his hats, he says, “People should be throwing phones at her.”

The Kokin workshop is a central-casting Garment District space— hopelessly crammed with fabrics and trimmings, his five seamstresses almost on top of one another. The handwork is extensive. For a Ribbon Hat, very narrow strands of horsehair are inserted into straw ribbon to give it the body to hold loops and swirls, but then it must be handstitched to make the ribbon look insouciant. For all Kokin’s success, there’s a puzzling (and quite charming) lack of bravado about him. Of his style, he just says “it’s classics with a twist” and “I like little buttons.” But he’s convincingly brash about his custom skills, routinely dealing with Vreeland-like color requests (“the pink of the Incas”) or creating a hat for a client to match a green vase. No wonder his creations are regular fixtures on Oscar’s and Ralph’s runways. 1028 Lexington Ave., 212-628-1981; kokinnewyork.com

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Joan Silverman and Paul Moorefield of Oliver Moore Bootmakers. “We bring biomedical diagnoses to the customshoemaking process,” Moorefield says.

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CLOCKWISE: Double-needle upper stitching is still done by hand; tools of the trade, many of which are no longer manufactured; after 15 years, this alligator shoe still looks new; hand-carved lasts are evaluated for correct foot mechanics.

WALK OF FAME

Oliver Moore Bootmakers keeps pace with celebrity needs. You would never know that the modest shoe store on Lexington Avenue made the performance shoes for Whitney Houston and a pair of purple alligator laceups for P Diddy. Or that down in the basement there are boxes marked “Rockefeller” (David), and “Sheen.” Or, that this prosaic storefront hides an anachronistic shoemaking workshop. A 19th-century shoemaker, Moore is long gone, but this shop carries on his custom-shoemaking legacy with a twist: “We bring biomechanical diagnoses to the custom-shoemaking process, which is what separates us from other bespoke shoemakers,” says Jon Silverman, whose mother, Joan, is a current proprietor of the shop along with Paul Moorefield. That means Oliver Moore is part foot doctor and part John Lobb. Moorefield and Silverman are certified pedorthists (or gait analysts), and they bring a keen eye for foot physiology and stride to the process of shoemaking. Which is the hard part. Style? No problem. “If you can dream it up, we can do

it,” says Silverman, who prefers to make “utility heel-height shoes” for women, but is happy to produce a four-inch model. Moore offers all the classic men’s styles, but if you want an exotic material, they’ll do it. The process begins with an inkblot map of the client’s foot, in order to see the weight distribution. “The idea is to get the weight where it should be,” says Silverman, which is, of course, the classic basis of custom shoemaking. The map, along with seven other measurements, is translated into a last, carved by Michael Martin, the Michelangelo of the basement atelier. The upper is stitched and then welded to the sole by hand. It takes three weeks to produce the try-on shoe and two to three further fittings to get it just right. Skip Bronson, head of U.S. Digital Gaming, was so taken with the process that he called Martha Stewart while being measured and suggested she send a crew over right away, which she did. 856 Lexington Ave., 212-288-1525; olivermoorebootmakers.com G

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Julia Koch with Arie Kopelman at a recent medical fundraiser. Koch and her husband, David, are active supporters of Rockefeller University. OPPOSITE PAGE: Dr. Leslie Vosshall in the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior at Rockefeller University.

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOE SCHILDHORN/BFANYC.COM (KOCH); SARI GOODFRIEND (VOSSHALL)

THE

SMART SET NEW YORK SOCIALS TEAM UP WITH ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY IN THE QUEST FOR A CURE—FOR EVERYTHING. BY BETSY F. PERRY

hile many philanthropic New Yorkers support high-profile fundraising galas at the ballet or opera and pose red-carpetready for big-ticket events at the Met, the Schwarzman Building of the Public Library, and even the Central Park Zoo—happily nuzzling fuzzy critters for the paparazzi—there’s another set discreetly but generously putting their money behind unsexy scientific research, think-tank summits, and wonky lectures by Nobel Prize winners, all to fund clinical research and

hopefully discover life-changing solutions for medical issues. At a recent brainy Rockefeller University benefit lecture on DNA, one gloriously handsome guest with manners that make you want to weep with joy surveyed the assembled group and remarked, “Money talks, but wealth whispers.” Though attendees included recognizable benefactors David and Julia Koch, as well as a Gruss, Kravis, and a couple of Roosevelts, judging from the less familiar but stylish ladies in conservative Oscar and Carolina—embellished with gawkworthy bursts

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of Verdura brooches—and men in their Hermès ties and Lobb bespoke shoes, the $1.2 million raised from this mind-expanding but decorous evening spoke to the assembled wealth and willingness to give, even without the possibility of their name ending up on a gene. Whether for personal reasons or on a need-to-be-clued-in basis, smart New Yorkers have understood the importance of pushing and funding scientific research despite the patience involved and the lengthy waits to have a discovery in sight. The elegant Deeda Blair, an activist and disciple of the late medical philanthropist Mary Lasker, has for years been pushing the medical envelope and connecting venture capital, foundation, and private money with scientists, Nobel Prize winners, researchers, and academics in her quest to move research along. Recently, Blair cofounded the New York– based Alexandria Summit—private conferences at which leading researchers in, for example, neuroscience or oncology gather to exchange ideas. National Book Award recipient Andrew Solomon, who has attended and participated in these summits and is author of the blockbuster book Far From the Tree, about exceptional families, has spent time with Blair and says, “You would think someone of that style, who entertains so beautifully, wouldn’t put in the time for these complicated issues. She could have had a different type of life, [but] this is what she has chosen to make a difference.”

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: John D. Rockefeller founded Rockefeller University in 1901; guests at a lecture at Caspary Hall, the university’s main event space; Dr. Anna Chapman is on the university’s board of trustees; Celerie Kemble and Boykin Curry frequently attend RU events—“It’s a highly addictive place,” notes Curry; a scientist at work in an RU lab. Generous donor funding frees researchers to take risks without fear of losing grant monies.

And it seems apparent this younger generation of New York philanthropists is willing to invest serious money to research a host of diseases and medical issues (e.g., the autism spectrum and obesity) that affect their children as well as the world’s children, but without seeing their name in lights or carved into concrete. As Sharna Goldseker, the managing director of 21/64, a nonprofit consulting practice specializing in multigenerational and family philanthropy, puts it, “The next generation doesn’t care as much about recognition and is motivated by values, not valuables.” Social observer David Patrick Columbia is a bit less compassionate, stating bluntly, “There have always been people who contribute [to] or take an interest in medicine or the medical sciences for a variety of reasons—sometimes smart, other times hoping to live forever.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SCOTT RUDD (CASPARY AUDITORIUM); PATRICK MCMULLAN/ PATRICKMCMULLAN.COM (KEMBLE); ROCKEFELLER ARCHIVE CENTER (JDR)

nd she is hardly the only one. Generations of wealthy New York families have supported Rockefeller University—the world-renowned center for research in the biomedical sciences and the first institution (founded in 1901) in the country solely dedicated to this field. However, it remains an enigma to many who pass by the iron curlicue gates and spiky fences. Located on 14 acres of prime New York real estate in a hodgepodge of architecturally diverse buildings between York Avenue and the East River, the discoveries made within these confines exceed all physical boundaries. Once past the sentry on 66th Street and up the driveway to the original 1906-constructed Founder’s Hall, in a lobby lined with portraits of three generations of Rockefellers (including a copy of the original portrait of John D. Rockefeller painted by John Singer Sargent), you enter a highly collaborative institution, a quietly buzzing hive of research and clinical trials (at the campus hospital, the first center for clinical research in the US), which has been home to 24 Nobel Prize winners, 21 Lasker Award winners, and 20 recipients of the National Medal of Science. Who knew? Evidently many, who pass the word on to friends and family, and it’s not uncommon to see layers of socially prominent families involved—Marnie Pillsbury and daughter Blair Pillsbury Enders; Henry Kravis and daughter Kimberly Kravis Schulhof; Evelyn Gruss Lipper and daughter Daniella Lipper Coules; and the Ravenel Curry III family, whose son Boykin IV and daughter-in-law, designer Celerie Kemble, are now committed. The younger Curry, a partner at investment firm Eagle Capital Management, looks at his involvement with Rock U in two ways and explains, “Given what Rockefeller University has accomplished, there’s a super high return on investment compared to other philanthropies, and I love science, so to have brilliant researchers explain what they’re doing in terms I can sort of understand is an intellectual thrill I don’t get that often.”

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“At Rockefeller, there’s a lot interest in helping humanity without the rest of the fanfare.”—DR. ANNA CHAPMAN

ock U has launched initiatives like Women & Science and, most recently, Parents & Science so that a younger philanthropic audience can learn about health challenges that impact the community as well as individuals. For example, the two groups are teaming up for a special evening seminar on February 19 to explore how melanoma has become a worldwide health problem. As a result of programs like these, 2,400 new guests have visited the campus since the inception of Parents & Science in 2007. Dr. Anna Chapman, a Harvard-educated psychiatrist, mother of two boys, and wife to philanthropic billionaire Ron Perelman, had long been interested in Rockefeller’s research (having worked at neighboring Weill Cornell) and so joined the board last year. Comfortable with her husband’s wealth and ability to give, Chapman admits, “We’re on the big board, and I’m about to go on the clinical hospital committee because as a doctor I think I can contribute more.” With many friends involved, Chapman adds, “The Parents & Science programs also piqued my interest because they do a lot with children’s brain development, and at Rockefeller there’s a lot of interest in helping humanity without the rest of the fanfare.” As to whether she plans on giving in a big way, she says, “This is my first foray, and I’m starting gradually with my contributions, but you do get the feeling every cent you put in will be used to its full potential.” While everyone’s eager for cures and discoveries, RU’s scientists openly share that generous donor-funding encourages them to be productive and take risks,

but thankfully relieves them of the fear of losing funding—which research scientists elsewhere often face. Neurobiologist Dr. Leslie Vosshall says, “This is one of the few places on earth where you’re given a cloistered environment to test crazy ideas and with plenty of support you don’t have to worry about bringing in grant money.” Bloomberg LP’s chairman, Peter Grauer, is a trustee and now chairs RU’s finance committee. As a prostate cancer survivor, Grauer admits that his bout “dramatically increased my interest, and while there may never be a Grauer research center, there are a lot of very generous board members, and the expectation is we will support the capital campaigns.” Focused on the younger benefactors, Dr. Bruce McEwen, who has spent his career researching how stress and sex hormones affect brain development and activity, also serves as the faculty advisor to the Parents & Science initiative. After time spent with these 30- to 50-year-old supporters, McEwen sees the younger philanthropists motivated to contribute. “A lot of well-off New Yorkers have a strong social conscience, and understand that poverty and early life adversity have a lifelong effect on health, which creates human misery and adds to the impact of disease.” Investment advisor Daniella Lipper Coules is deeply engaged in this initiative, and while fortunate to have healthy kids, she says, “some come because their children may have autism or learning issues,” adding that the Parents & Science lectures cover everything from how your child’s brain grows to studying the bonding between parent and child. As a cotrustee of a family foundation along with her mother, Evelyn Gruss Lipper—a Rock U trustee and pediatrician—she admits to a deep connection but attends “for the lectures, not the social part.”

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“This place is not about having your name on a committee, but rather about engaging a smart money set intellectually and often for personal reasons.”—TALBOTT LEA SIMONDS

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY DEAN NEVILLE/BFANYC.COM (ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY); SCOTT RUDD (BOLEN)

nce at a lecture—amusingly referred to by Boykin Curry IV as “the participating donors seem eager to support any biomedical research gateway drug”—you’re hooked; RU is a highly addictive place, and that may slow down the process of a degenerative illness or ultimately exposure can be transformative. Curry and wife Celerie Kemble prevent it, if not for them then for future generations. Since the death of admit “some of the sessions have actually changed the way we John D. Rockefeller Sr.’s grandchild from scarlet fever at age 3 and his raise our three children.” Kemble happily adds, “Compared to a typical gala realization there were no American institutions devoted to research in event, we leave the lectures stimulated rather than exhausted. Plus I get home medicine, Rockefeller University has been buying time for us all. From for the kids’ bedtime, and I end up talking about something besides my day early discoveries developing serums for meningitis to groundbreaking over dinner with my husband.” Another enthusiast, Vanessa Weiner von studies on cholesterol and heart disease or David Ho’s HIV study that led Bismarck, cofounder and partner in the PR firm BPCM, says she usually finds to the design of the AIDS “drug cocktail,” these research scientists have “attending luncheons a pain, but these lectures are worth it and there’s no net- attacked their work fiercely. With donors funding brain research, neuroworking going on,” adding that “while science lectures are usually too scientist Cori Bargmann and her colleagues are elucidating how behavior complicated, these aren’t.” (Bismarck’s husband, Maximilian Weiner, is is influenced by genes, environment, and experience. Dr. McEwen, head cofounder of Praximo, a company specializing in telemedical and virtual of Rockefeller’s neuroendocrinology lab, says, “Our goal is to slow down healthcare.) And Talbott Lea Simonds, managing director at Tondern Capital degeneration or prevent it, and by recognizing symptoms we can slow it and grandson of Pittsburgh billionaire philanthropist Henry Hillman, claims down.” RU neurobiologist 48-year-old Leslie Vosshall has spent years he was “roped in by Kimberly Kravis Schulhof,” but after attending a few lec- working with pesky flies and mosquitoes. Support from her personal tures on issues wrestled with as parents, he and wife Carter, daughter of former cheerleader and trustee, investment banker Robin Chemers Neustein, Sotheby’s CEO Dede Brooks, were all in. As Simonds shares, “This place is helps enable Vosshall to investigate why some people are more attractive not about having your name on a committee, but rather about engaging a to mosquitoes than others. Though Vosshall admits, “I won’t personally smart money set intellectually and often for personal reasons.” Equally be bottling insect repellent,” her research, global in reach, hits home when engaged by RU’s studies on Alzheimer’s and lectures on immunization, obe- you realize the West Nile virus may be in our own backyard. Maybe that’s what intrigues donors and pushes them to sity, and stress, Silvia Zoullas, married to Sophocles Zoullas, continue supporting research without the instant gratificachairman and CEO of Eagle Bulk Shipping, is grateful for BELOW LEFT: Celebrating Science Benefit Cochair Silvia tion of an aha moment or their name on a vaccine—without what she learned at RU and now knows enough about con- Zoullas (RIGHT) on a lab tour their support, no risks can be taken and no rewards cussions to tell her soccer-playing daughter, “Whatever you with Liz Garner, a postdoctoral associate. BELOW achieved. Looking back, consider the distance we’ve come do, don’t hit the ball with your head.” RIGHT: Eliza Bolen, Ashley von with so many life-threatening diseases; looking forward, Perhaps aware that our time traipsing this crowded Perfall, and Shoshanna Gruss at the Parents & Science imagine the possibilities. Money well spent for sure. G planet is limited and sometimes hampered by ill health, Benefit this past October.

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Generations of wealthy New Yorkers have supported Rockefeller University, which has been home to 24 Nobel Prize winners.

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Haute Property NEWS, STARS, AND TRENDS IN REAL ESTATE

An eco-conscious living room at Delos Living lofts.

An Ever-Greener Home NEW STANDARDS FOR HEALTHY LIFESTYLES BRING HOLISTIC WELLNESS SOLUTIONS TO CONDO LIVING. BY C.J. HUGHES

aul Scialla, a former Goldman Sachs partner whose Manhattan loft has an autographed poster from the movie Wall Street, is standing in his bathroom. Flanking a mirror are two ruler-size bluish lights. “I find myself coming in here when I’m feeling sluggish because I need to get the melatonin out of my body,” he says, explaining that the lights can function like a cup of coffee, stimulating the nervous system. But Scialla isn’t just some investment banker looking to use whizbang health aids for self-improvement. Rather, he’s trying to bring them to the masses, or at least those with deep enough pockets, by way of Delos Living, his young development firm. It aims to add eco-friendly, spa-quality finishes to apartments, as well as hotels, schools, and hospitals so that they

might resemble his loft, which is a prototype for what’s to come in healthy living. The green-building movement, which for years has emphasized energy-efficiency over a person’s energy levels, might also get a shake-up in the process. “We just felt that an entirely new effort needed to be put forth, to push the envelope on human health,” says Scialla, whose first condos in Greenwich Village start at around $4,000 per square foot. Yet at a time when environmentally sensitive construction in New York can seem so commonplace, it’s unclear whether buyers will pay any kind of premium for it. “More often than not, people appreciate green features, but not too many come in specifically for that reason,” says Brian Cushman, a real estate broker with Rutenberg Realty (127 E. 56th St., 212-688-1000,

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Next-gen healthy living: bathrooms with showerheads that mix liquid vitamin C and aloe.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY KRISTY LEIBOWITZ (SCIALLA)

LEFT:

ext. 586; rutenbergrealtyny.com) who lives and sells in the Riverhouse, a 2007 condo in Battery Park City whose green bona fides are notable. There, paints don’t emit harsh chemicals; air is cleaned by filters before it comes inside. Water, too, is filtered, so much so that Cushman skips the Brita, he says, and drinks straight from the tap. A threebedroom he was marketing in late November at Riverhouse was listed at about $4.5 million, or $2,300 a square foot. Delos’s Greenwich Village condo, which is located in a cast-iron former knitting factory on East 11th Street, meanwhile, offers many of the good-for-you features of Riverhouse. But it also sports several dozen more. Water from showerheads will be blended with liquid vitamin C and aloe, to reinvigorate skin. Windowside planters in kitchens will be lined

“We felt the need to push the envelope on human health.” —PAUL SCIALLA

with herbs; those next to living rooms will sprout medicinal aloe. Sections of bath floors will be pebbly, so bare feet can enjoy a massage. Soybased insulation, electromagnetic-field-resistant wires, and floors underpinned with cork and rubber, to make them easier on tired knees, are other distinctive details at the building, whose units start at $14.5 million and soar to $50 million, for the two-level, four-bedroom penthouse. But that penthouse might be spoken for. News reports last fall indicated Leonardo DiCaprio, the actor and environmentalist (and current Riverhouse resident), had purchased the space, though Scialla would not confirm them. He would say, though, that DiCaprio had been an early investor in Delos and was recently tapped to join its board of directors. The company, which Scialla runs with his twin brother, Peter, another Goldman alum and current housemate, occupying the loft’s other wing, has its sights set outside New York as well. It shows clients how to conduct health-conscious makeovers of their offices, like with CBRE, the real estate giant, at its 50,000-square-foot Los Angeles headquarters. In a partnership with LEED (which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), Delos also advised on the construction of the William Jefferson Clinton Children’s Center, a health clinic and orphanage soon to open in Haiti. In many ways, Delos has a tough act to follow. Since the late 1990s, LEED has been the most popular environmental-standard-pushing

ABOVE: Paul Scialla, the brains behind Delos Living. BOTTOM LEFT: Kitchens feature windowside planters lined with herbs.

developers to use sustainable materials like bamboo for floors, while earning a handy marketing hook. And Manhattan is dotted with buildings from the past decade with the LEED stamp of approval, including condos like the Harrison, on the Upper West Side; One Jackson Square, in the West Village; and the Millennium Tower Residences, in Battery Park City, a neighborhood thick with structures of this type. But so many buildings now seek LEED certification, to one degree or another, that brokers often don’t even trumpet that fact in brochures. What Delos is trying to do may create some market confusion, experts say—if budgets are limited, developers may be torn between going with Delos or LEED—though perhaps it’s the result that ultimately matters. “At the end of the day, we all have consistent ends,” says Russell Unger, executive director of the Urban Green Council, a longtime local LEED advocate. Even Scialla admits that his own product could be irrelevant in the future. “There’s going to come a day when we won’t hear about green building any more,” he says. “Every building will be built that way.” Delos, 54 Thompson St., Fourth Fl., 646-308-1565; delosliving.com G

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TALL STORIES

The Family Manse LARGE LUXURY TOWNHOUSES WITH CELEBRITY PROVENANCE GO UP FOR SALE.

anhattan’s luxury townhouse scene has been very active the past several months. To start, a Chinese billionaire real estate mogul—the seventh-richest self-made woman in the world, by Forbes’s latest estimation, with a $3.6 billion fortune—plunked down $26 million to buy a trophy Upper East Side townhouse at 45 East 74th Street. Zhang Xin, the glamorous 48-year-old real estate mogul who cofounded and heads Soho China, the property development company, is a boldfacer in China NEAR RIGHT: but relatively unknown in the US. Hers FROM Spike Lee’s is a rags-to-unimaginable-riches story— townhouse at East 63rd; Zhang toiled in a sweatshop in her teens 153 the Slatkin and was once homeless. She went to property at East school in England and worked for 74th Street. Goldman Sachs in New York before moving back to China to build her empire. The townhouse has enjoyed its own celebrity of sorts over the years. Brad Pitt held a dinner for his Make It Right charity here, and Leonardo DiCaprio strutted through its halls, playing the role of potential buyer. The five-bedroom, seven-and-a-halfbath single-family mansion, originally constructed in 1879, has a pool room in the basement and a Jacuzzi on the roof terrace. The buyer’s broker was Paula Del Nunzio, of the firm Brown Harris Stevens. 445 Park Ave., 212-906-9207; bhsusa.com For years, filmmaker Spike Lee and his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, and their children have lived in a historic townhouse on the Upper East Side. Now that the kids are older, the Lees have put their home, known as Hatch House, on the market for $32 million. They bought the house at 153 East 63rd Street from legendary artist Jasper Johns in 1998 for $16.6 million. The landmarked, 8,292-squarefoot, 32-foot-wide home dates to 1916, when the Vanderbilt family purchased the property, formerly the site of horse stables, for $85,000 and built a townhouse on

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LEFT:

Dining room and living room (BELOW) at 45 East 74th Street. RIGHT: Spike Lee.

the site as a wedding gift for their daughter Barbara. The mansion’s current listing brokers are Serena Boardman and Eva J. Mohr of Sotheby’s International Realty. 38 E. 61st St., 212-606-7611 (Boardman) and 212-606-7736 (Mohr); sothebyshomes.com Entrepreneur Harry Slatkin and wife Laura have put their Upper East Side mansion on the market for $34 million for reasons similar to the Lees. “Preparing to become empty nesters,” according to The New York Times, they are interested in “downsizing” from their 21-foot-wide, 10,600-square-foot neo-Italian Renaissance-style limestone mansion at 18 East 74th Street to a 7,000-square-foot duplex. The Slatkins bought the home for $11.75 million in 2005 and spent “millions” renovating it. The seven-story home includes a wrought-iron staircase, five marble fireplaces, and swings in the kids’ playroom. There’s also a roof terrace with a balustrade. The listing brokers are Maria Torresy and Sami Hassoumi of Brown Harris Stevens. 445 Park Ave., 212-906-9317 (Torresy) and 212-906-9267 (Hassoumi); bhsusa.com The West Village has also seen some good deals. Singer/songwriter Carly Simon recently sold her duplex co-op at 46 Commerce between Bedford and Barrow Streets. The two-bedroom, two-bathroom with a state-of-theart country chef’s kitchen unit is in an 1817 building that only has three apartments. It was designed in classic old-world Village style, with two wood-burning fireplaces, high ceilings, exposed brick walls, and wide plank flooring. It sold for $2.325 million, close to its $2.5 million asking price. The listing broker was Nick Gavin, of the Corcoran Group. 490 Broadway, 212-941-2659; corcoran.com G

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEMAL COUNTESS/GETTY IMAGES (LEE); THOMAS LOOF (45 E. 74TH ST.); SETH OLENICK (153 E. 63RD ST., 18 E. 74TH ST.)

BY SALLY GOLDSTEIN

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ABODE & BEYOND

Set in Stone HOW CALACATTA BECAME THE MANHATTAN MARBLE OF CHOICE. BY GARY WALTHER

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CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Calacatta samples at the Nemo Tile showroom; a master bath at the Touraine and a bathroom at 18 Gramercy Park, both featuring Calacatta marble.

There are many different types of Calacatta; however, the names are not scientific. They can reflect the appearance (Calacatta Gold), a marketing spin (Calacatta Vision), or even the name of the quarry owner (Calacatta Tucci comes from Tucci’s Quarry, in the Apuan Alps, owned by the Santucci Group). “Most are romanced names for marketing,” says Stockman. One thing is certain: The price will continue to go up because of demand— strong here, out of sight in the Middle East. “They’re buying up all the best blocks they can get,” says Karlin. Which is also why you want a stone dealer who has an inside track. Says Stephen Brooke of Stone Source, which supplied Calacatta to the Touraine, “It’s a total relationship business.” G

PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILLIAM TAYLOR (TOURAINE MASTER BATH); OLEG MARCH (SHOWROOM)

othing bespeaks money like marble, and lately the marble that speaks money most fluently is Calacatta, the vibrantly veined white stone from the Carrara region of Italy. Judging by the ultraexpensive properties that have recently sold in Manhattan, Calacatta is mogul catnip. According to Judith Stockman, creative director of Urban Archaeology (239 E. 58th St., 212-371-4646; urbanarchaeology.com), the architectural salvage and interiors store, it’s the white marble most in demand now for high-end city residences, among them the Zeckendorfs’ 18 Gramercy Park and the new Toll Brothers condo, the Touraine, at 132 East 65th Street (one penthouse unit has four and a half Calacatta marble baths). For decorators, Calacatta has always been the marble. Matt Karlin, president of Nemo Tile (48 E. 21st St., 212-505-0009; nemotile.com), says, “Calacatta is the most expensive high-end white stone in New York now.” Nemo is installing it at Harry Macklowe’s 432 Park Avenue, sure to be the next billionaire haven. Money-is-no-object developments like his and the Zeckendorfs’ have helped push the stone into the limelight. “It is a particular audience that purchases Calacatta, due to the cost,” says Francesco Marasco, president of Zicana in Westbury, New York (58 Sylvester St., 516-279-6909; zicana.com), which is currently installing Calacatta Gold in renovations at the Apthorp, the Upper West Side landmark. Marasco says Calacatta goes for up to $150 per square foot in slab format, although Calacatta Gold, one of the rarest types and named for its gold flecking, costs even more. (In tile, $18 –$25 a square foot.) Winston Kong, a principal with Champalimaud (475 10th Ave., 212-8078869; champalimauddesign.com), which is using the stone in an UES condo development, says designers love Calacatta for its old-world feel, its abrasion resistance (a key element for countertops and backsplashes), and the fact that “it gives you a base palette to play off.” He’s referring to Calacatta’s creamy white background, along with the veining, the stone’s defining characteristic. It’s the latter, though—fluid, graphic, sometimes resembling gold radio waves, sometimes a column of poured Champagne—that makes people swoon for Calacatta. The veining in Carrara, in contrast, is modest, even subdued, and the background is often gray. (Calacatta is also much rarer.)

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THIS MONTH THE VERY BEST OF

T he

Guide

NEW YORK’S FINEST

imbibe: coffee shops devour: sweets

Sugar Rush LADURÉE OPENS A FLAGSHIP TEA SALON IN SOHO.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ELINA MANNINEN

f there’s one thing you can count on while making the rounds during Fashion Week in February, it’s seeing trays laden with Ladurée macarons backstage and at many of the VIP parties. The French pâtisserie invented the double-decker version of the meringue confections more than 80 years ago, and now, in all their color-blocked Parisian glory, they have become the unofficial food of the fashion set. Ladurée is even partnering with designer Nina Ricci to create a special macaron package that will be sold during Fashion Week. (Last year it partnered with Reed Krakoff.) No doubt this marriage of food and fashion has led to macarons’ soaring popularity, recently surpassing cupcakes as Manhattan’s de rigueur treat. This battle of the guilty pleasures continues with Ladurée’s newly opened US flagship maison, a palatial tea room in Soho styled after

BY CHRISTINA PELLEGRINI

the Champs-Élysées locale. While the company has had a boutique on Madison Avenue since 2011, the Soho outpost features a full-service restaurant that offers classic French dishes such as vol-au-vents, pike quenelles, and pan-fried foie gras. And of course, macarons and Ladurée’s other famous sweet pastries, like dark rum mille-feuilles, vanilla éclairs, and strawberry mascarpone tarts. Chef Jimmy Leclerc, a seven-year Ladurée veteran, oversees the location’s delectable desserts. “He’s been trained to make what we’re known for—amazing pastries,” says Elisabeth Holder Raberin, co – managing director of Ladurée USA. But don’t count on seeing him create the precious macarons. The company, to preserve the sweets’ authenticity and secret recipe, continues to make them in France and fly them into the US. 398 W. Broadway, 855-523-8733; laduree.com G

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GUIDE devour

Pomme Palais fruit tarts are artful representations of a French favorite.

Sweet Talk ENJOY THESE TREATS ON VALENTINE’S DAY—AND EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR. BY CHRISTINA PELLEGRINI

Yes, the cronut may be one of New York’s top dessert fads, but the hoopla surrounding this new hybrid is no reason to forgo Dominique Ansel’s other pastry delights, like his custardy canelé de Bordeaux and the black and blue Pavlova with blackberries. Fans of Ansel’s treats include Jerry Seinfeld, Tina Fey, and Hugh Jackman. On Valentine’s Day, almost every item in the shop is baked, frosted, or dusted pink, and the veteran Daniel Boulud chef will turn out a festive religieuse—a crème-filled stack of two choux pastries frosted to look like Cupid with a heart-shaped arrow and wings. 189 Spring St., 212-219-2773; dominiqueansel.com

FP Patisserie Culinary legend François Payard started at his grandfather’s Riviera pâtisserie and later finessed his pastry skills at Manhattan gastronomic temples Le Bernadin and

Daniel. His flagship, which doles out chocolates, macarons, and viennoiseries (pain au chocolat and the like), opened just over a year ago on the Upper East Side and was an instant hit. Try the top-selling Louvre—a hazelnut and chocolate mousse dacquoise cake—or the George V, a confection fit for a royal, with dark chocolate coating a vanilla and chocolate mousse, and a roasted peanut and salted caramel core. 1293 Third Ave., 212-717-5252; fppatisserie.com

Lady M Confections Lady M’s intricate masterpieces take center stage at this white minimalist jewel box, which is the baker’s original boutique, having opened in 2001 (there are now stores in Singapore and Los Angeles). Here the French pastries are as gorgeous as they are delicious, which is no doubt why Martha Stewart and Jason Wu are longtime fans. Favorites include the flan aux pommes, gateau

SNAP, CRACKLE, AND POP

fromage, and 20-layer mille crêpes cake in such flavors as citron, chocolate, and coconut. 41 E. 78th St.; 1 W. 59th St.; 36 W. 40th St., 212-452-2222; ladym.com

Momofuku Milk Bar Asian fusion restaurateur David Chang brings unique yet addictive flavor combos to the dessert course at his ever-popular Milk Bars. Wes Anderson, Jimmy Fallon, and Karlie Kloss are fans of the cheekily named Crack Pie, so labeled for the addictive nature of its secret brown sugar and butter filling. Winter creations include the pumpkin ganache and graham cracker layered cake, the mintcookies-and-cream-cheese cake, and a decadent apple blondie pie. 251 E. 13th St.; 15 W. 56th St.; 561 Columbus Ave., 347-5779504; milkbarstore.com

Ô Merveilleux Belgian merveilleux cakes—layers of meringue topped with whipped

Treat House’s reimagined Rice Krispies desserts.

Treat House serves up Rice Krispies–based sweets. Treat House, which opened in August, riffs on a familiar childhood favorite, the Rice Krispies treat. The Kellogg’s creation gets reinvented at this Amsterdam Avenue store, with flavors including caramel sea salt, chocolate peanut butter, and red velvet topped with chocolate hearts (debuting this February). Also to try: the store’s homemade marshmallows with a mug of hot cocoa. Co-owners (and husband and wife) Chris and Jennifer Russell say that for every dessert sold, Treat House donates 10 cents to the Food Bank for New York City to help put an end to hunger. 452 Amsterdam Ave., 212-799-7779; treathouse.com

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cream—are a recent trendster favorite. Find them at this Upper East Side Belgian bakery, which makes merveilleux with white or dark chocolate, as well as one flavored with speculoos—shortcrust cookies baked with aromatic spices. The shop offers brioches and other confections as well. 1509 Second Ave., 646-681-8688; omerveilleux.com

Pomme Palais Chef Michel Richard has counted presidents and celebrities as fans, but boldfacer approval alone can’t guarantee success in this city’s competitive culinary environment. However, Richard’s Pomme Palais (the name is a French twist on the city’s moniker, the Big Apple, and the bakery’s location, the New York Palace hotel) is sure to make its mark with such sweet and savory sensations as Gruyère gougères, white chocolate and lemon curd “eggceptionals,” tuile cookies, and artfully designed éclairs. 30 E. 51st St., 212-303-7755; newyorkpalace.com

Sugar and Plumm Sweets emporium Sugar and Plumm produces a wide range of sugary creations, from crème brûlée cookies to ebelskivers, best described as Danish pancake bonbons (available only at the downtown location). The candy-colored shop was modeled after a Parisian pâtisserie by design luminary David Rockwell and has drawn in names like Katie Holmes, Blake Lively, and Brooke Burke. 377 Amsterdam Ave., 212-7878778; 257 Bleecker St., 212388-5757; sugarandplumm.com G

PHOTOGRAPHY BY NOAH FECKS (TREAT HOUSE). OPPOSITE: BRAD CHAFFIN (CAFÉ GRUMPY)

Dominique Ansel

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GUIDE imbibe

The Daily Grind WHERE JAVA-LOVING NEW YORKERS GET THEIR FIX.

Blue Bottle Coffee With a mission to serve the freshest coffee—at Blue Bottle, roasted beans never sit for more than 48 hours—this Oakland, California, producer has expanded east with four Manhattan cafés and a Brooklyn roastery. In the Milk Building café in Chelsea, you’ll find the minimalist, six-seat siphon bar, modeled after Japanese coffee bars. Focusing on hand-brewed coffee, the locale uses a futuristic-looking Japanese invention affixed with halogen burners and glass globes to brew a near-perfect cup of java. High Line at W. 16th St.; 450 W. 15th St.; 1 Rockefeller Plaza; 600 11th Ave., 510-6533394; bluebottlecoffee.com

Bluestone Lane Coffee An Australian import (like Bluebird), this Melbourneinspired brand has outposts in Midtown and the Financial District (a third is scheduled to open this year). Australian media legend Ray Martin and ex-Australian rules football star Shane Woewodin are some of the names who come for Down Under – style offerings. The most ordered item is the flat white—a double ristretto shot with textured, not frothed, milk. The Vegemite toast makes a bona fide Aussie breakfast. 805 Third Ave., 212-888-8848;

30 Broad St., 646-684-3771; bluestonelaneny.com

Café Grumpy Immortalized by the HBO series Girls, Café Grumpy transplants its Brooklyn hipster vibe to Chelsea, the Fashion District, and the Lower East Side. Next door to the LES address is the brand’s bakery, which churns out homemade seasonal sweets like black pepper and cardamom banana bread and salted caramel– raspberry brownies. This February, look for a special coffee, Las Flores, from noted green coffee producer César Fernández. All Grumpy beans are roasted locally at the original Greenpoint location. 13 Essex St., 212-260-3454; 224 W. 20th St., 212-255-5511; 200 W. 39th St., 646-449-8747; cafegrumpy.com

Caffe Lavazza Housed in the always buzzing Eataly in the Flatiron District, Caffe Lavazza is the place for an espresso made the Italian way. Would Eataly owners Mario Batali and Joe and Lidia Bastianich allow anything but the real thing in their emporium of all things Italian? The brand, founded by Luigi Lavazza in 1895, is famous for its handpicked house blend, with a particularly smooth flavor. Late last year, Lavazza introduced specialty drip coffee blends, in taste profiles

BY CHRISTINA PELLEGRINI

medium (Gran Aroma and Classico), dark (Gran Selezione), and espresso roast (Perfetto), all available by the bag. 200 Fifth Ave., 212-229-2560; eataly.com

La Colombe You’d expect Jake Gyllenhaal’s favorite Tribeca coffee shop to be cause-driven, and La Colombe most definitely is, working with coffee-growing communities in Africa to provide clean water and basic necessities for orphaned children. The beans are sourced from far-flung locations each season, with single-origin blends available from Panama, Guatemala, Mexico, Ethiopia, Thailand, and Haiti. The Noho location is home to a $15,000 Alpha Dominche Steampunk, which can replicate any coffee-brewing process, all in one machine. 319 Church St., 212-343-1515; 270 Lafayette St., 212-625-1717; 400 Lafayette St., 212-677-5834; lacolombe.com

Sant Ambroeus The third New York outpost of this storied Milanese café and eatery recently opened in Soho—good news for the downtown crowd, who now have an alternative to the San Ambroeus on West Fourth Street. That locale became a semi-club for chic Euros, and undoubtedly this new spot will as well. You’ll find Sant Ambroeus’s signature frothy cappuccinos, richly flavored espressos, flaky cornettos, and almond-flavored veneziani here, perfect for a light breakfast or midmorning snack. (Lunch and dinner are served as well.) 265 Lafayette St., 212-966-2770; santambroeus.com G Café Grumpy espresso alongside a salted caramel and raspberry brownie.

Paramount Hotel’s coffee bar.

CAFFE, PREGO Midtown’s caffeine addicts turn to Corso Coffee. A bustling coffee bar inside the Paramount Hotel, Corso Coffee produces an authentic, hand-blended, wood-roasted espresso from a 1949 recipe, “to ensure a full body and crema,” says John Meadow, a cofounder of LDV Hospitality, who developed the café. Orlando Bloom and Gerard Butler have been spotted here, as well as actors in nearby Broadway productions who come for the espresso and bomboloni, mini Italian jam-filled doughnuts dusted with sugar. In addition to creamy cappuccinos and lattes, warm up on frigid February days with a drink from Corso’s new hot chocolate program, which includes a nutrient-packed quinoa-cacao blend. 235 W. 46th St., 646-7386447; ldvhospitality.com

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and Finally ... Now Hear This W

hile most New Yorkers are feeling housebound and itchy for any sign of spring, I relish the confines of indoor spaces and the opportunity to indulge in my delicious vice: eavesdropping. When confronted with overly packed elevators on Wall Street, squooshed tables at Michael’s, or a dressing room at Bergdorf’s, my ears start to wiggle with rapture at the potential. Since age 13, when I was caught eavesdropping—evidently unable to disguise my curiosity—I’ve claimed my nosiness. So when a cell phone user shouts, “Can you hear me now?” I gleefully think, “You bet I can.” Unfortunately, this behavior comes with a caveat: Those who listen in are just as likely to be listened to. And with voices loud enough to carry over trucks and traffic, it seems New Yorkers have become totally indiscreet. While lunching at Fred’s and enjoying my gooey omelet, I overheard a woman share that her eggs were still viable and could be frozen until she met the right man. I assumed she wasn’t talking poultry, but for sure my runny entrée became less appealing. Equally distasteful, a lobby conversation among UES mothers, discussing travel plans, that fell silent when one dropped a remark about her kids never flying commercial—raising the question of what to do with overheard info when you can’t slug someone. Fortunately for my designer cousin, David Cheng, an elevator ride at our city’s courthouse with lawyers injudiciously discussing a case got him excused when the judge asked if anyone had a legitimate reason for not serving jury duty and he was able to respond with what he had overheard. However, years ago, while peddling my stationary bike at Sports Training Institute and semi-listening to real estate titan Sam LeFrak and venture capitalist Alan Patricof dishing industry gossip, I chose to ignore their conversation; perhaps I knew enough about insider trading or was too dopey to appreciate what I was hearing.

Between Twitter feeds like GS (Goldman Sachs) Elevator Gossip and websites like Overheard in New York, it seems we’re always listening in. But despite this knowledge, we forget that our voices carry until it’s too late. Will Schwalbe, author of The End of Your Life Book Club and a former high-profile book editor, was dishing with a fellow publisher on the Acela. At their arrival in DC, Schwalbe remembers, “A passenger seated behind us enthusiastically thanked us for the information he’d overheard, because he too was going to the same publishing conference and had learned a lot.” Whoops. Of course, there can be legitimate reasons for eavesdropping. Joyce Bodig, who coordinates concerts at The Frick and also teaches English to foreign students, actually encourages them to eavesdrop, claiming, “It’s a fun way for students to pick up English and learn our New Yawkeze dialects.” Finally, a legitimate excuse! Until I’m forced to use an ear trumpet, my audio feed will operate as a sonar system, rotating silently until I pick up something delicious. Hopefully I won’t react, knowing the response from butting in isn’t likely to be positive, especially in a city where four-letter expletives are used even by Birkintoting socialites. But it’s tough to show restraint. At my celebrity dentists-to-the-stars, Lowenberg Lituchy & Kantor, I overheard Paul McCartney in the next room say something like, “Don’t tell anyone, please,” which made me want to rip the drool suction thingie out of my mouth and listen in. A missed opportunity, but I can’t afford to alienate my dentist just to fuel my habit. G

ILLUSTRATION BY DANIEL O’LEARY

MIX COLD WEATHER WITH CELL-PHONE UBIQUITY AND YOU GET THE PERFECT RECIPE FOR EAVESDROPPING. BY BETSY F. PERRY

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