DINING
The iconic image from Indochine opening night in 1984 when Warhol led the charge with Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jacqueline and Julian Schnabel and Kenny Scharf. PHOTO BY ROXANNE LOWIT
Julian Schnabel was still with his first wife Jacqueline, and Kenny Scharf looked crazier than Caddyshack Bill Murray in a florid patchwork red shirt, an equally garish paisley jacket and chartreuse green pants that clashed with the now-iconic Inodchine wallpaper that opening night. Almost 38 years to the date that Brian McNally and John Loeffler staged that unforgettable opening night party to debut Downtown’s then hot new restaurant across from The Public Theater,Indochine is still popping! And still at the height of being the coolest face-place in New York City. So, there was GW at the bar one breezy summer night a few weeks ago and quickly realized that I couldn’t have chosen a better night for reconnaissance. Yes, that was Calvin Klein dining with a group of three from Banquette #1. It was as if he hadn’t left since opening night! ‘’As soon as Indochine opened we made it our hangout,’’ he blithely quipped in the eponymous Rizzoli book ‘Indochine Stories: Shaken and Stirred (2009). And true to form, here was Calvin still causing the room to stir. The night before, another legend, Faye
‘‘THE ‘90S WERE ALL ABOUT NAOMI, LINDA, KATE, KARA, GAIL, CHRISTY AND STEPHANIE CAROUSING OVER BASKETS OF SUMMER ROLLS AND LYCHEE MARTINIS AT INDOCHINE.’’
Yet another iconic image- Grace Jones demanding attention at the Don’t Bungle The Jungle benefit, May 1989, hosted by Madonna and Kenny Scharf. PHOTO BY ROXANNE LOWIT
Dunaway drew admiring glances all night from Banquette #3. And two nights after that, Christie’s staged a fortuitous boisterous celebration the night before Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn portrait shot to fame as the most expensive 20th Century work of art ever sold at auction. It just seems that once again Indochine is the place to eat, drink and see and be seen. So, to say that Indochine remains the coolest restaurant hot spot in New York City, now 38 years on, would be a mere understatement. It also remains the definitive Downtown stomping ground now for two generations and counting. Pop Culture historians could do a doctoral thesis on NYC onThe Generation of Cool and not visit anywhere else. From that opening night in 1984 through their deaths in 1987/1988, the Warhol/Basquiat cabal practically ate and drank and made merry every night at Indochine. And where Andy went-- everyone else followed. ‘’It’s a fashionable restaurant that has never been subject to the vagaries of fashion.’’ Who else but Dame Anna Wintour to sum up the Indochine mystique. It was Anna and the original ‘supers’ (supermodels) who burnished the legend and the joie de vivre of dinner at Indochine all through the post-Warhol/Basquiat era. When Anna staged the 50th birthday party for her Vogue peer Grace Coddington she made sure that every supermodel in the world was at Indochine to kiss her ring. The ‘90s were all about Naomi, Linda, Kate, Kara, Gail, Christy and Stephanie carousing over baskets of Summer Rolls and Lychee Martinis at Indochine. The red-light district boudoir you feel on entry still sets the mood as you lift off from Astor Place and into that timeless decor and aesthete here, from the Martinique green ba-
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6/21/22 11:59 PM