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WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
Here’s a toast to the legendary restaurateur Jean-Marc Houmard this year celebrating 38 years since the dawn of his perennially chic Indochine and surrounded by the latest exotic polyglot staff the brand is famous for.
PHOTO BY ROXANNE LOWIT
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WELCOME TO THE UNGLE
THE TIMELESS ALLURE OF INDOCHINE
BY GEORGE WAYNE
The fashion imperials still keep coming back: Tom Ford, Anna Wintour, and Edward Enninful. The early adaptors - Warhol & Haring made Indochine their hang from the very first night it opened.
ON THE MAGICAL NIGHTTHAT INDOCHINE first opened its doors in October of 1984, Andy Warhol showed up looking like the coolest Hell’s Angel Daddy on the planet.
Although sporting one of his 100 or so signature fright wigs and familiar horn-rim spectacles,Andy upped the va-va-voom that night with a classic thick black turtleneck jumper and a racy leather motorcycle jacket.
He took along his new discovery. The still very much wideeyed, pre-dreadlocked, Jean-Michel Basquiat sheepishly looked like he’d just left classes at Dalton Prep School to sneak downtown to party with Andy Warhol.
‘‘THE ‘90S WERE ALL ABOUT NAOMI, Julian Schnabel was still with LINDA, KATE, KARA, GAIL, CHRISTY AND his first wife Jacqueline, and STEPHANIE CAROUSING OVER BASKETS Kenny Scharf looked crazier OF SUMMER ROLLS AND LYCHEE than Caddyshack Bill Murray MARTINIS AT INDOCHINE.’’ 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,Indochineis 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 ‘IndochineStories: Shaken Yet another iconic image- Grace Jones and Stirred (2009). demanding attention at the Don’t Bungle The Jungle benefit, May 1989, hosted by Madonna and Kenny Scharf. And true to form, here was Calvin still causing the room to stir. PHOTO BY ROXANNE LOWIT The night before, another legend, Faye
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
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 againIndochineis the place to eat, drink and see and be seen.
So, to say thatIndochineremains 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 atIndochine.
And where Andy went-- everyone else followed.
Who else but Dame Anna Wintour to sum up theIndochinemystique.
It was Anna and the original ‘supers’ (supermodels) who burnished the legend and the joie de vivre of dinner atIndochineall 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 atIndochineto 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 atIndochine.
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-
The full flourish of this inimitable boudoir with its signature Martiniquais banana frond wallpaper and the host with the most (JMH) at the helm of the still-thehottest restaurant in NYC since 1992 and still runs the show 30 years and counting.
PHOTO BY PATRICK MCMULLAN
nana frond applique wallpaper to the classic lacquered aubergine-green banquettes. The rattan furniture and potted palms are still everywhere, as arethe exotic staff and the legendary owner Jean-Marc Houmard, who is still very much in his own unassuming fashion -- the master of all he surveys. He was the one who led the troika that bought Indochine from Brian McNally in 1992.
Chef Hui Chi Le was a Vietnamese refugee who put down his total life savings to get that lease from Brian McNally in his name and to create the now-signature menu.
And the busboy-cum-restaurant manager from Switzerland, who Brian first hired in 1985, found a third investor in Michael Callahan.
The astute troika then corralled a franchise now fully certified as one of the most iconic restaurants in New York City.
From the ‘Aughts through the 2010sIndochine was the roost of the celebrated Paris fashion emigre diva Carine Roitfeld and her cabinet.
She muscled in and amped up the chic and heightened the snob appeal.
And through it all, the Downtown legends like Joey Arias, Amanda Lepore, Dianne Brill, and Susanne Bartsch have made sure to keep the love and loyalty flag flying high.
‘’It only gets cooler as it ages,’’ was the fashion designer Anna Sui being prescient from way
C.T. Hedden (far left) manns the front of the room with panache and professionalismand is the one to know to get the best banquette! He gathers his gorgeous and professional staff for team meetings every afternoon where they are often quizzed on the inner workings, and machinations of brand Indochine.
PHOTO BY PATRICK MCMULLAN
back in 2009.
Indochine was born with an aura and chic and glamorous celebrity and it couldn’t have a better Daddy to keep her flawless and wellmaintained as it does in Jean-Marc Houmard.
He first discovered Indochine in 1985 when his roommate and best friend, Belinda Becker, took him there for the first time.
‘’It was a revelation!’’ He is fond of exclaiming.
And clearly, it had to have been because he has remained ever since!
‘’Indochine is still ripe--like a great movie star,’’ some blogger quipped online recently.
And now- more than ever-- it is once again the hardest restaurant to get a table in Greenwich Village.
So, what better time to celebrate the timeless allure ofIndochine.P
