NY Times, July 29, 2007
Boîte
A Discerning New Regime
By VICTORIA DE SILVERIO
Socialista
505 West Street; (212) 929-4303
GETTING IN Jedi-mind-trick the doorman, have “great energy.”
DRESS CODE Short dresses, skirts or shorts with heels for women; jacket
over T-shirt for men.
SIGHTINGS Eva Mendez, Sting.
SIGNATURE DRINK Socialista (vodka, fresh citrus, spiced syrup), $16.
HANGING on a wall of Socialista, a new West Village lounge fashioned
after a rustic Cuban bar, is a striking black-and-white snapshot. Taken
in Cuba in 1959, it shows a relaxed Fidel Castro sitting next to a
fresh-faced Lauren Bacall. As strikingly incongruous as Henry Kissinger
and Mick Jagger mingling at Studio 54, the photo’s glamorous randomness
encapsulates the bar’s aspirations.
“In a perfect world, socialism means everyone is equal,” said the club’s
owner, Armin Amiri, who spent five years buffing and rebuffing egos
while manning the door at Bungalow 8.
He’s recruited the TV producer Ben Silverman, Harvey Weinstein and Sting
and his wife, Trudie Styler, to invest, and Giuseppe Cipriani to create
the menu for Socialista’s ground-floor restaurant. And though Mr. Amiri
admits that gaining entrance to the upstairs lounge is a long shot for
most, he says that once you are inside, celebrity and money hold no
special privilege. “If they come, fine, but there is no baby-sitting
here,” he said.
Indeed, the hard knocks of elitism built on equality were on view on a
recent Friday night. Loads of fancy-dressed hopefuls, arriving in
chauffeured BMWs, S.U.V.’s and limousines, were turned away. “I have a
bicycle,” Mr. Amiri said. “I don’t care what car you drive. It’s all
about energy, attitude and personal style.”
Referencing 1940s Havana, the airy second-floor space is Spanish
Colonial on decline, crumbling but stately. Huge arched windows
fashioned with perfectly worn shutters and stained glass allow views of
the Hudson. An assortment of mismatched chairs, buttery soft leather
couches, an antique chandelier, slowly turning ceiling fans and a wooden
chess set give Socialista a clubby salon feel.
Three young women who confessed they “know no one” danced alongside the
celebrity hairdresser Ric Pipino and members of the Cuban house band.
Elsewhere, a girl took a pouting self-portrait before passing the camera
to a friend. “Here, take another,” she said, pulling the neck of her
vintage T-shirt to her navel.
Bouncing on the fringes was Ben Pundole, the director of night life and
entertainment for Morgans Hotel Group, who recently celebrated his
birthday at Socialista. “Here’s an analogy,” he said. “When I go to the
beach I go to Montauk, never the Hamptons — there it’s just pretentious.
Socialista is like Montauk.”
