vip in the city

A peek at the A-List

Just returned from Bravo’s “A-List Awards” show at the Hammerstein Ballroom. I will reserve most of my commentary for after the show’s airing next Thursday, June 12, but in the meantime, here are a few of our photos from the evening. Red carpet arrivals here.

Host Kathy Griffin, channeling Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys. (Check out a brief clip of her show opening performance here.)

Top Chef contingent (+ Project Runway Season 1 winner Jay McCarroll):

Project Runway Season 4 winner (and new Brooklynite) Christian Siriano and Tim Gunn. So we meet again!:

Molly Sims:

A bizarrely loopy Lauren Hutton (more on this later — wow) and Top Chef‘s Padma Lakshmi:

Tyson Beckford and Saturday Night Live alum Rachel Dratch:

Stylist and future Bravo reality star Rachel Zoe and Tim Gunn:

Tags: A-List, awards, Bravo, Hammerstein Ballroom, Kathy Griffin, midtown

Bravo A-List Awards

More from the Bravo A-List Awards, celebrating “the best in food, fashion, design, beauty, and pop culture.”

A-List Actor (Female) winner, Dana Delaney (Desperate Housewives):

Anna Sui, winner for “A-List Fashion,” presented to a fashion designer who has proven to be a tried and true trendsetter and tastemaker. Sui beat out Tory Burch, Zac Posen and Proenza Schouler(!)

Despite the clunkiness of the execution, this was probably my favorite segment: the Quick Fire competition between Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio and “A-List Chef” winner Jose Andres. They each whipped up two dishes — on stage — which host Kathy Griffin “dropped” before reaching the panel of TC alum judges.

Real Housewives face off!

To close out the awards ceremony, there was a charity fashion show (benefiting UNICEF) featuring “celebrities” strutting outfits designed for them by Project Runway alums: Candace Bushnell and season 2 designer Daniel Franco, Holly Kiser and season 4 finalist Chris March, Kathy Griffin and season 2 designer Nick Verreos, Katrina Smirnoff and season 3 finalist and “Fan Favorite” Michael Knight, Kat Von D and season 4 finalist Sweet P, Niki Taylor and season 3 finalist Laura Bennett, Nikki Blonsky and season 3 designer Malan Breton, Rebecca Budig and season 3 designer Alison Kelly.

Tags: A-List, awards, Bravo, Hammerstein Ballroom, midtown

The ladies from Lyons

There are few things SYB enjoys more than assisting tourists: hardly a week goes by without his proactively offering directions to bewildered-looking foreigners. German speakers, in particular, will capture his attention… as will fetching French women, as was the case with RM’s guests, whom we met at his St. Patrick’s Day soirée in Sunnyside. MB and JA were in town for just over a week, and fortunate I think to have such attentive and enthusiastic boosters for New York City at their disposal.

I crossed paths with the touring trio on Sixth Avenue, as they were heading into the MoMA to take advantage of Target Free Friday Nights when museum admission is complimentary from 4–8PM. All other times, it’s a rather steep $20, which explains this insane queue for entry.

So despite the fact that my MoMA membership card would earn me line-jumping privileges, I knew that every single one of these people would make it inside the museum eventually, and I didn’t particularly want to be there when they did. Not when I could check out the acclaimed “Design and the Elastic Mind” exhibit any other time… through May 12, anyway.

I met up with SYB, MB and JA a couple of hours later at Amazing 66, where we gave our visitors an authentic taste of Chinatown. Tonight’s menu overlapped much of the Mardi Gras meal -– with the short rib-stuffed pumpkin and steamed whole flounder the unqualified hits of the night — but in the excitement of feasting, I neglected to order the “Salad Walnut Prawns” — sorry, HYB! Afterwards, the nine of us made the obligatory post-dinner visit to the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory around the corner.

After the couples took their leave, it was up to the B brothers and me to plan out the rest of our evening. The night was still young, but, as it turned out, so were our guests; JA was a couple weeks shy of her 21st birthday, which strictly limited our options. Three native New Yorkers, and not one of us could immediately think of a place to spend a Friday night that did not involve drinking, or that at least required guests to be of drinking age. Embarrassing, actually – and a testament to how very long it had been since any of us had to take such matters into consideration.

I remembered what fun we’d had at J’s birthday celebration in December, and suggested Fat Cat Billiards on Christopher, both for its live music and its low-key vibe. Under 21 welcome! The $3 cover got us into the basement saloon, stocked with pool and ping pong tables, shufflepuck and foosball (“baby-foot” in France, I learned), chess and board games galore. The women, though, seemed most entranced by the live performances, and the well-over-21 among us were more than happy to settle into the worn couches for the next couple of hours to catch the sets by The Gospel Queens of Brooklyn and one very talented jazz octet.

Tags: Amazing 66, Chinatown, Fat Cat Billiards, jazz, midtown, MoMA, West Village