What time is your flight to Miami? Is it Wednesday night? Are you going to make it in time for the opening of “Happy Endings,” the show Vito Schnabel put together for the Bruce High Quality Foundation in the ballroom of the W South Beach (pool area pictured above) ? Word is that there’s also going to be a special post-exhibit BBQ and party with Theo Wenner deejaying. “I think it’s great that Aby [Rosen] and the W are enthusiastic about working with younger artists,” says Schnabel. “I think people don’t know exactly who they are or what they are, and I’m excited to put their work to the name,” he says of the foundation. “It’s a lot of people, not one artist. For example, it could be four people who come up with the idea and 60 people who install the show. They have interesting momentum around them. I’m excited to share them with everyone else.” We can’t wait.    

We also want to peek at the works Rosen’s lent to the W, such as George Condo’s “Untitled (Sir Alfred Chipmunk) from 1996 (above) and Damien Hirst’s Zinc Sulfinate (2002). “The juxtaposition is much more interesting, and it’s appropriate to the economic climate,” says Rosen of having Schnabel’s installation near pieces from his private collection.”  

Missed the earlier flight? Schnabel’s show is open late if you want to come by another night. Arrival time aside, maybe you’re already booked Wednesday for Larry Gagosian’s private affair at the Mr. Chow.? The two are close by, no? You may just find yourself at the W (again) on Thursday for Aby Rosen, Peter Brant, and Alberto Mugrabi’s private dinner at Solea. Late night, Vito Schnabel, Alex Dellal, and Stavros Niarchos will host the afterparty at Wall.  

Rumor has it that Peter Dundas will be at beloved emporium the Webster for an intimate dinner, as well. You just might sleep over and hang out with always stylish Webster co-owner Laure Heriard Dubreuil, because Viktor & Rolf’s cocktail and dinner is there at Caviar Kaspia on Friday.  

That night, there is also a cocktail, dinner, and after-party at Casa Tua hosted by Moncler’s Remo Ruffini in honor of Pharrell Williams and the special-edition vests he designed for the house—plus a book party for Bruce Weber at the Standard.  

Meanwhile, at the hotel pool (pictured above), there will be a concert by Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols. Don’t stay out too late, though, as Saturday night is the Webster’s cocktail in honor of Joseph Altuzarra. We also hear word of Le Baron every night at Delano’s Florida Room for after-parties . . . also the rooftop and Louis at the Gansevoort.  

Of course, it’s never just about the events, but also enjoying the city. All the girls love Joe’s Stone Crab (this week’s It girl, Danielle Corona, likes to ride her bike there) and Nobu at the Shore Club—to name a few. For going out? Wall at the W and Bardot in the Design District. Need some shopping? For furniture, Glo, Stripe, and Gustavo Olivieri Antiques (“It has the most amazing furniture,” says Miami regular Azie Fritz) and C. Madeleine is a must for vintage.  Everyone loves Tomas Maier, and—it goes without saying—the Webster.    

—Stephanie LaCava

PHOTOS BY PATRICK McMULLAN

One night last week, if you’d found yourself on the eastern end of 57th Street in Manhattan, become intrigued by a few serious-looking paparazzi at the entrance of Mr. Chow, and bluffed your way past two women with clipboards, you might have been able to figure out what you’d gotten yourself into—the 30th-anniversary party for the restaurant—with just a little deduction. Your first clue could have been the disco-heavy D.J.’ing (Ring My Bell, Electric Avenue) or the period details (pinky rings, unbuttoned shirts, dyed bobs) of more than a few male guests. Or it could have come from a quick architectural scan.

Part of Michael Chow’s mini-chain of Chinese restaurants, the 57th Street branch looks like a perfect specimen of splashy late-70s décor. The split-level space is laid out like a compact dance club, designed for drama and people watching. On the ground floor, at the bottom of a wide, ego-building flight of stairs, sits a mirrored and lacquered dining room, which is edged by black banquettes. Perched at street level is a dark alcove bar, decorated with a large, klieg-light-like lamp and a vase of lilies. But if, the other night, you still weren’t sure what you were doing there, you could have headed to a cluster of little black doors and entered the one to the ladies’ room to observe a flashy marble coffee table and a huge chunk of display quartz. Or you could have followed Michael Chow, as I did, behind another black door to the quiet of a cramped utility closet.

There, wearing a peach-colored corduroy suit and his usual black, thick-rimmed round glasses, Chow seated himself on an overturned bucket to discuss the history and philosophies of the dining room. “When we first opened, 30 years ago,” he began, “I think Hubert Givenchy said, ‘Oh, this is like a jewelry box.’ The [Mr. Chow] we just opened in South Beach, three months ago, that’s a huge restaurant. Very, very beautiful. We have a chandelier in there like 125 feet. But when we first opened [in New York], this was adequate. It was in a sort of off-beat location, between Second and First [Avenues], a destination. No one is passing by. At lunchtime, there’s no one here. Well, I want them to come to me.”

Buoyed in the beginning by the reputation of the first Mr. Chow, which opened in London in 1968, the 57th Street location has attracted several waves of clientele, but it’s best known for a heyday in the 80s. “It started with fashion,” Chow said, “then evolved to one of the great art scenes, with Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, all the names—Julian Schnabel, Keith Haring, et cetera. Then, the [90s were] all the rap music, all the hip-hop, they all came.

“The people in our restaurant, they really love it. But generally speaking—I can guarantee you—all children love it. First of all, they like the space, it’s very harmonious. And also the food is very true, not exaggerated [or] over-designed. You need harmony, you know, so you can come back to eating it all the time. So you get addicted. Think about tomorrow, think about the future. I left China when I was very young, and I always wanted to make Chinese people and Chinese culture—which I feel is the greatest in the world—respected, to perfect it, and I’ve sort of made myself self-appointed ambassador. At the moment, you have Nobu representing Japan, you have Cipriani representing Italy, and Jean-Georges representing France, and Mr. Chow, internationally speaking, representing China.”

Back outside the closet, things were functioning relatively harmoniously. Some of the older partygoers had begun to dance to the disco, and waiters circulated trays with simple piles of unexaggerated appetizers (fried lumps of lobster, condiment-less potstickers, shrimp toast, and Mr. Chow’s famous orange-colored skewered chicken with peanut sauce). There were a few glimmers of late-70s decadence—some gender transgression, when a man stormed into the ladies’ room and used it (to the revulsion of socialite Olivia Palermo)—and of 80s glamour, in the form of Brooke Shields and Cindy Adams. Bill Cunningham, The New York Times’s longtime fashion photographer, took pictures, with film. But most of the restaurant’s famous regulars failed to show up for the reunion.

It was the young guests, such as Terence Koh (an artist known for, among other things, gilding his excrement) and fashion designers Thakoon Panichgul and Erin Fetherston, who added some old-time edge. And a few of them, it turned out, also had some history with the restaurant. “I haven’t been to this location, but I’ve been a lot in Tribeca and Los Angeles,” said Fetherston, who’s a friend of China Chow, Michael’s daughter. “China is such a sweetheart. Of course everyone in the restaurant knows her, and we get the most amazing dining experience. Oh my god! China knows how to order everything. But that Peking duck is incredible.”

Actress Mischa Barton, wearing a floor-length, 70s-style floral dress, was another long-time Mr. Chow enthusiast. “I love this place,” she said. “When I was growing up, [I’d go to] this location. Now that I’m older, I live right near the other one, downtown. I love the chicken lettuce cups and the seaweed salad and the chicken sticks with peanut sauce, and, like, everything. I get everything. You have no idea. It’s an obsession! I dream about the chicken lettuce cups. I dream about the chicken sticks. It’s crazy. I get a craving for it.”

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MICHAEL & EVA CHOW

MISCHA BARTON & EVA CHOW 

“Michael and Eva Chow celebrate 30 years in New York at their uptown outpost”

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

(NEW YORK) “I’m normally down there eating,” said DJ Cassidy from his upstairs booth at Mr.Chow 30th anniversary bash last night. “Today I feel like I’m feeding everyone with some music soul food.” He wasn’t kidding. For its big birthday party, Michael and Eva Chow opted out of an expected, intimate lavish dinner. Instead, they cleared out the uptown restaurant’s furniture, invited Cassidy to spin, turned up the volume, and made sure people were dancing–at least for one night. “I’m almost never uptown,” said Thakoon Panichgul. “But this sure doesn’t feel stuffy.”

The busy hosts had a lot of well-wishers to attend to. Mischa Barton, Mary Boone, Daniel Benedict and Andrew Saffir, John Demsey, Terrence Koh, Helen and Tim Schifter, and Hamish Bowles were just a few of the faces who sipped champagne and gobbled up Beijing-inspired treats that ranged from dumplings to shrimp toasts to lobster. “I feel as if we opened yesterday,” smiled Michael Chow. “It was a dream! And I probably only look young because it’s all done with mirrors, but let’s hope for another 30.”

As for his favorite memories? “This was always an artist haven,” the owner proudly pointed out. “We always promoted artists of all types, whether they were painters, classical musicians, or actors. Andy was here all time and so was Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. And they didn’t like to leave!” Brooke Shields had her own mementos. “I’ve been sitting at these tables since I was basically a child,” she shared. “I don’t think I could say the same thing about my own dining room!”

-VALENTINE UHOVSKI

PHOTOS BY STEVE EICHNER

CHINA CHOW & MICHAEL CHOW

EVA CHOW & BROOKE SHIELDS

CHINA CHOW

MISCHA BARTON

MICHAEL CHOW & TONY SHAFRAZI

“I didn’t realize so many people would come so early,” said Eva Chow as guests poured through the door of her husband’s namesake eatery a few minutes after 8 o’clock. But it was a party-packed night, and they wanted to come by to pay their respects for the 30th anniversary of the iconic Chinese restaurant.

Mischa Barton, Mary Boone, Marjorie Gubelman, Thakoon Panichgul and artists Terrence Koh and Andres Serrano were among those who crammed into the place, along with a host of restaurant regulars. Guests seemed focused on one thing: chasing down waiters bearing trays of hors d’oeuvres versions of Chow staples like chicken satay, fried lobster, oysters in the shell and plenty of dumplings, as those at the balcony bar looked on.

“Wait, you mean I have to go down to the dance floor to get something to eat?” said Jefferson Hack, who was hanging out with Andre and Purple’s Olivier Zahm. (He didn’t — luckily a waiter swooped to the rescue with prawn toasts.)

Meanwhile, Brooke Shields was reliving history. “Keith Haring took me to dinner and we sat right there,” she said, pointing to a corner banquette. “He gave me a painting. It was the last time I ever saw him.”

“I remember Paul McCartney banging out ‘Back in the USSR’ on a table right after he wrote the song,” said Michael Chow, who also fondly reminisced about Mae West, Andy Warhol and the many hip-hop artists who made the restaurant their clubhouse.

“My original vision was to promote Chinese culture, and make sure that the Chinese people are represented well,” explained Michael Chow. “Fortunately, it’s been a big hit.”

PHOTOS BY MICHAEL LOCCISANO

MICHAEL & EVA CHOW

What: Michael and Eva Chow’s blowout to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Upper East Side chapter of the Mr. Chow empire.

Where: Mr. Chow, 324 East 57th Street.

Who: Brooke Shields, Cindy Adams, Hamish Bowles, Glenda Bailey, Olivier Zahm, Jefferson Hack, Terence Koh, Thakoon Panichgul, Mischa Barton, Andres Serrano, Beth Rudin deWoody, Derek Lam, Erin Fetherston, Celerie Kemble, China Chow, Daniel Benedict, Andrew Saffir, Euan Rellie, Hal Rubenstein, Helen and Tim Schifter, John Dempsey, Kevin Brown, Larry Gagosian, Mary Boone, Tony Shafrazi, Alejandro Santo Domingo and the Asian pop sensation J.Y.

Party favors: Chef Li Hong served up salt and pepper lobster, Beijing oysters, chicken satay, steamed vegetable dumplings, pot stickers and prawn toast, all washed down with generous amounts of Laurent Perrier Champagne; music by DJ Cassidy, who had even Michael Chow cutting a rug to his rare grooves and shameless dance-floor fillers.

Overheard:
“I’ve been practicing my Michael Jackson moves since seeing ‘This Is It!’ — Michael Chow

“If these walls could talk.” — Eva Chow

“It takes a lot to get me to come uptown, but this is worth it.” — Brooke Shields

“Did you hear that Jim Shi went dressed as Michael Chow to Halloween?” — Fashion Week Daily’s Valentine Uhovski. [Editor: Jim, if you’re reading this, we want photos!]

 HAMISH BOWLES & CHINA CHOW

BROOKE SHIELDS & CHRIS HENCHY

CHINA CHOW & MICHAEL CHOW

Thakoon Panichgul says his favorite “Mr. Chow’s moment “ was in 2007 when the beloved eatery hosted the post-Met Costume Institute Gala festivities and he met Maggie Cheung. What about his favorite Chinese food dish? “Soup dumplings,”  House specialties aside, the entire room, Panichgul included, is watching an elegant, Givenchy-clad Eva and husband Michael Chow, as the couple are congratulated by the likes of China Chow, Mary Boone, Tony Shafrazi and Terence Koh on the occasion of the storied space’s 30th anniversary. Then, it’s onward to a fete hosted by another icon, Valentino Garavani, on the 18th floor of the Standard Hotel for an impromptu party put on by Valentino and Giancarlo Giammetti with special guest DJ Jesus Luz.  There’s Hugh Jackman, Adrien Brody, Lauren Remington Platt and a trio of girls in Valentino: Genevieve Jones, Harley Viera Newton and Byrdie Bell.  Now the question’s more fashion than food-focused: What are you wearing? For Shala Monroque it’s Delfina Delettrez gargoyle earrings and Prada dress. Speaking of designers, there’s Narciso Rodriguez, Italo Zucchelli, Marc Jacobs and Daphne Guinness (love her white shirts and signature fragrance!)  Oh, and as for icons, isn’t that Madonna?