When the Waverly Inn opened its doors in 2006 — technically, the clandestine West Village eatery never officially “opened” — it was shrouded in top-level mystery. There was no phone. No photography was allowed. Reservations were made online, only after staffers Googled would-be diners to determine who was worthy of being seated amid a consortium of bigwig co-owners such as Graydon Carter, editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair.
I-bankers, it seemed, were willing to pay any price for the honor of dining among the likes of Sean Penn, Bono and Jay-Z — even if it meant shelling out $55 (or more) for the truffled mac and cheese.
But times have changed. And now, a new see and be-seen restaurant with a similar old-time New York décor is making the scene. Its approach is less subtle, its East 51st Street locale is less fashionable and its sphere of influence more New York City-specific — not to mention younger.
Welcome to East Side Social Club: a Bizarro World Waverly Inn for the locally famous.
“I think it’s a joke to compare myself to Graydon Carter,” says night-life photographer and East Side Social Club co-owner Patrick McMullan with a laugh. His co-investors, a consortium of celebrated lower Manhattan types working in fashion, television and other such New Yorky fields, have dubbed him “Graydon Lite.”
“Graydon’s got what I call ‘a real job,’ ” explains McMullan.
Whereas the Vanity Fair editor brings in a who’s who of jet-setting celebs, East Side Social Club may come off as a “who’s that?” to tourists unfamiliar with behind-the-scenes players like McMullan. It’s doorman Dominic Chianese’s job to recognize patrons like aspiring young designers Ally (daughter of Tommy) Hilfiger and Minnie (sister-in-law of reality-TV wannabe Tinsley) Mortimer as well as Liam (Patrick’s son) McMullan. And no, that doorman isn’t Dominic Chianese, the veteran actor most famous for playing Uncle Junior on “The Sopranos.” Rather, it’s his son.
At East Side Social Club, the last names are often familiar. The first names? Eh, not so much.
“We’re team Topper,” says Alan Rish, an event publicist who also owns a stake in the restaurant where Minnie Mortimer recently celebrated the launch of her fashion line. The party was hosted by Tinsley’s 23-year-old socialite rival Olivia Palermo. In attendance was Topper Mortimer — Tinsley’s soon-to-be ex-husband — and his new girlfriend, Vogue editor Valerie Boster. While most of America wouldn’t recognize any of these people, soap operas like this one probably aren’t lost on instant East Side regulars such as gym owner David Barton and his wife, the legendary nightclub promoter Susanne Bartsch. There’s a good chance Michael Musto, one of the visitors since the late-November opening, would know those names, too.
Of course, another big difference between the debut of the Waverly Inn and the East Side Social Club is that you — yes, you — can get a reservation here.
After all, with the kitchen being open from 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. seven days a week, they’ll need all the A-, B- and C-listers they can get. According to Billy Gilroy, the one primary co-owner who knows something about restaurants, it won’t just be the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. reservations everyday people can expect to be offered.
“I try to keep 8 to 9 [p.m.] open until the day of,” says Gilroy, who opened SoHo’s sceney Lucky Strike with Keith McNally in 1989 and currently co-owns popular eateries including the West Village’s Employees Only and TriBeCa’s Macao Trading Co. Just as Macao Trading Co. subtly mimics a Far East opium den and Employees Only parodies a speakeasy, the 165-person-capacity East Side Social Club has a faux “Sopranos” theme, which, according to Gilroy, “creates an environment where people feel like they’re being bad, but they’re really not. A little levity goes a long way.”
That could well be said for the unstuffy famous-meets-fabulish crowd.
“It’s like any recipe,” Gilroy says. “You have all the ingredients, you cook it well and hopefully it turns out right.” McMullan, also a fan of the Waverly Inn, draws another major difference between East Side Social Club and Graydon Carter’s joint: “You don’t have to be on your best behavior at our place.”