Entertainment

Party like a mad man

Victoria Kabakian, just catching up on the series, is serious about the old-school bread pudding she cooked up for a viewing bash at her friend's house.

Victoria Kabakian, just catching up on the series, is serious about the old-school bread pudding she cooked up for a viewing bash at her friend’s house. (Tamara Beckwith)

Jamie Beckman and Neil Alumkal are bustling around their Williamsburg apartment prepping for a soirée that could be straight out of 1967. Lucky Strikes are lit for props. Beckman wraps her golden locks in hair curlers while turning a jiggling, cherry Jell-O mold onto a tray.

It’s all to celebrate the fifth-season premiere of ad-world drama “Mad Men,” which returns tomorrow night after a 17-month hiatus. New Yorkers obsessed with the series and the plots centering around the boozy, sexed-up lives of Madison Avenue workaholics are taking their cue from the show and partying in style.

But the two fervent fans have some ground rules. For their “Mad Men” gathering, they’re serving strictly 1960s food and drink — such as chips-and-dip served on a vintage platter — and displaying it on their midcentury modern coffee table.

CATCH THE SEASON-OPENER AT AN OLD-SCHOOL LOUNGE AROUND TOWN

“I told everybody, no ‘artisanal’ anything, no truffle oil!” says Beckman, a 32-year-old freelance writer. “We’re serving whatever Don and Betty would have eaten.”

The two are dressing like the famous “Mad Men” characters as well: Beckman is zipping into a silky, retro black-and-lace number she discovered while rummaging through the Chelsea Flea in 2005. Alumkal is donning a look that wouldn’t seem out of place at ad agency Sterling Cooper — a gray,narrow-lapel tweed blazer.

Not overlooking a very important character in the show — the cocktail — Alumkal has finessed the fine art of crafting an Old-Fashioned. He uncaps a bottle of Willett rye and gives the concoction a vigorous shake in a tumbler before straining it into a lowball glass.

For the couple, this is a time to sit on the edge of their seats with other “Mad Men” maniacs, eager to devour fresh episodes of their favorite drama. Will Don actually marry his secretary? Will Joan tell Roger she’s carrying his baby? And will ambitious Peggy ever rise up and topple Don from his perch?

“Jamie and I both go way back,” says Alumkal, the 37-year-old founder and president of Stuntman PR, referring to their madness for “Mad Men.” Starting with the first season, he says, “Without sounding like a crazy person, we have seen every episode of every season probably four or five times. It’s like comfort food.”

They’re not the only New Yorkers time-traveling tomorrow.

Victoria Kabakian, a 28-year-old accounting clerk and food blogger at Mission: Food, has been Netflixing previous seasons for just a month — and has only gotten through the second one. But she’s connected with the show enough to put her hair in a flip, slip on a pair of pink vintage Dolce & Gabbana pumps and throw a party tomorrow. “The show is such a great example of what life was like back then,” says the Astoria resident.

Tomorrow night, she’ll don a retro-design apron, channel her inner Betty and whip up a home-cooked meal at a friend’s apartment, where a close-knit group of four or five will clink glasses filled to the brim with Brandy Alexanders and nibble on asparagus with Hollandaise.

“I like sweet cocktails,” Kabakian says. “But, we’ll probably also have to serve at least one martini to make it appropriate.”

They’ll finish off the meal with a sweet treat — old-fashioned bread pudding that gets a 21st-century update with Nutella.

Elsewhere, “Mad Men”-iacs are busy stocking up on period threads and Don Draper’s whiskey of choice for the big night.

Carl Mateo, who sells the vintage clothing line Sharon London with his business partner Sharon Broit at the Brooklyn Flea every weekend, has seen an uptick in “Mad Men” requests from his customers over the past few weeks.

“They get very inspired,” says Mateo, who had just sold a light-yellow dress to an excited fan. Describing the frock as conservative and flared below the knee, he says it would be appropriate for “Betty Draper going to tea.”

At downtown booze bazaar Astor Wines & Spirits, bottles of Canadian Club whisky (Don’s tipple of choice) and Old Overholt rye — which Don poured when he made Old-Fashioneds while charming hotel magnate Conrad Hilton — flew off the shelves quickly at the end of last season. Sales manager Dave Phillips attributes it in part to the Old Overholt bottle’s old-school design — a throwback to the era.

“I’m sure as the show returns we’ll see [a sales spike] once again,” he says, “but people wait until the last minute.”

For those seeking a sugar rush for any last-minute “Mad Men” bashes, downtown sweets shop Tribeca Treats is making cupcakes which, while perhaps not quite as sugary as Don Draper’s betrothed, Megan Calvet, are inspired by ad man and his ex, Betty. Not surprisingly, the “Don” treat is a bourbon-soaked vanilla cake topped with a maraschino cherry. The “Betty,” a moist vanilla cake adorned with silky pearl decoratifs, is “more simple because she’s kind of plain,” says manager Michele O’Hara.

Even out-of-towners are mixing like madmen: The 70 Park Avenue Hotel offers a build-your-own Old-Fashioned set through room service. The $35 kit includes all the fixings to channel the dashing Don, from bourbon to bitters and even a muddler (sorry, no corner office included).

The kits have been as successful as Peggy’s Belle Jolie cosmetics campaign. “We normally don’t get that many people who order drinks [to their rooms],” says the hotel’s general manager, Bill Babis, “but we’ve seen a spike in those sales . . . and I’m guessing [on premiere night] we’ll probably do double what the normal sales would be.”

As for the Alumkal-Beckman bash in Williamsburg? If you don’t know who the father of Peggy’s baby is, stay home. That’s another rule of the party.

“Every guest has to have seen every episode of ‘Mad Men,’ ” Beckman says. “Superfans only!”