Omar’s is divided into a public restaurant, La Ranita, and Omar’s members-only supper club. (Tamara Beckwith/NY Post)
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Omar Hernandez passes by an exposed brick wall as he tours the dimly lit, still-under-construction wine cellar of his aptly named new private supper club, Omar’s. He is giddy with excitement. “Come here, come here!” says the restaurateur, who boasts a Rolodex 10,000 people deep and a Venezuelan accent as thick as his inky black mane.
Clad in a Paul Smith suit, he ducks under a low arch and stands next to a leather saddle (loaned by the Carnegie estate) set amid the rubble. In front of him is what looks like a large pane of glass; through it, in a separate room, is a landscape of beautiful people.
“Look,” he says, pointing at the CFDA after-party under way.
“There’s Karlie Kloss. Oh, and over there is Linda Evangelista and Gilles Mendel. Oh, and there is Stella [Tennant].”
“It’s a one-way mirror,” he says with a laugh. “We can see them, but they can’t see us. We’re going to have a lot of fun with this.”
One-way mirrors and models are just a taste of what New York’s VIP set can expect at Omar’s, which officially opened last week.
Located in the basement of the West Village brownstone that previously housed Hotel Griffou, as well as legendary ’90s restaurant Marylou’s, Omar’s is a 4,000-square-foot space divided into two sections: the restaurant La Ranita, which is open to the public, and the members-only dining room, which has its own unmarked door and has already hosted celebs like Jake Gyllenhaal and Chelsea Handler for dinner.
“New Yorkers are ready for something new and inspiring,” says Hernandez, 42, who has worked for celeb chef John DeLucie and for hotelier André Balazs (where his official title was “Director of Spark & Ambience”).
“They are sort of done with the whole aspect of ‘Can I get in?’ ‘Is this place hot?’ So we said, let’s get ahead of the game and set the tone and say to New Yorkers, ‘Yeah, we have a place for you that’s going to be private, officially.’ ”
Unlike the Soho House or Norwood Club, where food is secondary to scene — and where it can get so mobbed that members feel cramped and regularly get slighted for reservations, Hernandez claims his spot will focus on providing a personalized and exclusive gastronomic experience.
The club will cap its $1,000-a-year membership at 300 people and, according to Hernandez, 118 individuals have already been accepted.
“We still have a year to go,” he says, “so the [application] process gets tighter and tighter.”
Current members range in age from 21 (a daughter of a prominent writer) to 90 (“a beautiful lady out in Paris. She was my mom’s mentor. She’s a lovely doyenne that travels around the world,” says Hernandez). “The quintessential Omar’s member is an international, bon vivant sort of jet-setter who works hard and wants to have fun,” he adds. “The international crowd is what’s bringing some of the edge to New York now. It’s undeniable.”
Sybarites like socialites Hannah Bronfman and Annabelle Dexter-Jones and actor John Leguizamo have all made the cut.
“What works is that this is a legendary spot,” says Leguizamo. “This was the famous, infamous Marylou’s! Jack Nicholson baptized it as his main joint back in the day, and so did the whole underworld of NYC. It was a real who’s who of gangstas, the real O.G. So when you go down the steps you are walking into history and into a modern-day speakeasy.’’
The kitchen is helmed by chef Kenny Cuomo, who hails from Blue Hill and Per Se. His menu is described as “market-driven American fare with Mediterranean touches” — though, given a recent visit, some offerings might need a tweak. (A gooey mid-course “clams casino” came with only one clam.)
“I’m in the business of chicness,” Hernandez says. But he’s careful to distance himself from anything “sceney”
“If it gets too hot, you can only get cold after that,” he says. “It’s going to be a place you never get bored of coming to.”
To help ensure the proper heat, Hernandez plans to add lectures and even trips — such as one to the Champagne region in France — for members. And for those looking to party, Monday night will be the night. But, for Hernandez, every night’s a party.
“I believe in rosé,” says Hernandez. “And brunch with rosé, and drinking in the summer . . . So yeah, we’re going to have fun. I can’t promise you that people will be jumping on the tables,” he says. “But that’s just because the ceiling is not that high.”
dschuster@nypost.com