On a blustery Wednesday night, Barbara Kavovit sashays through the doors of a new Times Square steakhouse in her Gucci dress and heels — pausing as scores of besuited men turn their heads.
“I feel like it’s more special as a woman here,” says 49-year-old Kavovit, who owns a female-friendly tool company called DIYVA by Barbara K. “As soon as you walk in, it’s like, ‘Wow.’ You definitely feel like you’re unique. It makes you feel like a lobster, just like, ready to be declawed.”
“Mob Wives” star Carla Facciolo, 48, nods alongside her.
“If girls want to meet some men,” says Facciolo, sporting peep-toe boots by Jessica Simpson, “this is where you meet them.”
Welcome to Hunt & Fish Club — the city’s latest haunt for bigwigs hunting for new deals and beauties fishing for rich husbands.
Launched this month at a reported $5 million cost, the restaurant is a passion project for its founders: restaurateur Eytan Sugarman, money manager Nelson Braff and Anthony “the Mooch” Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital.
“I think with hospitality in New York … one of the things that’s gotten lost are the classics,” says Sugarman.
So the trio created a place of “elegance, indulgence and luxury” for their high-end friends, to represent “the best era of our lifetime” — the ’90s, Sugarman says.
I feel like it’s more special as a woman here … It makes you feel like a lobster, just like, ready to be declawed.
- Hunt & Fish Club diner Barbara Kavovit
They named it Hunt & Fish for the type of food they serve — not after the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club in Ozone Park, Queens, which served as a regular haunt for John Gotti.
The two-floor space boasts a chrome chandelier the size of a small yacht and 55,000 pounds of marble enveloping the floors, staircase, bars and walls. “When these guys were designing it, I wanted to see Leonardo DiCaprio. You know that light, light pink suit he’s wearing in ‘The Great Gatsby’?” asks Scaramucci, 51, who also owns “a small part of the Mets.”
“I wanted him standing at the bar in that custom suit saying, ‘OK, this is the right spot for this guy.’”
Serving $120 tins of Tsar Imperial Ossetra caviar and a $110 dry-aged porterhouse for two, Hunt & Fish is not for customers with a light appetite or a thin wallet.
Already the spot’s attracted boldfacers like Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia, money manager Carl Icahn, “Sopranos” star Steve Schirripa and music honcho Timbaland. Next week, the restaurant is hosting a dinner for former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.
“I think it’s great for New York,” says a towering Darryl Strawberry, who dined at the establishment on opening night. “Of course, Eytan’s going to make it athlete-friendly, because that’s who he hangs with.”
Sugarman, 40, launched the restaurant Southern Hospitality with his friend Justin Timberlake, and ran Chelsea club Suede, where he cozied up to athletes, celebrities and socialites in the early aughts.
Hunt & Fish has that same “in crowd” appeal.
“There’s a sort of clubby aspect to Wall Street, and people like to go to places where they know somebody,” says Alexandra Lebenthal, president of top financial firm Lebenthal Holdings.
The interior is designed by artist Roy Nachum, whose work is collected by the likes of Jay Z and Tom Brady. The space has four rooms, including a downstairs lounge with a mural of naked ancient Roman men, and a private dining area, where a self-watering wall of plants lives. The design is described as an “artistic/aristocratic fantasy” in Hunt & Fish’s promotional materials.
Sugarman, who hails the spot’s “Las Vegas service,” says he wanted Hunt & Fish to be the kind of place where Frank Sinatra, “a friend of mine,” would hang out. (But whether the décor evokes Garden State or Ava Gardner is up to the guest.)
Though the steakhouse is on 44th Street and a half-block from the Times Square madness, Sugarman promises it won’t become a tourist trap.
“This is not for the people who are taking their kids for a $10 hamburger,” he says. “It’s not where the Griswolds would stop.”
When these guys were designing it, I wanted to see Leonardo DiCaprio. I wanted him standing at the bar in a light pink suit saying, “OK, this is the spot.”
- Scaramucci, Hunt & FIsh co-owner
That’s not to say the restaurant hasn’t experienced its unseemly moments. Two weeks ago, Page Six reported that the son of Wall Street titan Mario Gabelli was thrown out of the restaurant, shouting, “Do you know who my father is? He runs this city!”
One week prior to the outburst, Angela Spatorcio, 37, and Leslie Defelice, 27, were perfectly at ease amid the male-dominated scene as they dug into their complimentary popovers.
The two executive assistants for Mitsubishi UFJ Securities said they were road-testing the eatery as a potential client meeting spot for their bosses.
“I did get the feeling that it was trying to be exclusive, or you had to have a membership,” says Spatorcio, who was delighted to score a table.
Original plans for the venue (which were leaked) described it as a “clubhouse” for those with “high to extremely high disposable income,” leading critics to bill it as a “hangout for hedge funders.” But the founders insist it’s more democratic than that.
For them, it’s all about the extra little touches that elevate Hunt & Fish from a typical steakhouse — like Scaramucci’s homemade limoncello: “The place wouldn’t be fitting for Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra if we didn’t have limoncello,” he says.
They’ve also stationed a shoeshine guy on the lower floor who will polish any patron’s footwear for free.
“That was a good idea, right?” asks Scaramucci, fist-bumping Braff, 55. “All these hipsters are wearing sneakers, though. I don’t like that,” he adds, saying that diners can remove their kicks during dinner and the shine guy will “give you your shoes back under the table.”
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Hunt & Fish has everything a honcho’s heart could desire. Almost.
On a recent night, Stu Bohart, who works for power hedge fund Fortress, held court with three male pals over red wine.
“The only thing that would make it better,” says Bohart, “would be if you could light a cigar in here.”
