By Drew Grant and Benjamin-Emile Le Hay 3/15 5:41pm

25th Anniversary

Jared Kushner, Katie Holmes and Mike Bloomberg (PMc)

Scenes From a (New York Observer) Party

- The intimidatingly assiduous Peggy Siegal greets people at the door; thanks us for coming to celebrate party with The New York Observer. “We are The New York Observer!” We cry. She doesn’t even pause. “Well, it’s great to see you anyway.”

-Terry McDonell: I’ve always loved the Observer, I have great respect for Peter Kaplan. The coverage of everything I was interested in New York in the past 25 years was reflected in The Observer at the highest level.

- Ray Kelly recalls the last time he was at the Four Seasons. “[We] feel like you never leave,” we tell the Police Commissioner. His reply: “A lot of people feel that way.” Read More

By Drew Grant 12/10/12 4:02pm

Party Report

Kim Stolz and Amanda Leigh Dunn, co-owners of The Dalloway

Upstairs, Downstairs: The Dalloway is New York’s Fanciest ‘Lesbian Implied’ Bar/Restaurant

“We’ve met before,” purred Kim Stolz, an impish grin on her face. The Transom was standing in a dark corner with the most famous lesbian to come out, as it were, of America’s Next Top Model. We were at the launch party for  The Dalloway, a bar/restaurant Ms. Stolz co-owns with fellow reality heroine Amanda Leigh Dunn, of The Real L-Word fame..

The Transom couldn’t recall previously meeting Ms. Stolz , though we remembered her infamous kiss with a curious competitor during Cycle 5 of ANTM, as well as her time as a VJ and correspondent on MTV News. Even in her new role as Citigroup vice president and part owner of the hottest lesbian spot to hit New York in decades, she was unmistakable.

“I feel like the New York lesbian scene was kind of different, more diverse when I was growing up,” said the Manhattan native. “But recently it’s been confined to dive bars and clubby atmospheres.” Read More

By Drew Grant 1/02/12 8:57am

Sleep No More

Happy New Year, everyone!

Sleep No More 2012: Ringing In the New Year With the Thane of Cawdor at the McKittrick Hotel

Nothing screams “The Mayans will be proven wrong this year!” quite like watching a young man swing from the rafters after hanging himself in a very loose adaptation of Macbeth, but for fans of the interactive production Sleep No More, there was no better way to ring in 2012. After getting an invitation from the Thane himself asking for our attendance a special gold and silver party at the McKittrick Hotel–where Sleep No More has been in residence since March with co-production companies PunchDrunk and Emursive–we arrived up not knowing quite what to expect.

Would we be allowed to remove our Eyes Wide Shut Italian Renaissance-style masks and talk after midnight, or, going with the show’s traditional rule, would we be forced into an anonymous silent cheer when the countdown reached zero? Read More