STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Hermes

another ST gathering poll

shopgirl · Kenneth Cole

if you're looking for an inexpensive hotel, I heard the gershwin hotel is a good bargain. the hotel gansevoort and soho house are both in the meatpacking district -- they aren't cheap but their bar/club crowds can be more manageable than others in the area.

shopping area: soho for scoop, marc jacobs, intermix, barney's co-op, jcrew, banana republic, louis vuitton, miss sixty, agent provocateur, bloomingdales etc. upper fifth ave/madison ave. for barneys, manolo blahnik, louis vuitton. meatpacking district for earnest sewn, girlshop, christian louboutin, stella mccartney. east village/lower east side for fun boutiques and one-of-a-kind items. west village for marc by marc jacobs and marc jacobs stores. department stores: saks, bergdorf, macy's
-- depending on when you decide to meet, there might be a few good sample sales

restaurant: landmarc in tribeca. florent and pastis are both in the meatpacking district. schillers in the lower east side. freeman's alley. i really like pere pinard on ludlow in the l.e.s. http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/le-pere-pinard/index.html

bar/club: soho house, pere pinard

hotel: http://www.gershwinhotel.com/english/site1.html, http://www.hotelgansevoort.com/

let me know if i can help with planning.

-- Edited by shopgirl at 19:15, 2006-09-13

Hermes

oy. OK. so, then:

shopping area: meatpacking district

restaurant: which restaurant you listed is in the meatpacking district?

bar/club: which bar you listed is in the meatpacking district?

hotel: hotel gansevoort or soho house

as far as the others, I'm not sure of how they logistically match up. I already had the meatpacking district in mind, so I went with that one. I guess I'm trying to make it as easy for a large group to stick together too - plus I'm sure there will be out of towners who may not be comfortable navigating the city...

-- Edited by D at 19:21, 2006-09-13

dot · Marc Jacobs

i am up for wherever out of towners would prefer to go. if anyone wants any input on a particular location, please let me know!

Hermes

dot wrote:

i am up for wherever out of towners would prefer to go. if anyone wants any input on a particular location, please let me know!

how about restaurant and bar selections for the meatpacking district?

shopgirl · Kenneth Cole

for food:
my top pick is pastis
restaurant florent
spice market is good for groups but the food is mediocre and service is spotty
vento

what type of bar/club do you have in mind? dancing? talking? checking folks out? there's a nice wine bar next door to vento/across the street from pastis. as the night gets later, the bars get packed and it can be almost impossible to talk.

here's new york magazine's reviews of a few meatpacking restaurants:
http://nymag.com/search/listings-search.cgi?crumb_qid=11582534350&nymbreadcrumb_push=Meatpacking%20District&other_params=%22manhattan%22%3Anyml_address_borough%7E%7EManhattan&results_per_page=25&sort_param=name&search_type=restaurant&autonomy_fieldname=nyml_address_all_neighborhoods&autonomy_fieldvalue=Meatpacking%20District&filter_prettyname=Meatpacking%20District

cc · Marc Jacobs

It's difficult for me to come up with suggestions without having any idea what the size of the group would be. For our NYC gatherings we've usually had 8-10 people and trying to figure out a good bar or restaurant for a group of that size always throws me for a loop so I don't know how much help I would be for a much larger group. I'm also no help with hotels since I've only ever been in hotel bars/restaurants/lobbies but I can advise on location.

Would it help at all for me to list pros and cons of various neighborhoods?

I'll start with the Meatpacking District. I actually took a visiting STer there on a shopping trip recently.

pros - lots of interesting smaller stores, some high end designer shops, basically no chain stores, close to Chelsea Galleries if people want to do something other than shopping, good restaurants/nightlift, several very hip hotels in the area, not especially crowded so could be good for a large pack of people looking to walk around together
cons - could be confusing to find/navigate for out-of-towners, things aren't as densely packed so I feel like you do more walking and less shopping than you would in other areas and the best/most popular restaurants often get packed

I love Florent but I don't know that it would work for a group. Pastis would probably be better. There is also the Belgian restaurant Markt which is fairly big and open but I've only been there for brunch so I can't vouch for their dinner menu. I also never hang out in the neighborhood at night so I can't think of any good bar suggestions but I could always investigate.

Hermes

cc wrote:

It's difficult for me to come up with suggestions without having any idea what the size of the group would be. For our NYC gatherings we've usually had 8-10 people and trying to figure out a good bar or restaurant for a group of that size always throws me for a loop so I don't know how much help I would be for a much larger group. I'm also no help with hotels since I've only ever been in hotel bars/restaurants/lobbies but I can advise on location.

Would it help at all for me to list pros and cons of various neighborhoods?

I'll start with the Meatpacking District. I actually took a visiting STer there on a shopping trip recently.

pros - lots of interesting smaller stores, some high end designer shops, basically no chain stores, close to Chelsea Galleries if people want to do something other than shopping, good restaurants/nightlift, several very hip hotels in the area, not especially crowded so could be good for a large pack of people looking to walk around together
cons - could be confusing to find/navigate for out-of-towners, things aren't as densely packed so I feel like you do more walking and less shopping than you would in other areas and the best/most popular restaurants often get packed

I love Florent but I don't know that it would work for a group. Pastis would probably be better. There is also the Belgian restaurant Markt which is fairly big and open but I've only been there for brunch so I can't vouch for their dinner menu. I also never hang out in the neighborhood at night so I can't think of any good bar suggestions but I could always investigate.

it doesn't have to be the meatpacking district - I'm more interested in how you would fill in the four blanks. if you think there is a better area to satisfy the needs of the group, I'd love to hear them.

Hermes

shopgirl wrote:

what type of bar/club do you have in mind? dancing? talking? checking folks out? there's a nice wine bar next door to vento/across the street from pastis. as the night gets later, the bars get packed and it can be almost impossible to talk.

I guess more checking folks out... but that's me... I'm not 20 years old and single, you know? but I'm not dead either

Hermes

as far as count, my guess would be 15-20 people. plus there may be people only interested in the dinner portion or the drinks portion.

dot · Marc Jacobs

D wrote:

dot wrote:

i am up for wherever out of towners would prefer to go. if anyone wants any input on a particular location, please let me know!

how about restaurant and bar selections for the meatpacking district?

a good place for agroup in the meatpacking district could be this belgium brasserie place (forget the name) on the corner of 10th and 14th. it's a large restaurant and their menu could accomodate lots of different diets. pastis is good but it may be hard to get a reservation for a group. florent is great but they are cash only i think and very hard for groups as well. there is also spice market (maybe too pricey for dinner but their cocktails are delicious!) and mi cocina (mexican). rhone, the apt, spotted pig are nice bars. drinks at passerby, my secret favorite tiny bar, are always good after a day of shopping. there are also great restaurants in greenwich village that are a short walk away from the meatpacking district.

but i agree with cc's comments on the area. also those cobblestone streets are MURDER on shoes.. jk! but i think soho and nolita may be a better option b/c the neighborhoods are so close to each other and there are tons of restaurant/bar selections (varying in price ranges). also things are very close together and the sheer volume of shopping is waaaay more than the meatpacking district.

i would say either soho/nolita and meatpacking district/greenwich village would be better destinations for meeting than let's say midtown or fifth avenue however. if people don't mind walking lots i think the meatpacking area could be great.

i will give this all more thought!

Kincali · Dooney & Bourke

Hey D,

Just a thought, what if you made this like a business convention? Rent a room, have vendors set up tables there, awesome snacks, drinks, giveaway prizes etc. You could charge the vendors per table so it would cover the rental cost of the ballroom/chairs/tables/food/wine etc. Let's just say you round up 50 vendors, charging them $100 a booth, that would give you $5000 to work with. Also, what if there was a fashion show, and all the ST girls got goodie bags on their chairs like during fashion week.

You could have all kinds of vendors, not just clothing, but home design, paper goods, bags and jewelry too. Not only is there tons of talent on Stylethread, but I'm sure FIT/Parson students would be interested in showing their stuff, as well as known brands.

I'm thinking you could have it later in the day, that way girls can shop in the morning and explore the city if they want too. Then we could all go out for a late dinner(or somehow set up dinner at the convention area) and barhopping afterwards.

Not only can we mingle and meet each other, but we can boost Stylethread's image while shopping.

Also, if you buy hotel rooms in bulk can you get a group discount?

-- Edited by fairlight at 15:57, 2006-09-14

sephorablue · Marc Jacobs

I agree with Dot that Soho/Nolita might be a better fit for us, but that could just be my dislike of the meatpacking scene talking. But there's no question you get more bang for your geographical buck in Soho and Nolita--those areas are almost wall-to-wall stores, with some bars and restaurants mixed in for variety. Broadway has every chain store you could ever want, and then the streets on either side have the high-end boutiques, which are wonderful to browse in even if the stuff is too expensive to buy. Also, I just think it's a beautiful neighborhood--those old industrial buildings are to-die-for, and so quintessentially New York.

Now, full disclosure re: my restaurant recs: I am affected as much by the place's interior design as the food, if not moreso! But one of my favorite spots in Nolita, which I know could seat 20 people with no problem, is Public. The food is delicious and the design is breathtaking. For Meatpacking, my pick would be Highline--it's a groovy Thai place all the way over on the western edge of the area. The upside of that place is that it's not horrendously expensive, and I think it's big enough to seat us.

I love Fairlight's ideas... I know people had batted around some ideas like this the last time we talked about a big get-together, but I can't remember exactly what we'd talked about. D? Kenzie?

kenzie · Chanel

sephorablue wrote:

I love Fairlight's ideas... I know people had batted around some ideas like this the last time we talked about a big get-together, but I can't remember exactly what we'd talked about. D? Kenzie?

This was definitely something that has been previously discussed. However, in order to make it worth the vendors' while, there would have to be a lot more than 15-20 people. This is a large scale event that would take huge amounts of planning and coordination and we actually are running short on time to get it together for early spring.

I think it would be great to eventually do this, but may need a little more longterm planning, and most definitely more than just STer's. We're talking a Shecky's type of event here (of course much smaller, but still much larger than just a regular gathering). Of course, D hasn't weighed in yet, so we'll see what she has to say.

-- Edited by kenzie at 17:49, 2006-09-14

Hermes

kenzie wrote:

sephorablue wrote:

I love Fairlight's ideas... I know people had batted around some ideas like this the last time we talked about a big get-together, but I can't remember exactly what we'd talked about. D? Kenzie?

This was definitely something that has been previously discussed. However, in order to make it worth the vendors' while, there would have to be a lot more than 15-20 people. This is a large scale event that would take huge amounts of planning and coordination and we actually are running short on time to get it together for early spring.

I think it would be great to eventually do this, but may need a little more longterm planning, and most definitely more than just STer's. We're talking a Shecky's type of event here (of course much smaller, but still much larger than just a regular gathering). Of course, D hasn't weighed in yet, so we'll see what she has to say.

-- Edited by kenzie at 17:49, 2006-09-14

Kenzie's right - we would need much more time to plan a shecky-esque event. Not only would the event need to be marketed to retailers and prospective attendees, we would have to have a sizable deposit to retain the space as well as marketing/promotional costs. It's not a bad idea, but a full-time job that would need to be planned a good year in advance. We can keep that idea on the back burner for the future.

Farrah · Marc Jacobs

D wrote:

dot wrote:

i am up for wherever out of towners would prefer to go. if anyone wants any input on a particular location, please let me know!

how about restaurant and bar selections for the meatpacking district?

For a restuarant in the MP district Ono in the Hotel Gansevoort is amazing. Afterward we could go to their rooftop pentouse for drinks - it has an amazing view. We could also try to get into the Maritime Hotel which is nearby or Hiro.

cc · Marc Jacobs

I keep thinking about this but I'm having such a hard time because it's rare that I will do shopping, dinner and barhopping all in one area. I love a lot of the boutiques in the LES and there are some great restaurants but I really try to avoid going to bars there on a weekend night. I think the Upper East Side is beautiful and there are tons of designer shops and great department stores but I never go to bars in the area.
Also I'm trying to think of lower-budget options because it sounds like this could get reeeeally expensive for people.

Here are some ideas...

East Village
shopping: original Kiehl's, lots of small vintage shops, boutiques like Azealas, CoCo & Delilah, Meg

restaurant: my high school friends and I always have our semiannual dinners at Tsampa, a Tibetan restaurant which can accomodate large groups and is fairly inexpensive and quiet. I really like Hearth but it's super expensive.

bar/club: most of the places I patronize in this area could be classified as dives but there are lot of other options. On the high end there would be the W hotel. For more of a club there's this place Solas right now the block from Tsampa (though I've only been there when it's pretty empty and looks nothing like it does on the website. It's a regular bar downstairs and a lounge w/ couches upstairs) or Rififi.

hotels: High end - W Union Square, low end - Union Square Inn