Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
AKA The Sly, Slick and the Wicked
AKA The Voodoo Child
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
Some people are saying now that the current state of our economy is helping the nightlife industry.
The one good thing about bars and nightclubs is that people always need a release. And essentially, going out for a couple of drinks is a relatively inexpensive way to forget about your life for a couple of hours—depending on how many drinks.
Does that have anything to do with the size of one’s pocketbook?
I think what has happened is that people save up the big blow-out days for the weekend. So instead of going out every day of the week, and especially in the summertime, the early days of the week are very popular … people are blowing it out on Friday and Saturday, and in the city on Thursday. The concept of bottle service has taken a bit of a beating.
You once said that you hated the direction bottle service was taking the club industry.
Yes, and so for me, Avenue is a step back to a time in the nightclub industry—nightlife industry, lets not say nightclub—that I loved and which is kind of representative here. It’s a step back to the lounge times.
I’m not sure if many people know that Avenue is a restaurant.
I think the term we’ve been using is gastrolounge. We have a full menu, and it’s kind of smaller portions. I’m very pleased that we were able to step back into that kind of time where it was not specifically about how much you could spend in a place and that gets you entry … but more about what you brought to the overall vibe of the room. You know you don’t have to be a black-card-toting person to really create or help a room—most of the time those people don’t anyways. It’s good to have a place for people who are just artists and may be struggling and just really cool people. And so it’s easier when you’re not as focused on generating bottle service to have that type of mélange.
But this is going to be quite a bottle service-type place, no?
Well, you know one of my specialties, as I’ve said before, is I kind of adjust as the business adjusts, to perfect what is necessary. I am very good at generating table and bottle sales; I don’t mind that it’s not the main purpose of this place. And there are still plenty of people who are appropriate for a room like this, which is very, very difficult. The door policy’s very difficult.
What do you mean by “difficult”?
It means that it’s very difficult to get in. This is not an “I’m buying two bottles, let me get in” kind of place. This is a place where if you can get in then maybe you can get a table. But it’s not about how much you’re going to spend first; it’s about how much we want you in the place. At Marquee we kept the door policy very rigid as well … it still is … I mean, I’m still there two days a week, as well as here. But a lot of places had a door policy that was solely, you buy two bottles, then you’re in. I would never be affiliated with that … that’s not what I would want to have anything to do with.
You’ve become known as having impeccable taste. Is this sort of costuming for your job, or is your sense of fashion apparent all of the time?
There are certain sides. There are certain things that I think a man should do as far as personal style, and so I live by those rules that I have set for myself. There’s a consistency to the different genres. For instance, I’ll never leave the house without a pocket square if I’m wearing a sport coat. I like very high collars on my shirts, so I have them all made. I like French cuffs, and I like monograms. Every shirt I own has a monogram, and every shirt has French cuffs.
What are some brands that you like? Where do you shop?
I like YSL suits, and Paul Smith all of the sudden is a newfound love of mine, which I’ve been buying up like crazy. I love Brioni sport coats.
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
AKA The Sly, Slick and the Wicked
AKA The Voodoo Child
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
Arturo Gatti was a good kid who grew into a mostly good guy. But his sport has a dark side, and with it comes an almost self-fulfilling prophecy of self-destruction. Now Gatti has joined a hall of fame list of fighters who died violently.
Rocky Marciano, avoidable small plane crash. Sonny Liston, suspicious drug overdose. Trevor Berbick, hacked to death with machetes. Salvador Sanchez, crazy-speed sports car crash. Same for Carlos Monzon. Diego Corrales, motorcycle crash, just last year. Alexis Arguello, suicide, just last week. Now Gatti. There are many more, and many more to come.
The list of those who end up ill or feeble or impaired, or prematurely dead for health reasons is longer. Start with Muhammad Ali. Even longer is the list of those who end up in jail, or addicted to drugs, or broke and back on the streets where they first found the sport of temporary salvation. Mike Tyson, to name one.
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
AKA The Sly, Slick and the Wicked
AKA The Voodoo Child
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
You might have missed the goods. I am glad I went last June.
Overrun by bankers:
Around October, when the economy went into free fall, a bunch of out-of-work finance guys in their 20s descended on Buenos Aires, where you can have the penthouse, the steak dinners and the bottle service at ridiculous nightclubs and still save money renting out your apartment in New York or London.
Lifestyle arbitrage, baby! The word got out, and the party built on itself, making the fantasy it offered all the more intoxicating: Come spend a month—or four—in Buenos Aires, where you really are a master of the universe, where nights are sleepless and potential business deals are all scams and the clubs teem with unemployed expat bankers looking for their identities in piles of cocaine and the bloodshot eyes of hookers and thieves.
Jesse, a 27-year-old former New York City investment banker, moved to Buenos Aires 11 months ago. In the last few months, he says the trickle has turned into a full spray: On average he meets two new arrivals a week. “There is a huge global migration of newly unemployed bankers to Buenos Aires,” he said. “The funny thing is that most of them claim that they left voluntarily, but none of them can say that while they look you in the eye.” Talk naturally turns toward the Wall Street crash. “There is an instant sense of community,” said Jesse. “If you think about it, losing a high-paying job that you worked your entire life to acquire is a very traumatic experience. I can’t tell you how many emotional conversations I have had discussing how it happened, how you feel about it, what your plans are. Most have decided the industry is over and have no idea what they want to do going forward.”
ON Saturday nights in Buenos Aires, the Miramar cafe crackles with the energy of local families, famished tango dancers and gregarious waiters delivering plates of crisp-skinned sardines, shrimp and fresh oysters. Miramar is in San Cristóbal, a barrio known for its tango dance halls but otherwise off the tourist beat. Local diners come to share generous servings of oxtail soup, rabbit hunter-style or chorizo-laced Spanish frittata. Even with a couple of bottles of malbec and mineral water, the feast seldom tops the equivalent of $15 a person.
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
AKA The Sly, Slick and the Wicked
AKA The Voodoo Child
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
AKA The Sly, Slick and the Wicked
AKA The Voodoo Child
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
