• and now it's dead

    One Awful Douche-Bar Down, Thousands More to Go

    G Spa—the tiny, dank club in the basement of the Meatpacking District's Hotel Gansevoort—is closing on Saturday. It was a celeb-magnet and a dreadful place. It will not be missed. (We voted it the Worst of Nightlife back in 2006—"You'd just be drinking $15 cocktails in a sauna, crammed into an incredibly tiny space, and trying not to pass out from the smell of chlorine.") The entire Gansevoort Hotel is vulgar and gross, but G Spa actively insulted our intelligence, arrogantly testing clubgoers' patience by making them feel like they should want to party in a humid spa. As Down By the Hipster put it, the club "holds an important place in the history of the Meatpacking district, in that it proved that for a time, no matter what you opened there, people would come." Hopefully those days are waning. Check out the magic you missed out on: More »

    3:01 PM on Thu Sep 4 2008
    By Sheila
    4,639 views, 34 comments

    Most discussed fiveinchtaint: True conversation with bouncer admitting people to Gansevoort rooftop (I made the mistake of thinking out of town friends might more »

  • end days

    Meatpacking District Quarantine Plan

    Once, homey French bistro Florent was a beacon of light in a somewhat dangerous 1980s Meatpacking district, where transsexual prostitutes roamed for tricks and nightlife kids flipped out on drugs and weird sex. Those freaks were our people. (This type of old-timer moaning is as old as the district itself.) Gradually, the neighborhood was zombified to the point where Florent was the only good place to go—the rest of the neighborhood was infected by a plague of boutiques, lame restaurants, bridge-and-tunnel nightclubs, and the Hotel Gansevoort. Today, smug Brits drunk off the power of the pound sterling migrate to the membership-only Soho House, while women from Jersey get trapped by their stilettos in the cobblestoned streets. Lumbering SUVs threaten everyone, and the only weirdos are the ones hanging out at the W. 14th Street Apple Store at midnight. With Florent's recent closing, there's no reason to go the neighborhood at all. Protect yourself! Here is a Meatpacking District "no-go zone" of areas you should avoid after dark. It's time to seal it off, and do what we can to save the rest of the city. (Click for our special map!)

    12:53 PM on Wed Jul 9 2008
    By Sheila
    7,204 views, 76 comments

    Latest by no.really: My indication was the H&M billboard across the street from the Emporio Armani billboard. $17.95 triangle napkin top? more »

  • nightlife

    Trends in Clubland: Now with Preparation H!

    We learn alternate uses for ordinary household products practically every day, it seems. More words of wisdom from Rob the Bouncer, author of Clublife: Preparation H, the hemorrhoid treatment, is making the rounds as the hot new product to rub on your chest. (It makes dudes look "ripped.") Amazingly, the dudes doing this are straight. Less amazingly, they come from Jersey and thereabouts and party in the Meatpacking District. Says a manager of a Long Island CVS drugstore about the trend, "I don't give a shit what these slapdicks are using it for. I wish they'd stay out of my fucking life."
    [Clublife blog, image via Club It Up]

    11:22 AM on Mon May 5 2008
    By Sheila
    11,601 views, 69 comments

    Latest by jenalicious: @Nard38: wow. i come from a far away land called the South, and will NEVER understand the appeal of the guido. more »

  • parochial news

    Meatpacking Deathwatch: Florent, For Reals

    Much-beloved neighborhood-y French bistro (and after-hours tranny hangout) Florent is on the market, after months of rumors. The rent on the last relic of the old Meatpacking District has been raised from $6,000 to 'bout $58,000. Per month. "No steak frites joint in the city could afford that kind of rent in today's Meatpacking District. Come May, if a buyer is found at all, it's going to be retail, and it's going to be high end," Eater predicts.

    12:26 PM on Fri Feb 15 2008
    By Sheila
    1,337 views, 21 comments

    Latest by LAGirl: @Chief Wahoo: my favorite! with a side of frites! more »

  • urban anthropology

    The Last Days of the Meatpacking District

    The obituary of the old Meatpacking District has been written before. Now it's really time! The last vestige of the neighborhood, no-nonsense French bistro Florent, may be going the way of defunct club Mother and the transsexual prostitutes that used to ply their trade on its cobblestone sidestreets. A neighborhood fixture long before it was, you know, the Meatpacking District—Eater reports that Florent's days are numbered. The restaurant's vibe is best remembered in the words of Past, Over: "writers and actors and artists and drag-queens and whomever the hell else [they] see fit enough to serve up the right food with the right 'tude." Owner Florent Morellet says he's optimistic, however, because "I believe the world economy will collapse and so might the real estate prices in the neighborhood." Uh-oh. What's going on? More »

    2:54 PM on Fri Jan 25 2008
    By Sheila
    3,443 views, 33 comments

    Latest by dannybull: As an "English man in New York" for the first time over the New Year Florent quickly became my favourite more »

  • not at christmas!

    4000 Horny Jews To Storm Meatpacking District Against Christ!


    Christmas Eve for Jews is depressing! Especially for me, in part because I hate Chinese food. Also, it's the birthday of Christ (who my people killed) so that makes me feel bad. But, one way I could see feeling better about myself is going to The Ball, an event where "4,000 Jewish Singles take over 5 Chelsea/Meatpacking Nightclubs (Hiro, The Park, The Cabanas, Highline Ballroom and Earth)." A) My mom would be pleased as punch! B) I don't know, I always get this frisson of excitement when I find out not all Jews are bookish. Some are actually complete losers. C) Jewish girls totally put out at Christmas.

    1:49 PM on Thu Dec 20 2007
    By Joshua Stein
    8,259 views, 99 comments

    Latest by lalalina: @Furious_George: oooh, catfight! calm down ladies. more »

  • hanging from the velvet rope

    Pissed Publicists Spurned At Last Night's 'In Touch' Party!

    In Touch Weekly's fifth anniversary party and obligatory afterparty went down last night at Tenjune in the Meatpacking. We hear a bunch of folks didn't even make it in the door. A publicist of our acquaintance says: "A bunch of us—from television, film, lifestyle brands, hotels, personal reps—were in line for 2+ hours and never let in while the bouncer 'Alex' at Tenjune let his friends (AKA emaciated underage girls) in. They turned away a reporter from The New York Times but let in Ben Widdicomb from the New York Daily News.... I mean, Tenjune is over, they are lucky the party was there and it looked like a hot spot for the night. And we all collectively agreed that we will not buy the magazine ever again or give our projects or celebs to them. We'd rather go to Life & Style! Seriously." Well, that'll be easy, since they have the same editor!

    1:25 PM on Thu Oct 11 2007
    By Choire
    1,779 views, 13 comments

    Latest by RosemarysBabyDaddy: The party was populated with run-off from little west twelfth street, which consists of run-off from New Jersey, which is more »

  • past over

    Past, Over: Florent

    Rod Townsend (aka our commenter Momo), sometimes receives telephone calls from The Past, a mysterious entity that remembers where things used to be in New York before Starbucks and Whole Foods came to town. More »

    12:29 PM on Thu Apr 5 2007
    By Doree Shafrir
    5,200 views, 26 comments

  • hotel gansevoort

    Meatpacking Billboard Battle Rages On

    From one theater of war to another: The battle for the soul (hahahaha, sorry, give us a minute) of the Meatpacking District is being waged as fiercely as ever. The Villager updates on the state of the conflict:
    [A]pproximately 10 in the Meatpacking District... no longer take reservations from the Hotel Gansevoort. Keith McNally, owner of the restaurant Pastis, started the boycott in response to the hotel's recently erected billboard frame, which stretches eight stories high on Hudson St. and will hold ads measuring 1,200 and 670 square feet.
    More »

    6:25 PM on Mon Mar 12 2007
    By abalk2
    2,321 views, 4 comments

    Latest by Mariallena: Nothing like an enraged Manhattanite to take the most pointless fight to the extreme. I paid 3mil for this loft! I more »

  • meatpacking district

    McNally v. Gansevoort: A Fight "To The Grave"!

    More news on that whole Meatpacking District vs. Hotel Gansevoort billboard story! Someone on the inside says a number of local businesses will join Keith McNally in the boycott of reservations coming from the Hotel Gansevoort because of the hotel's hideous billboard. Last week, a meeting of local business owners convened, hosted by McNally, that included David Rabin of Lotus, folks from The Waverly Inn and 5 Ninth, and most likely The Spotted Pig's Ken Friedman, to compare notes and mock the owner of the Gansevoort. More »

    8:31 AM on Thu Mar 1 2007
    By abalk2
    3,018 views, 11 comments

    Latest by pot-pourri: I support this fully; in fact, I will do my part by NOT engaging in craigslist sex with ANY out more »