In This Issue:

• At the Top: October Is One Hot Month
• The World’s Best: See-and-Be-Seen Bars
• Ins and Outs: Top 5 New Recommendations
• The Urbie Awards: Mexico City
• Alan’s View - ASD Picks: 3 Best Halloweens

At the Top: October Is One Hot Month

Tucked in between the
Fall back-to-work-doldrums
and the decadence (and
stress) of the December
holiday season is one of
the most happening holidays
of the year: Halloween.
Even though it’s largely a
North American celebration, Night+Day’s cool cities celebrate in high style.
But Halloween is just the
icing on October’s cake.

This issue of the Night+Day e-letter features the Best See-and-Be-Seen Bars in the world’s coolest cities. This is your one-stop hotlist for where to go when, with specific recommendations on best nights, time to arrive, and how to dress for success.

Also check out our new Ins and Outs that include a luxury hotel chain in Las Vegas, a long-anticipated eco-chic bar in San Francisco, and a classic Miami museum.

This month we also award our coveted Urbie to Gabriela Cámara of Mexico City, who has virtually single-handedly brought the local restaurant scene into the 21st century.

THE WORLD’S BEST See-and-Be-Seen Bars

Have a favorite people-watching bar in every port? We know that’s code for people-meeting,
and these bars are the absolute best in their respective cities for making connections with
like-minded others.

LOS ANGELES • THE PARLOR HOLLYWOOD

The Draw: More than its limp CW reboot, this Melrose place lives up to the raciness of Fox’s original evening soap.
The Scene: The sun-soaked, open-air courtyard still stands from its El Guapo days, but everything else has gotten the Hollywood treatment. With an even guy-to-girl ratio, revamped gastropub menu (charcuterie, lamb chop lollipops, poutine), and 46 HD TVs, this isn’t your beer-bellied buddy’s sports bar. While Lakers games draw a club-worthy crowd, The Parlor also hosts regular television and awards viewing parties for industry types.
Hot Tip: For a guaranteed minimum charge (which can be put towards the total bill), reserve a table or VIP room for big games and pay-per-view fights.

The Draw: A crew of uber-talented mixologists turn out cutting-edge cocktails.
The Scene: This 1905 firehouse has been converted into one of the hottest destinations in town. Every night a crowd of well-dressed young people float through the cavernous, brick-walled space, or mingle on the lush patio out back. Some are drawn to the inventiveness of the drinks, and all are eager to hang where the cool crowd reigns.
Hot Tip: Cure’s bar food rivals the best offerings of most restaurants in the area. Try the crawfish boudin empanadas or duck liver crostini.

The Draw: Never underestimate the allure of retro glamour.
The Scene: Once again the cult of the cocktail is sweeping Manhattan, and the Pegu Club is its epicenter. This sultry drinking den is known as much for its nattily attired bartenders as it is for its fashion-conscious crowds. Owner Audrey Saunders, who trained with master mixologist Dale Degroff, presents cocktails as high concept / high art, making for smart concoctions such as the Earl Grey “Marteani” (with tea-infused gin, lemon juice, and egg white to froth it up) and the signature “Pegu,” a snappy mix of gin, orange bitters, and lime juice.
Hot Tip: Want to pick up a few tricks of the trade? Come around opening early in the week, when the chatty bartenders are happy to share their mixologist mojo.

Also discover the Best See-and-Be-Seen Bars in CHI   DC   LV   MEX   MIA   SF   TOR

INS and OUTS (NIGHT+DAY’S Latest Recommendations)

Top 5 New Openings

CHICAGO • XOCO • Mexican Restaurant
xocochicago.com
Rick Bayless, the creator of Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, introduces this Mexican street-food venue. Xoco (pronounced sho-ko and meaning “little sister”) creates a casual dining experience that is proud of its laid-back approach to dishes such as Mexican soups and sandwiches.
full review $$ 449 N. Clark St. (Hubbard St.), 312-334-3688.

LAS VEGAS • MANDARIN ORIENTAL • Luxe Hotel
mandarinoriental.com/lasvegas
Las Vegas has been wooing internationally acclaimed chefs from all around the world for some time now, but the Mandarin Oriental is a major get for Las Vegas—proof that this city is worthy of a five-star, international hotel brand and everything that comes with it. full review $$$ Las Vegas Blvd. S. (Harmon Ave.), 702-590-8888 / 888-881-9578

MIAMI • BARDOT • Lounge
bardotmiami.com
Part speakeasy, part neighborhood lounge, Bardot is one of Midtown Miami’s more stylish nightspots. It’s gotten some flack for adopting some of the typical South Beach club’s affectations, like doormen and velvet ropes on busy nights, but that’s not stopping a hip young crowd from turning out at this smoky venue to sip pricey cocktails on red leather sofas… full review 92 NW 34 Terr. (N. Miami Ave.), 305-588-8981.

SAN FRANCISCO • BAR AGRICOLE • Californian Restaurant
baragricole.com
The city’s latest farm-to-table venture promotes the use of whole animals; local, organic, and sustainable ingredients whenever possible; and simply darn good cooking, courtesy of Brandon Jew. full review $$$ 355 11th St. (Folsom St.), 415-355-9400.

TORONTO • SCARPETTA • Italian Restaurant
thompsonhotels.com/scarpetta
Famed chef Scott Conant brings his view of Italian cuisine to the luxe digs of the new Thompson Hotel. With his well known pedigree in the United States, Conant wanted a hotel restaurant worthy of his name, and has transferred many of his acclaimed dishes to his first foray in Canada. full review $$$ Thompson Hotel Toronto, 550 Wellington St. W. (Bathurst St.), 416-601-3590 / 888-550-8368.

The Night+Day Promise
Night+Day writers and editors use the same high standards in selecting and researching venues to be included in our Ins and Outs updates as we do for our books. Our local correspondents determine which new hot spots are the real deal and which are simply hype—just as you’d expect from Night+Day—to provide the kind of reliable information you needto make the best possible choices.

Mexico City 2010/11

Gabriela Cámara (Restaurateur and Slow Foodie)

You wouldn’t think pretty, vivacious Gabriela Cámara has been in the cutthroat restaurant business for 12 years. At only 34, this visionary home cook and entrepreneur is founder of five smashingly successful D.F. establishments: Barracuda Diner, Bar Cibeles, Entremar, Contramar, and her newest, the upscale Mero Toro. She has single-handedly changed the look and feel of the city’s high-end restaurant scene. When she and her (then business-, now life-) partner, Pablo Bueno, opened Contramar, the ultra-chic Condesa seafood palace, there was nothing else remotely like it. The hip, retro-beach style was something new in Mexico, whose nicer places tended to be old and cushy, or just plain dowdy. Now it’s a see-and-be-seen institution, which others try, largely unsuccessfully, to imitate.

The hip, late-night Bar Cibeles, done in flea-market moderne and serving excellent pizzas, is the place to be. And her recently inaugurated Mero Toro offers high-end Mexican fusion cuisine and attracts the D.F.’s glitterati, while remaining comfortable and unpretentious. Neither a star-chef nor publicity hound, Cámara’s real passion lies in preserving the culture of Mexican cuisine and the use of local, fresh, and organic foods. “That brings us to Slow Food, and, of course, in most cases, to local food,” the multi-lingual Gabriela, of Italian and Mexican descent, explains. “I don’t just mean local to Mexico City—we’re not there yet—but local to the ingredient or the place of production. For example, we have many products from Rancho Cortez, which is in the Valle de Guadalupe, close to Ensenada. The sheep and cows eat only local grasses and therefore the meat and cheese from them is way better than anything else you can find.”

A founding member of the Condesa/Roma Slow Food group, she puts her money where her mouth is: Contramar quietly serves tortillas handmade from heirloom corn grown in nearby Xochimilco, and all her venues use organically grown vegetables. Recognized by the Mexican government for its achievements, the restaurant was selected to represent the nation’s cuisine at Expo Zaragoza in Spain in last year. She plans to open an organic tortillería and is organizing a street market of organic foods.

“My generation has been eager to redefine what it means to be Mexican,” she says. “We are willing to be Mexican without being traditional.”  Toques off to Gabriela Cámara for helping to bring Mexico’s culinary scene into the 21st century, while keeping its past alive.

Last year at this time I began our newsletter discussing Halloween, and I thought it worth repeating some of that piece—but in the context of identifying the three absolutely best places to spend this year’s Halloween. [But read this in the “do as I say, not as I do” mode because I’ll be “celebrating” this year’s Halloween in Siem Reap (Angkor Wat), which I hope to tell you about in one of these columns, but hardly the first place a Halloweener would go.]

A brief history: The top three things that the Irish have done for the world are a) created Irish coffee; b) saved civilization; and most importantly, c) gave us Halloween! (My apologies to those who think St. Patrick’s Day is more important than saving civilization.) According to history.com, the origins of Halloween date to some 2000 years ago, when the Celts celebrated their New Year on November 1st. The night before, when ghosts of the dead visited the living world, Celtic priests built huge bonfires, Celts wore costumes, and God knows what else happened! A thousand years later, the Romans—who knew a good thing when they saw it—revived the holiday with the help of a pope or two. November 1st became All Saints’ Day, the evening prior became Hallowmas, and the costumes evolved into saints, angels and devils. In nineteenth-century America, Irish immigrants, by then perhaps the world’s experts in partying, helped educate the masses (i.e., doubting Protestants) about this not-to-be-missed opportunity to celebrate (and make money selling candy), and soon everyone was trick-or-treating. It is even estimated that today more people celebrate Halloween than watch “American Idol.”

By “best” Halloween I mean large street parties that are let-your-hair-down fun, and actually take place on or, if a multi-day event, include October 31st. This emphasis on fun rules out the more spiritual “Day of the Dead” celebrations taking place in much of the world outside the U.S. and Canada. And one of the most outrageous events in the U.S., San Francisco’s (although it has moved to neighboring Richmond for the first time) incredible Exotic Erotic Ball, an over-the-top, warehouse-filled nightclub and costume party held on October 24th, is ruled out on both counts.

For a period of time, San Francisco could claim top honors for a Halloween street party, thanks to the creativity and energy of its gay and lesbian community. Times change. City officials who deemed the celebration unmanageable have tamed the raucous Castro Street parties. No streets will be closed, and the police will likely outnumber the revelers. That makes my first choice for where to be easy.

1. Key West Fantasy Fest
It would be hard to beat sunny Key West, a short hop from Miami, as a backdrop to a Halloween celebration. Fantasy Fest lasts nine days, beginning Friday, October 22nd, and the highlight among many wild and crazy happenings is the spectacle of the Captain Morgan Fantasy Fest Parade on the 30th. If you’ve ever wondered how you’d look in body paint, this is the place to be. October 31st is somewhat anti-climactic, so you’ll have Sunday morning to wash the paint off before flying off to catch another great Halloween event in either New York or LA (where the time-zone advantage makes this possible).

2. West Hollywood Costume Carnaval
It’s not the largest Halloween street party (see #3), but it’s huge and creative. As we say in our events calendar section, “All persuasions except the overly timid are welcome to participate or gape.” West Hollywood, a little slice of Los Angeles that benefits from an influential gay and lesbian community, could easily lay claim to being one of the nation’s party capitals. With hundreds of thousands more people attending this Halloween event than just ten years ago, there’s now unfortunately more gaping than participating, but I’m hopeful that enough of you will show up in your Sarah Palin or Lady Gaga costume and turn that ratio around.

3. New York’s Village Halloween Parade
It’s an attitude like, “If the Yankees don’t win
the series it was a bad season.” New Yorkers
will settle for nothing less than being the numero uno Halloween fun capital. As the promoters modestly put it, their parade will be “the Nation’s Most Wildly Creative, Largest Public Participatory Event in the Greatest City in the World!” Of course, it’s not without its controversy, not unlike San Francisco, where some people think too much partying is a bad thing. Nonetheless, the parade has survived for 36 years, and this year’s Greenwich Village parade promises to give anti-partiers another reason to complain.