Who Deserves To Win At The Paper Magazine Nightlife Awards?

Tomorrow are the Paper Nightlife awards!  We've been nominated for Best Nightlife Website (vote here!), but we're very interested in seeing how some of the other categories turn out. Here are our thoughts on the nominees, and who we think the winners should be...-

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Best Restaurant With a Nightlife Scene:

Kenmare The Lion Cafe Gitane at the Jane Hotel The Commodore Roberta's Minetta Tavern The Breslin The Smile

Who Should Win: If the category were "Best Restaurant With A Party scene", we'd definitely go with The Lion, which has hosted an insane amount of movie premieres, fashion dinners, and high profile parties over the last few months. Cafe Gitane at The Jane isn't really a nightlife scene in itself, as the party is always next door. Roberta's...is that in Brooklyn? Please. Minetta Tavern...is this 1940? The Breslin isn't really open late enough to qualify (though it has the best food!), and The Smile is pretty good but: no one can beat Kenmare. Not this year, anyway. Thursday nights go til 5:30 am, and then addled crowd heads to an after party. No other restaurant in NYC rivals it.

Best Hotel With a Nightlife Scene:

Ace Hotel The Standard Hotel The Jane Hudson Hotel The Bowery Hotel The Crosby Hotel The Gansevoort Park Avenue

Who Should Win: We love all these hotels, we really do, and for different reasons. Gansevoort Park is so much better than we expected (we like it infinitely more than its predecessor), the Ace Hotel has one of the most energetic, youngest crowds in the city, The Jane is our go-to for nights out with friends, and the parties at The Bowery Roof are always so chill and relaxing. But...best nightlife scene in the city? It isn't even a fair contest, of course it's The Standard.

Best Designer With a Nightlife Influence:

Asher Levine Timo Weiland Opening Ceremony Charlotte Ronson Madonna's Material Girl Dee and Ricky Abigail Lorick for Lorick

Who Should Win: Abigail Lorick arguably has the widest influence, period, through her Gossip Girl connections, and Timo is definitely big on the New York Scene. Madonna's Material Girl influences no one but Taylor Momsen, as far as we could tell. In terms of coming up with our pick, we were torn between Opening Ceremony and Charlotte Ronson.  In the end, we went with Charlotte Ronson--look at her family, her Thanksgiving dinners are probably worthy of being covered by Blackbook or Paper.

Best DJ:

Mia Moretti and Caitlin Moe Michael Magnan Nick Cohen Mike Nouveau Punches Solange Knowles Biz Markie Stretch Armstrong Jonathan Toubin Just Blaze Max Glazer Alex English

Who Should Win: Is Solange Knowles really enough of a permanent fixture to merit a nomination in this category? Mia Moretti and Caitlin Moe certainly put on a good show, and Nick Cohen is always popular, but we're gonna give this one to Mike Nouveau, because he DJs and tweets, making him indispensable to nightlife reporters like ourselves.

Best Nightlife Photographer:

Olivier Zahm Hanuk Rachel Chandler Kevin Tachman Jeremy Kost Zac Sebastian

Who Should Win: Hanuk or Olivier, Hanuk or Olivier? Tough call, but we're going with Hanuk: less emo hipster, more kissy faces and party shots.

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Best Club:

Le Bain Good Units Le Poisson Rouge Party XPO Shea Stadium The Collective Brooklyn Bowl Don Hill's

Who Should Win: Brooklyn Bowl; we'd categorize it under venue space/concert hall before club. This was a race between Le Bain and Don Hill's, and honestly Don Hill's won by a landslide. You just can't beat the buzz that it got during Fashion Week, and moreover it represents a shift in the city's nightlife-scape to grungier, low-key dens of iniquity verses opulent palaces of excess.

Future Face of Nightlife:

Becka Diamond Dree Hemingway Coco and Breezy Ericka Toure Aviance Cody Critcheloe Nancy Whang

Who Should Win: Ugh, is the future face of nightlife going to be a scowl? Becka is the most mainstream out of these names, which we think is necessary in becoming the future face of nightlife. (Dree isn't quite as ubiquitos of a fixture as Becka is.)