Was 'Down' intentionally designed to attract a downtown crowd?
The "downtown crowd" seems to be drawn to 'Down.' Was that intentional?EK: I thought of that going into this, and I think we all thought that. I said 'I know who's going to go straight downstairs, who's going to go straight upstairs'. And when this place opened, I found I was completely wrong about that. People I thought would only go downstairs I'd see upstairs raging. There are certain people that prefer upstairs and certain people that prefer downstairs, but the amazing thing about this project is most people want both, and now we have the ability to give that to someone in one night. More than anything, we want to give people a place where everyone can go and everyone can meet and everyone can hang out, and I don't think that exists in New York anymore, and that really bums me out. RF: The reason this all works and why we're proud of it so far is that we've broken down the barriers that were created over the last 6 or 7 years in nightlife, where everything was segregated, and now we're diversifying the crowd again. The idea from the start, and what we've achieved, whether we knew it or not, was some people that weren’t exposed to that traditional nightclub world upstairs are trying it out because you go up 12 stairs.
[Photo via @jjdattoma]
.jpg "How Comms Guru & Founder Of The PR Net Lisa Smith Put Her Stylish Stamp On The Industry")
.jpg "Who Are The Assoulines? Meet The Chic First Family Of Luxury Publishing")
.jpg "Who Is Nats Getty? The Oil Heir & Trans Activist Is Living Life Loud & Proud")
.jpg "Worldly Socialite Haya Maraka's Elegant Etiquette Tips For The Modern Lady")
.jpg "Haute Hostess Christine Chiu's Guide To Throwing The Most Fabulous Fête")
.jpg "Padma Lakshmi Talks James Beard & Being A Woman In The Food Industry")