NYC's Toughest Doorpeople Share All Their Nightlife Secrets

The legend of the Beatrice Inn never seems to get old. And while it seems that EVERYONE in nightlife has their favorite Beatrice stories, it was also one of the toughest doors New York has ever had. Which proved to be a pretty good learning experience for first-time doorguy Julio Montero. He's since taken over the doors at Kenmare, Red Egg, and most recently Le Baron, where his tight circle of downtown regulars fit right in. Now at the newly opened and red hot Happy Ending, Julio once again has a hand in the epicenter of nightlife. What has been your favorite event that Happy Ending has hosted so far? Opening Ceremony was pretty cool. I don't normally like those parties because it's like industry, company parties, but the crowd was really good. It didn't seem too corporate. What is your favorite night of the week at Happy Ending? I have to tell you the honest truth, right now it's every night. I think every night is special there, it keeps surprising me. Like any other place, my favorite night is Wednesday or Thursday because...from my point of view, you don't have all the amateurs out. I would say Thursday is a really good night. It's the beginning of something. Before you started working in nightlife, what was your favorite club to go out to? When I started going out there was always...you had Wax, Nur [Khan] was running wax. I wasn't really into the downtown scene, at that time I was still finding myself. I was really young, I was 22 when I started working at Beatrice. That was probably my favorite place, I would go there on my night off. Everything I learned was from Angelo [Bianchi], Paul Sevigny, and Andre [Saraiva]. Everything I learned from the door came from Angelo, that's why I'm so good at what I do, because I learned from somebody that was the best. What do you do in your personal time when you aren't working the door? I'm managing 150 guys on a daily basis, I manage a security company that I own. Me and my partner Justin, started about a year and a half ago, grew really fast. Montro Protection. On a daily basis I've got guys at galleries, hotels, fashion events, construction sites, everywhere.