Gilded Lily

Gilded Lily
The Gilded Lily opened the next night, which was a shock to one of the attendees who said "Love this 'Grand-Opening,' this is like my fifth time here!" Due to a strict no photo policy (thanks Le Baron!) we don't have anything to show for the great time we had there except this... A certain nightlife lifer friend of ours once said something very wise about nightclubs, "I HATE these places with VIP after VIP, once you're in the door you should feel like nothing's off limits, once you're in, YOU'RE IN." Which after descending the elevator to this subterranean jewel is exactly how we felt. Guests including Michael Fragoso and Chelsea Leyland, who never fail to impress with their looks, danced the night away on the gilded dance-floor under a spectacular disco-dome lighting fixture the likes of which we've never seen, to a mix of current hip-hop and throwback guilty pleasures, provided by DJ Franco V. When Lisle Richards, one of the team behind the club and The Monarch Room restaurant upstairs, spotted us, he insisted on giving us a peek behind the scenes. Gilded Lily may be the jewel in the crown but The Monarch Room takes the cake for staying in the zeitgeist while pushing forward the aesthetic of the day that we'll call the Freeman's Alley-fication of design. Lisle described it as a classic New York club room, the kind that used to populate the city back in the 1920s, inside of a raw industrial space, and we're inclined to agree that the design firm of Roman and Williams nailed it. Warm tones, luxurious materials, and an orderly but not strident design make the space inviting and cozy without a single taxidermied animal in sight! Though we did spot a tiny army man perched on a light fixture which Lisle explained is part of some cryptic game the staff play with the guests. Intriguing!
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