[wine] Two VC Mags, w/ sparklers! fwd nyt

Points for presentation - fyi/fye March 15, 2009 Uncorked! By KATHERINE BINDLEY SPEND $500 on two magnums of Veuve Clicquot Champagne at Bagatelle on West 13th Street in the meatpacking district, and the bottles are delivered to your table with lighted sparklers stuck in their corks. Spend $2,500 on a jeroboam of Veuve Clicquot and some magnums of Dom Pégnon, and the lights dim, the D.J. cues up the theme from .Superman,. and a waiter is hoisted onto the shoulders of his fellow servers. With a tablecloth knotted around his neck as a makeshift cape and his arms outstretched, he carries one of the blazing bottles of bubbly to your table. As the waiter soars through the air, he does so against a backdrop of patrons fist-pumping Champagne flutes, flashing cameras capturing pictures ripe for Facebook and a dozen young women clad in sequins, stilettos and Chanel bags climbing onto chairs, banquettes, even tables . any elevated surface that is sturdy enough to dance on. Christie Larkin, a 28-year-old who lives in Gramercy Park and works for a TriBeCa advertising agency, was brunching at Bagatelle for the first time. .It.s like Friday night in here!. she said upon walking in. But it is not Friday night. It is 3:30 Saturday afternoon. Champagne corks are always popping somewhere, of course, and the high life never disappears entirely, especially in New York. But these days, a $750 magnum of Perrier-Jouëstands in striking contrast to the scene outside Bagatelle.s glass-paneled door, where the Dow has lost half its value since the fall of 2007, the recession has claimed a net total of 4.4 million jobs since it began, more than 850,000 families lost their homes to foreclosure last year, and the word .depression. is being heard in the land. . For decades the New York brunch has been far more than just a meal. It is an institution, an event that can start in midmorning and continue until late afternoon, a ritual in which eggs Benedict are routinely washed down by a seemingly endless stream of mimosas and Bloody Marys. And in recent months, two restaurants in the meatpacking district have begun taking Saturday brunch to a remarkable level of indulgence and expense, even by New York standards. The latest incarnation of Saturday brunch began last April at Bagatelle, a French bistro with decorative moldings, crystal chandeliers and striking white dér; it seats 95 people. Six months later, the high-end brunch arrived at Merkato 55, a space on Gansevoort Street that can accommodate about 300 people and typically attracts a younger and slightly less affluent crowd, though the term affluent in this context may be relative. The two scenes have recently garnered attention in the news media. Merkato 55 was voted .Best Bacchanal. by New York magazine this month. And the blog Guest of a Guest has weighed in on what the site describes as .the Battle of the Recession-Proof Brunches.. The Saturday brunch scene at Bagatelle and Merkato 55 . what some call the dance party brunch . suggests what exclusive New York nightclubs like Tenjune and 1 Oak would look like if the D.J..s arrived eight hours early and the bartenders served French toast. On any given Saturday, brunch enthusiasts can be found dancing on tables, throwing back tequila shots and racking up four- and five-figure tabs well before the sky turns dark. The aim is to make partyers feel as if they are sipping rosét an upscale cafe along the French Riviera. .They can feel like they.ve been away for a few hours in the South of France even though they.re in New York,. said Aymeric Clemente, one of the owners of Bagatelle, who grew up in Marseille and spent summers working in Saint-Tropez. The concept took off just as most Americans were watching the value of their paychecks, stock portfolios and 401(k).s take a nosedive. This confluence is extremely perplexing to some and makes perfect sense to others, the argument being that dancing and drinking are age-old antidotes to troubled times. .It.s been really more crazy since the recession,. said Mr. Clemente, who is 35. .In a time of crises, you have a tendency of wanting to be with people and see if you can feed from their energy. If you feel sad, you want to go to a lively place, to recharge your battery.. But even fans of the concept acknowledge it.s over the top. .It.s obscene,. said Matt Sullivan, a 38-year-old owner of a building maintenance company in Miami who was in Bagatelle one recent Saturday to celebrate a friend.s 30th birthday. .We heard it was a hip brunch. But this is gluttony at its finest.. . At 1:30 p.m. on a recent Saturday in Merkato 55, a two-level African-theme restaurant that makes ample use of dark, heavy wood, the afternoon started quietly. Some tables were empty; the music, though audible, did not cause the floor to vibrate; and bottles of wine sat sedately on ice. Laura Nolte, a 23-year-old cocktail waitress, noted the relative calmness of the scene. In the upstairs room, which can seat 150, only two dozen people were actually eating. .It.s funny,. Ms. Nolte said. .You always think, .The economy is hitting today.. By 7 p.m., you.re like, .What crisis?. . An hour later, the momentum picked up, and Joey Brodish, 26, recently laid off as an editorial assistant for a gossip magazine, expressed a similar sentiment. .It.s like, .What recession?. . said Ms. Brodish, who lives in TriBeCa and was dressed this afternoon in a glittery top paired with skinny black pants. .Look around. Do you see a recession?. In her opinion, the Saturday afternoon dance party was just another facet of the dynamic city. .There.s SoHo,. she said. .There.s the Empire State Building. There.s Merkato 55.. By 3 p.m., two members of the Gypsy Kings, special guests this day, had wrapped up their hourlong set and the D.J. had started spinning. In a large booth, a blonde wearing a short black dress with a plunging neckline mugged for a camera as she dangled a French fry from her teeth. Another woman popped out her hip and ran her tongue over the icing of a red velvet cupcake. By 4 p.m., the place was wall-to-wall bodies, and people were taking hits from a roséilled bong in the shape of a flamingo. Downstairs, Adesh Baharani was celebrating his 35th birthday by showering all within 10 feet of him (not all of them members of his party) with the contents of a $500 bottle of Veuve Clicquot. .It.s my birthday, and I want everyone to be happy,. said Mr. Baharani, who works in the jewelry business and lives in the Caribbean. .I might buy two more.. . Just why so many people choose to throw an extravagant party on a Saturday afternoon may be less surprising than how they could afford to do so, given the country.s economic woes. Remi Laba, a 32-year-old Frenchman who is a co-owner of Bagatelle, suggests that such celebrating is possible because his guests are not what he calls .recession-prone.. .There.s a very specific Saturday brunch clientele,. Mr. Laba said, seated at a corner table near the window as brunch was getting started. .Most of them are old money, people who don.t mind coming here and spending $5,000, up to $18,000 or $20,000 on a table.. In addition, Mr. Laba said, the typical Bagatelle customer has a cultural affinity with this sort of roséoaked afternoon reveling. For the most part, the customers are what he described as .European friendly,. meaning they either are European or aspire to be. As for another set of partyers, the New York investment bankers whose once-hefty bonuses may have significantly diminished in recent months, .instead of having the $10,000 to $15,000 to spend on a Saturday afternoon, they might spend $2,000 to $3,000,. Mr. Laba said. .Which is fine.. The absence of a velvet rope outside Bagatelle does not signal a lack of exclusivity; patrons must know the cellphone number of one of the owners to get a reservation. Through the window this afternoon, Mr. Laba observed two young men talking to the doorman about securing a table. .They will be turned away,. he predicted. And if they had been two beautiful women? .They.ll be sent to the bar,. he said. .I may even seat them.. Moments later, a striking woman standing 5 feet 11 made her way past the doorman. As she approached the host, Mr. Laba waved him over and exchanged a few quiet words with him. .I wanted to make sure he wasn.t sending her away,. Mr. Laba said. .I.m fully booked, but she.s someone I want to keep in the restaurant.. What she had going for her, he said, was being stunning, sophisticated and African-American. .It.s all about diversity,. Mr. Laba added. .Euros, Muslims, everything goes.. . The dance party brunch concept, albeit in smaller and tamer form, took root in the mid-.90s at Le Bilboquet, a small restaurant on the Upper East Side where the atmosphere was notably reminiscent of upscale resorts in Saint-Tropez and St. Barts. Mr. Laba was a regular, and his future partner at Bagatelle, Mr. Clemente, was the general manager. Also employed at Le Bilboquet as waiters were identical twins from Ohio named Derek and Daniel Koch, now 26. The brothers went on to work their way up in the club scene, and in October they became the pioneers of the Merkato 55 brunch. At Merkato, which in a few weeks will rebrand itself with different cuisine and a different name, they have sought to make the brunch accessible to a wider range of people. Reservations are made by e-mail, first come first served, and a bottle of roséan be had for as little as $65. .Everyone.s welcome,. Daniel Koch said. .It.s brunch. Give me a break.. . Given the number of people apparently ready to throw down $200 for some eggs and copious amounts of Champagne, there seems to be room for two shows in town. At the end of the day, some patrons of Bagatelle wander the few blocks over to Merkato 55, which stays open an hour later. Though each brunch has its own personality, both crowds go wild to a pulsing dance remix of .I Need a Miracle.. And by 4 p.m., both places are redolent with the same peculiar smell of muggy Champagne mixed with the Fourth of July. And increasingly hard economic times may even bode well for the burgeoning brunch scene. The Koch twins maintain that people drink in good times and people drink in bad times. As Karine Bakhoum, who handles public relations for Bagatelle, said as she surveyed a line of dancers along a banquette during a recent brunch: .Look around you. It.s not snobbery; it.s joy.. Lina Nguyen, 31, who lives in Midtown and works as an executive assistant for a law firm, seconded the notion of dance party brunch as therapy. .I come here to forget everything!. Ms. Nguyen, who was the first to hop up on her chair that afternoon at Bagatelle, shouted over the music. .It beats sitting there being depressed!. . Whatever diversion these afternoons bring, some acknowledged that the sight of the young well-to-do partying hard when many financial firms are being castigated for profligate spending could appear embarrassing. A man who works in finance and was standing near the bar of Merkato 55 the following Saturday started to talk about this issue, but then he had second thoughts, saying he could be fired for drawing attention to the subject in the news media. Any overt display of conspicuous spending, he added, even if not a dime was expensed to a corporate account, would not sit well with his employer. .Excess,. he said, .is frowned upon heavily.. As for how he and his fellow Wall Streeters could still afford such afternoons, he said: .We all made so much money in the past five years, it doesn.t matter.. A 29-year-old man who works for a large investment management firm and was at Bagatelle.s brunch one recent Saturday and at Merkato 55.s the next, put it another way: .If you.d asked me in October, I.d say it.d be a different situation, and I don.t think I.d be here. Then the government gave us $10 billion.. -- ------------------------------ * Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *