NYC Restaurants
 

I am going to New York city for my bachelor party and want to go out to a nice dinner. We are thinking that we want to go to a trendy place that the celebrities go to. The only problem is that we dont know where that is. Any suggestions???

Waverly Inn is pretty celeb friendly right now. Not sure when you are going as that could change in a month or two with the fickle NYC crowd.

Sighting is never guaranteed but try Morandi, The Waverly Inn, Butter, Balthazar, Bar Pitti/Da Silvano, Pastis, Little Owl, Nobu, Tao, La Esquina (downstairs, side entrance, not the front restaurant), Extra Virgin. There are other options like The Spotted Pig, Cafe Habana, Momofuku...but I wouldn't call them places for a nice dinner as you specified. Best chance of spotting celebs is on a weeknight, not weekends.

Like I said, can't guarantee, but I do have a good track record. One time a friend from out of town had this same request, I gave her some suggestions and apparently she saw Jake Gyllenhaal, Molly Sims, Anna Wintour, one of the LOTR hobbits, Mike Myers, and some model I've never heard of all in a span of 2 days.

When you say "nice", how "nice"? Nice place, nice food, nice as in $$? There are many, many options. Do you have a prefered geographical location? How many in your party? And, how much per person do you want to spend?

There's no way you'll be able to get into Waverly Inn - it's kind of a de facto private club. Flatfeet has given you great suggestions, and I would also add Stanton Social, Chinatown Brasserie, and STK. These suggestions are made under the assumption that atmosphere and celeb sightings are your priorities.

You need to make reservations well in advance for many of these places. You can look up menus, prices, and locations on www.menupages.com

You can go to Opentable.com for lists. Stars will be hanging out in the meat packing district. There is a hotel called Hotel Gansevoort and a roof top bar they will frequent and other bars in the district - but they go very late, i.e. 1am. Two other restaurants to try are - TAO (Asian / Sushi / Around Park Ave) and Balthazar (French and Fabulous in SOHO)

If you're talking about the supertrendy clubs thaat you see in the tabloids there is no way you can have a bachelor party there - unless you regularly appear in the tabloids too.

Those clubs are very hard to get into unless you're on "the list" - and esp hard for a group of guys. (A couple of great looking girls have a much better
chance.) Also - to get a table you have to buy bottles - which are usually at least $300 each.

You can find a lot of places where you can have a nice dinner - but seeing celebs is VERY hit or miss.

What budget are you looking at - and how many of you will there be?

Nobu - everytime i've gone i've seen someone (J.Lo & Ben Affleck (back when they were together), John Mayer, Lionel Richie, Drea from The Sopranos)

You will still often see people at Tao - frequently models if no one else. And you can get reservations there with reasonable notice.

flatfeet - i live in the city and i still haven't spotted so many celebrities in my lifetime! maybe because i'm oblivious... =P

I saw Stevie Wonder and Cindi Lauper walk into the Plaza Hotel (separately) for a late night dinner (after a benefit they did in Harlem). Another trip I saw Richard Gere step off the elevator at the Four Seasons on the upper east side. We were told 5757 (the restaurant inside the Four Seasons hotel) is known to have celebrities such as Mick Jagger and the like hang out there, but we didn't see anyone the night we ate there.

cko, you're not missing much:-) I live in soho and see celebs all the time, they always look so shockingly normal that if you blink you'll miss them!

I was once walking home after work late one night down Spring street and this guy in front of me keep turning around and looking at me. I turned around to see if he was looking at someone behind me and saw this HUGE man.

In the end I got in between P Diddy and his bodyguard. :)