Before I started working full-time at Wine Enthusiast Magazine I held a freelance position that enabled me to work from home several days each week. Some people use periods of unemployment (or in my case underemployment) for travel or self-reflection—it becomes a time to sit back, introspect and remove oneself from the fray and frenzy. Me? I took my more flexible schedule and decided to explore NYC—the city I currently call home—at night. I like to think of this time, less as a hiatus for wild, booze-filled partying and more of a journalistic, social-anthropological foray into a part of the Manhattan experience previously unknown to me (I was always more of a worker bee). Case in point: I am now, as a journalist, blogging about it. The below represent some of my general musings and personal conclusions, a few of which will be discussed individually in future blogs.

The coolest kids go out on school nights. It’s common knowledge that the best nights to experience the city are weeknights: it’s less crowded and the oft-maligned untouchables of the nocturnal scene—i.e. the “bridge and tunnelers” from Jersey, Staten Island and Nassau County, Long Island—stay tucked away in their boroughs.

Most cool kids don’t have to get up in the morning. A good number of the weeknight partiers don’t keep regular hours—i.e. they’re students, models, model/actresses, socialites, socialite/model/actresses, aspiring DJs or filmmakers or other members of the creative class (and often members of the trust fund class as well) who need not be up and on for the 9 am office meeting.

Nightlife is a full-time occupation for some. I’m referring here not to bartenders, doorman and all the various nightclub/lounge proprietors and managers but to another ubiquitous NYC night creature—the promoter. These are the individuals (usually male) responsible for bringing the young, pretty party people (usually female) to certain establishments. Promoters typically can be spotted at whatever table is surrounded by the largest group of drunken girls and usually have well over 1,000 female friends on Facebook, most of whom they’ve never met.

Smoking only recently died. The infamous 2003 smoking ban, which drastically altered the city’s bar scene, only recently started to apply at certain downtown (and often subterranean) establishments.

There are two (very) general schools of NYC nightlife. There are thousands of places open on any given night in Manhattan but the more exclusive hotspots roughly fall into two broad categories: the “models and bottles” clubs and the grittier, more downtown, more hipster spots. This one will be explored in a future blog.

Wine is for earlier in the night. The bottles in the phrase “bottles and models” are typically filled with Absolut or Grey Goose. While more and more wine bars are cropping up in Manhattan, the nightlife scene is more about the hard stuff. And it’s mostly vodka with the retro-speakeasy cocktail appreciation also reserved for earlier in the night.

The daytime can be party time too. Brunch has long been a NYC ritual though in 2009 the “wild brunch” concept took hold with more New Yorkers realizing the first half of the day was an untapped reserve for potential partying. The two general versions—“the Meatpacking District’s “Bottles and Brunch” and the LES more budget approach—will also be explored in a future post.

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