There were 500 votive candles, a half dozen Christ-mas trees, four scantily clad elves, two caricature artists, one giant inflatable basketball game and a killer skyline view. But what really impressed guests at the party that Fox Interactive Media gave on Wednesday was the vintage arcade-style Ms. Pac-Man machine.
"That," said Adam Sumner, a 23-year-old media planner, "was awesome."
The scotch tasting didn't hurt, either.
PHOTO: NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
"Pairing it with chocolate was really nice," said Rohanie Singh, 29, who works in advertising.
"I give this party an 8.5," said her friend Michael Jacobson, 29, an Internet consultant. "It reminds me of the dot-com era. What would make it better is if they had a Santa dancing in a thong on the bar. That would be like a 9.5."
The holiday party season is in full swing, and even without a naked Santa, there is a lot going on. Business has been booming at new steakhouses like STK in the meatpacking district and Porter House New York in the Time Warner Center, at the resurrected palaces of excess Le Cirque and the Russian Tea Room, and at the Nokia Theater in Times Square, a newer addition to the music and event circuit. All are fully booked this month -- and into the next -- with events for financial companies, law firms, media conglomerates and tech businesses.
Driven by higher salaries in the financial and technology industries and bigger Wall Street bonuses, corporate events are larger, more creative and often costlier than in the recent past, party planners, restaurant owners and banquet managers say.
"We're having a really ridiculous fabulous season," said Serena Bass, the Manhattan caterer who has spent more than two decades in the corporate party business. "Two-thousand four was not so great. Last year was better, and this year is really, really great. The numbers are bigger. Last year we were getting a lot of 150. Now were getting 250, 350, 450."
Ninety percent of the parties at the Russian Tea Room, which reopened last month, will have caviar and vodka service, at a cost of as much as US$500 a person, said Ken Biberaj, a spokesman for the restaurant. Even ice sculptures are back: Behind the glowing white bar at the Fox party, held at Studio 450, a loft in Chelsea, there was one in the shape of a giant letter I (for "Interactive").
As lavish as the parties are, they are still not quite up to dot-com era excess. But at a time when the Dow has reached new highs and the haves are evolving into the have mores, these celebrations are more in line with the buoyant economic mood than with the discouraging situation in Iraq. This season, there is a greater willingness to throw more elaborate parties, complete with themes, video displays and specialty cocktails.
"In the past, we had the idea, `We're in a war,'" said Danielle Venokur, the general manager of L'Olivier, a florist and event production company with offices in Chelsea and on the Upper East Side. "But for some reason, that's not in the forefront of everyone's mind right now."
She paused before adding: "That's a little scary."
Nonetheless, she said, people are definitely spending more this year, and are not shy about letting it show.
"We're doing a lot more sparkle, a lot more shimmer," Venokur said. "They're not so scared to be showy."
To liven up their events even further, many planners are borrowing ideas from clubland and Hollywood, creating plush lounges and adding US$5,000 lighting set-ups and video effects. Some are even offering bottle service and VIP seating, where chief executives and other high-ranking officials either occupy a separate area of the party, or have a more private event with, as Bass put it, "less loud music, slightly brighter lights and better wine" before their employees are admitted.
"We've gotten several requests for club-style additions to the party," said Joseph Cozza, the vice president of sales for banquet spaces at Cipriani. "Different environments are very popular, either a small lounge area or deluxe bars."
One financial group is doing a lavish Art Deco gala, with a red, white and black theme, and a club-style entrance with a red carpet. Another, a real estate firm, had a Studio 54 theme party, complete with custom disco lighting, said Clifton Cloud, the production designer for Cipriani. Video displays are more common, too -- a fifth of this year's parties have them, he said, compared with a tenth last year.
And "everybody wants a specialty cocktail," said Marcey Brownstein, the caterer for the Fox party, which featured pomegranate martinis. The night life influence is so pronounced, she said, that it is even affecting the furniture: Sofas for lounging are a necessity, and tables and chairs have grown to bar height.
Having bottle service or waitresses assigned to couch clusters, Venokur said, feels "like you're in a club that's totally new," which is especially important for companies with young employees.
"The people running those companies are like in their 40s, and they were just doing the club thing," she said. "They want their party to be cool."
Though the VIP seating does not necessarily engender workplace bonhomie, the rest of the splurges are appreciated.
At the Fox party, Singh was impressed with the choice of wines.
"They went with a Montepulciano instead of the average merlot," she said.
And Sumner loved the scotch.
"You're not going to get that when you're out on a Saturday night with your friends," Sumner said.
Nor will you get hand-rolled cigars and custom ornaments (at a party on Monday for the Web site Thrillist.com), green-screen photos (at the Fox party, guests were made to look like they were on the American Idol set) and even a fireplace simulated on a giant video screen, complete with crackling sound effects, at Cipriani. (Take that, Channel 11 Christmas log!)
For a hedge fund company, L'Olivier is creating an Aspen chalet-themed gala at the Morgan Library, with Ralph Lauren-style decor and fake animal heads for mounting on the wall, at a cost of about US$100,000 (and that's before the food and drinks).
And at a luncheon for 80 ladies who do, Donna Soloway, the wife of Richard Soloway, the security expert, transformed the second floor of Le Cirque into a winter wonderland on Monday, with silvered pine cones resting on tufts of fake snow, crisp white linens, and tall vases of lilies. Guests like Denise Rich dressed the part, in pearly skirts and suits and fur chapeaux. One woman even donned a Santa hat. (Ivana Trump was an exception; she wore a gray pantsuit.)
Perhaps because of all the extra attention to detail, the holiday party season, which typically runs for the first few weeks of December, seems too brief to contain this year's extravagances.
"Our holiday parties started at the end of November," said Jim Brady, the owner of Loft 11, a set of rental spaces on the West Side. "They're starting earlier and they're going later. It's going right into the Christmas week, which it never used to do."
January, once considered a dead month when only restaurants and other service industry businesses had parties, is now an established option for companies that want their event to stand out (and their guests to recover from the holiday hustle), Bass said.
Of course, not everyone is experiencing a holiday surge.
"We're having exactly the same number of events that we've had in the past," said Julian Niccolini, an owner of the Four Seasons.
Still, even he admitted that the season for them had stretched out.
"It's very good for business, but I don't know if it's very good for the individuals," he said. "People get party burnout."
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