There was a strong flavor of déjà food on Tuesday night.
Superstar French chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten celebrated the 50th anniversary of his career at his Tin Building with a party eerily reminiscent of last year’s bash that launched the luxe food hall.
Guests were even greeted once again by event staff dressed up as newsies, just like last year, except this time they were handing out faux newspapers with a photo of Vongerichten as a youngster on the front page.
Still, if it ain’t broke (and, trust us, nobody at the caviar-and-truffle-heavy food court is broke), why fix it.
New Yorkers and the who’s who of the hospitality industry flocked to the food mecca at South Street Seaport, with guests including Martha Stewart, Ted Allen, and Indochine’s Jean-Marc Houmard noshed on bites from the Tin Building’s restaurants including abcV, Fulton Fish Co., and the hidden House of the Red Pearl, where we overheard former Danceteria queen Dianne Brill dishing about her new gig judging drag queens on “Drag Race Germany,” a show based off the American series, “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
Speaking of drag queens, New York drag performer CT Hedden made a rare party appearance out of drag. We spotted him chopping it up with New York Fashion Week legend Fern Mallis. Meanwhile, Russell Simmons’ youngest daughter, Aoki, roamed the hall with his longtime pal about town, Camilla Olsson.
Don Lemon and his real estate fiancé Tim Malone cackled away with actor George Hahn and writer Molly Jong-Fast. “Real Housewives Of New York” alumns Ramona Singer, Luann de Lesseps, and Carole Radziwill also made the guest list, as did actor Leon, Philip Bloch, Charlie Walk, Bon Appetit’s new editor-in-chief Jamila Robinson, Omar Hernandez, Ann Dexter-Jones, David Rabin, Daniel Boulud, Nolan Gerard Funk, Marvet Britto, James Hester, Alex and Keytt Lundqvist, Tom Silverman, Donna D’Cruz, Foodie magician Josh Beckerman, Marc Forgione, and Merv and Kamela Matheson, who partied with their 1-year-old daughter, Paris.