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Matt Abramcyk and the Beatrice Inn

A look back at a New York scene

by
Adam Chandler
December 10, 2012
Beatrice Inn(Harper's Bazaar)
Beatrice Inn(Harper's Bazaar)

Today, The Cut (which is NOT a Jewish-themed magazine) is featuring an oral history of The Beatrice Inn, which for three short years was one of the really sceney places in New York. Craft cocktails, esoteric Continental music, and a living room feeling. It was exclusive, but strangely so, often a baffling crowd of randos and locals as well as celebrities and socialites.

As Neil Shah explains:

The door situation was always funny, because it was the type of place where, some of the nights there would be five really hot girls outside who would not have a hard time getting in anywhere else in New York, and then the door guy would be like, “Sorry, private party tonight.” And then a schlubby dude would just walk right in. The excuse you’d always got if they wouldn’t let you in was “private party,” which you knew was bullshit because other people were getting in.

Behind the project was Paul Sevigny, brother of actress Chloë Sevigny, and Matt Abramcyk, a graduate of the Orthdox private school Ramaz. Tucked away in the West Village, the spot became the target of police raids and noise complaints–Abramcyk’s brother Jack often DJed–before it closed in 2009.

It’s since reopened as a restaurant under new ownership–apparently they serve a pastrami taco–and Abramcyk has moved on to other projects. Nevertheless, the oral history is a compelling snapshot of a magnetic place that burst under the weight of its own coolness at a very strange moment in the history of the city. Or something like that.

Adam Chandler was previously a staff writer at Tablet. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Slate, Esquire, New York, and elsewhere. He tweets @allmychandler.