www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/nyregion/thecity/15part.html
Article Tools Sponsored By By KATHERINE BINDLEY Published: March 13, 2009 SPEND $500 on two magnums of Veuve Clicquot Champagne at Bagatelle on West 13th Street in the meatpacking district, and the bottles are delivered to your table with lighted sparklers stuck in their corks.
Enlarge This Image Michelle V Agins/The New York Times At Bagatelle Champagne comes with sparklers. Spend $2,500 on a jeroboam of Veuve Clicquot and some magnums of Dom Prignon, and the lights dim, the DJ cues up the theme from "Superman," and a waiter is hoisted onto the shoulders of his fellow servers. With a tablecloth knotted around his neck as a makeshift cape and his arms outstretched, he carries one of the blazing bottles of bubbly to your table.
Facebook and a dozen young women clad in sequins, stilettos and Chanel bags climbing onto chairs, banquettes, even tables -- any elevated surface that is sturdy enough to dance on. Christie Larkin, a 28-year-old who lives in Gramercy Park and works for a TriBeCa advertising agency, was brunching at Bagatelle for the first time. Champagne corks are always popping somewhere, of course, and the high life never disappears entirely, especially in New York. But these days, a $750 magnum of Perrier-Jout stands in striking contrast to the scene outside Bagatelle's glass-paneled door, where the Dow has lost half its value since the fall of 2007, the recession has claimed a net total of 44 million jobs since it began, more than 850,000 families lost their homes to foreclosure last year, and the word "depression" is being heard in the land. o For decades the New York brunch has been far more than just a meal. It is an institution, an event that can start in midmorning and continue until late afternoon, a ritual in which eggs Benedict are routinely washed down by a seemingly endless stream of mimosas and Bloody Marys. And in recent months, two restaurants in the meatpacking district have begun taking Saturday brunch to a remarkable level of indulgence and expense, even by New York standards. The latest incarnation of Saturday brunch began last April at Bagatelle, a French bistro with decorative moldings, crystal chandeliers and striking white dcor; Six months later, the high-end brunch arrived at Merkato 55, a space on Gansevoort Street that can accommodate about 300 people and typically attracts a younger and slightly less affluent crowd, though the term affluent in this context may be relative. The two scenes have recently garnered attention in the news media. Merkato 55 was voted "Best Bacchanal" by New York magazine this month. And the blog Guest of a Guest has weighed in on what the site describes as "the Battle of the Recession-Proof Brunches." The Saturday brunch scene at Bagatelle and Merkato 55 -- what some call the dance party brunch -- suggests what exclusive New York nightclubs like Tenjune and 1 Oak would look like if the DJ's arrived eight hours early and the bartenders served French toast. On any given Saturday, brunch enthusiasts can be found dancing on tables, throwing back tequila shots and racking up four- and five-figure tabs well before the sky turns dark. The aim is to make partyers feel as if they are sipping ros at an upscale cafe along the French Riviera. "They can feel like they've been away for a few hours in the South of France even though they're in New York," said Aymeric Clemente, one of the owners of Bagatelle, who grew up in Marseille and spent summers working in Saint-Tropez.
This confluence is extremely perplexing to some and makes perfect sense to others, the argument being that dancing and drinking are age-old antidotes to troubled times. "It's been really more crazy since the recession," said Mr Clemente, who is 35. "In a time of crises, you have a tendency of wanting to be with people and see if you can feed from their energy. If you feel sad, you want to go to a lively place, to recharge your battery." But even fans of the concept acknowledge it's over the top.
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