• by Kelly Samardak , September 29, 2010

ForbesLife 20th Anniversary, Andaz 5th Avenue, New York
September 28, 2010

Last night began with an "oh no, am I in the wrong location again?"

I peered into the window of Andaz, a Hyatt boutique hotel, and saw a couple of couples spotted about at somber-looking tables, sipping red wine and futzing with their ties.  I grimaced.  Either this was about to be the most boring party ever, or once again the location had moved and the nightlife reporter covering it wasn't notified. Or, in a more logical path, it was on the 2^nd floor. 

The elevator opened to the 2^nd floor and the kitchen of my dreams.  In fact, the whole room was one giant kitchen, with large pots of frothy broth, fat bowls of "root vegetables" (as M Booth & Associates' Frani Lieberman pointed out and became obsessed with) asparagus and tomatoes, and a cutting board with some sort of rubbed meat tube.  As with any kitchen large or small, the party could be found close to it. Well, that and the bar, which is where I found Greg Concha, designer for ForbesLife, plucking up his lemon-squeezed cocktails.  He then joined ForbesLife editorial researcher Ann Sackrider at the windows.

Munching near a towering pile of thinly sliced prosciutto (I think.  It was meat, regardless) I found Christine de Saint Andrew of Hermes, and Dana Hagendorf, a Luxury Marketing Executive.  

ForbesLife is new to me.  I hadn't heard of it before I got the invitation to their 20^th Anniversary party, but a quick glance around the room gave me the sweeping generalization that the "magazine" focuses on the wealthy lifestyle -- those bouncing on the lap of luxury.  In reality it's a bi monthly mag in print form, with the website thrown in for "presence."  While I may not fit the luxury target, I do fit the food target, and this party had something for every palate -- from little cornichons (which M Booth & Associates' Alyssa Galella then obsessed over) to slippery mussels to stinky cheese.

In the food line I found the very dapper President of Ermenegildo Zegna, Robert Ackerman as well as Charles Dubow, director of new products at BusinessWeek.com; ForbesLife Editor Richard Nalley; Julia Gabella; and Jill Heisler, Forbes Lifestyle Marketing Director.

Keeping a safe distance from the stinky cheese were Tom Davis, Jim Clauss, Regional Sales Director at Forbes magazine, and Sherry Phillips, President at Phillips Media.  I had to cut out just as the party was about to launch into the organized panel/interview portion, but not before I got to meet ForbesLife Founding Editor Christopher Buckley and Contributing Editor P.J. O'Rourke. 

My experience with O'Rourke is through my high school subscription to Rolling Stone when it was a fat, floppy, fun-to-read mag filled with colorful music-world photos, nightmarish stories from Hunter S.  Thompson with those ink/blood-splattered illustrations, and pieces by P.J. O'Rourke.  Of course I couldn't recall a thing he wrote about in my high school years, but that doesn't mean much considering I can't remember what I wore yesterday.

I skittered out the door, heading down to Soho for the next party....

Photos are up on Flickr!

Send invitations to kelly@mediapost.com!