• by Kelly Samardak , July 1, 2008

Uptown and Uptown.net Celebrate Summer And Obama, Talay, Harlem
June 30, 2008

Trains derail, rollercoasters derail, and things like... well, anything on tracks derail. Though I do not run on tracks, I, too, tend to derail easily. For instance, yesterday I planned to hit the gym before hunting for the Uptown Magazine Summer Issue and Uptown.net launch party. But I walked by Friendhouse on the way home and had to stop in for sushi. There went the gym. I almost backed out of the Uptown party because hopstop, google maps and directions, and online reviews couldn't find Talay, the destination, on any maps. Go ahead, go to hopstop.com and choose destination 701 West 135^th Street. Told you.

Really, it's not a hard trip once you get off the subway at 137^th Street. I hail from the East Village, so heading to the upper Upper West Side of Manhattan is like another state to me. We dodged a full plastic bottle of orange stuff chucked at a young woman by a couple of young dudes while heading towards "the meatpacking district of Harlem" (AKA "MEHAR", coined by my favorite sparky PR firecracker, Jackie Saril, who attended with a neck-brace clad Karen Hertz, cofounder Squeakywheel Promotions). After that nice touch, I knew we were close because I could hear the whirring of the highway, indicating we were almost at the Hudson River, but there was no clear path to get down to where Talay was nestled, glowing deep blueish purple and thumping out "Jinglin' Baby" by LL Cool J.

My +1 and I descended a castle wall, past some distinct "this is where I come to pee" corners, and into the valet parking of Talay. Because Lexus of Manhattan sponsored the event with Courvoisier, shiny new cars were parked in front of the velvet rope, which were guarded by some sort of Thai lion fellow. Past the velvet rope we slipped, where Obama pins were plopped into our hands.

First line of business was the restroom. I stood in line behind a woman on her cell phone (sigh, why in the bathroom?) and got completely disoriented as one by one, men emerged from the stalls. I just stood there, feigning nonchalance, like I'm in bathrooms with dudes all the time, nothing new. I exited, hoping that it was unisex and I hadn't just looked creepy. I'm pretty creepy anyway.

Jackie led me up the deep red staircase, promising introduce me to "all the important people," nailing down Len Burnett first - you may remember him as the guy who launched Vibe, and he's currently cofounder and group publisher of Uptown, a glitzy niche mag aiming for the affluent African-American audience. My guest status fulfilled the American part at least. Someday I'd like to fall into some sort of affluent target market, but until then, I'll just trundle along as part of the in-debt, unmarried, not poor but paycheck-to-paycheck crowd (thank you, NYC rent!).

The champagne flowed, and some of it fell on Jocelyn Taylor, publisher of Uptown - who reacted gracefully as the bottle toppled from its soft and unstable perch and doused her legs in the sticky sweet bubbles. Waiter types weaved through the booty bumping and arm flailing with mouth-watering bite size bits. Talay is a Thai/Latin fusion joint, which confuses me in all the right ways.

Oh, big night people! I had my first ever "bottle service" experience! I usually reverse-snoot at that in the same way I react to cookie-cutter blue button-downs, but who am I to decline a bottle of champagne in the company of fellow seat dancers like the guy from Retina, Johnnie Roberts, writer at Newsweek, the Squeakywheel gals, the publishers of Uptown, and the ambassadors for Courvoisier? The only missing pieces (at least to my eyeballs) were the Uptown.net people -- who were sharing the celebration last night. I vote for another party just for Uptown.net... you know, so I can dance some more.

Cutting the heat with a chillfest and you want it covered in Just An Onlne Minute? Send invitations to kelly@mediapost.com

Scope out MEHAR in the pictures on Flickr!