When Bruni pooh-poohed the Charles’s whole newspaper-on-the-windows gimmick (“the newspapers are at first funny, then odd, then just sort of sad”), owner Cobi Levy told us that Cynthia Rowley, for one, adored the newspapers. He promptly replaced them with Bruni’s review, and the Charles’s aura of cheeky exclusivity lived on. But last night, nudged by the 75-degree weather, the restaurant opened its hinged windows — and even its front door! That’s right, like Lindsay Lohan dropping the gauze veil, the Charles showed its cards!
Despite the need for air, the place hardly seemed like a celebrity hotbed, but then again the windows weren’t really open in the back — maybe that was the VIP area and, like, Bobby D. was behind the newspapers, feasting on the $20 burger? Or maybe the hinge was just stuck — who knows with this place! Either way, let this be word to the paparazzi that the ever-so-glamorous fashionistas of the Charles are now in plain view! (Maybe the paparazzi, unlike Bruni, can tell whether that’s Maggie Gyllenhaal at the next table or just a trust-funded look-alike?)
Speaking of exclusive West Village lairs with window issues, we noticed the Beatrice has covered up its windows (with boards, not newspapers) after vandals apparently smashed them. That’ll show the doorman!
