Ever wonder who’s behind the design of hot spots like STK? BlackBook interviews the founder of design firm ICRAVE, Lionel Ohayon (he’s also a partner in, oh, pretty much the entire meatpacking district: Kiss & Fly, Bagatelle, Tenjune, One Little West 12, and STK), and finds out how he got his start: “I was once a street vendor. I sold sunglasses and T-shirts. We were really just trying to pick up girls.” He’s gotten more ambitious since then. He’s already trying to expand Kiss & Fly around the world, even though it has only been open half a year. Hey, if you can make it open a club here, you can make it open a club anywhere!

Prime Mover: Lionel Ohayon, Design’s Dark Magician [BlackBook]

Have you ever wanted to read seven paragraphs about the décor of a meatpacking-district nightclub? BlackBook’s Website thinks you do — and so they’ve started a column, Dark Design, that “explores nightlife spaces through the art of human aesthetics.” Ooo-kay. First up, a verbose look at iCrave’s design for Tenjune (where, incidentally, we're told Paris Hilton and Benji Madden were filming for her upcoming MTV show last night): “The new generation of luminaries wants to mix with those who want to be luminous. The new VIP is not a person; it is a ‘very important place.’” Um, good to know. And another head-scratcher: “The powerful now want the popular power of the circular dance floor. It’s high time to have high times in the Obama oval, while the Bush back room says good-bye.” Maybe in the days of mazelike megaclubs like Limelight, this column would’ve made sense (assuming it was written in a way that, uh, made sense), but, really, how much can be said about the interior of, say, Santos' Party House? Though we’re sure Dark Design will have much to say about the downstairs “conversation pit.”

Dark Design: Tenjune [BlackBook]

With Florent and the Hog Pit closing because their rents have been raised to a reported $50,000 and $40,000 a month, respectively, Shecky’s charts what it calls the “de-evolution” of the meatpacking district — putting the peak at 1999–2000, when Pastis, Lotus, APT, and Passerby opened. Ah, what a time it was. But don’t get too teary eyed — in a video interview, Florent says that he doesn’t have a nostalgic bone in his body (though he wants to write his memoirs) and that, after all, he came to New York because it was all about flux. For those who are prone to wistfulness, we’ll be there to film Florent’s last night of business, on June 28.

Racid: The De-Evolution of the Meatpacking District [Shecky’s]

Andrea Strong reports that Jeffrey Chodorow will open another Kobe Club, in East Hampton (our Kobe waiter did tell us to expect more locations…), and Oso Steakhouse will open in the Southampton Inn with chef Peter Dunlop. Down by the Hipster, meanwhile, has it that, in addition to returning to their current Southampton location, Pink Elephant partners David Sarner and Bobby Montwaid are taking over Stereo’s old space at Tavern, with Pavan and Shaun Rose as partners. It still isn’t clear whether Stereo or Tenjune will return to the scene this year — perhaps another Houston’s slap down will decide who gets to stake their claim.

Hamptons Steakhouse Alert [Strong Buzz]
Hamptons Are for Partners [DBTH]

Steve Lewis’s blog continues to offer depressing snapshots of contemporary nightlife: In an interview in which Tenjune owners Eugene Remm and Mark Birnbaum try to explain why you should blow $5,000 dollars to sit at one of their tables, they tell anyone who isn’t a corporate type like them to forget about opening a club these days. Birnbaum shrugs off a feud with Stereo’s Mike Satsky (Birnbaum: “how silly is it when someone goes out of their way for no apparent reason to make an enemy out of you, because now instead of referring business to someone…”) and seems to slag on Lotus, the club that Tenjune will be joint-venturing with: “Lotus is still busy because they’re all tourists to be honest.” The real eye-opener, however, is that the guys, who say that hotels are their next area of conquest, seem to have all but given up on the meatpacking district.

During last night's CB3 meeting, partner Andrew Salmon would reveal only that Momofuku Ko will hit capacity at fourteen, with no waiters and with fixed menus changing daily. “You sit directly across from the cook,” Salmon told the board. He kept the “vaguely Asian” food quiet, conceding only that it would include “all local ingredients … all sustainable development.” Unfortunately, he didn’t take the time to make sure a petition was including in the application, so no motion could be passed. Projected opening date: two weeks' time!

Lotus partner David Rabin has confirmed rumors that Tenjune's Mark Birnbaum and Eugene Remm will be involved in the club. “The plan for the new venue and the timing are not set yet,” he writes in an email to us, “but it'll be a JV [joint venture]. We are enthused about Mark and Eugene’s involvement. Fortunately, Lotus is still holding its own.” So much so, in fact, that as we pointed out yesterday, new nightclub Suzie Wong might just have taken inspiration from Lotus’s logo. “The similarity in logos is more than a bit odd,” Rabin says. “Maybe they want to buy our old Suzie Wong neon sign at a discount? I hope they have better luck with the concept than we did.” Adding to the intrigue, Down by the Hipster e-mails to point us to the logo of popular cocktail bar Suzy Wong in Amsterdam, shown above. Cue “Double Vision.”

Earlier: Suzie Wong Gives Us a Case of Déjà Vu

A tipster tells Down by the Hipster that Michael Satsky, owner of the recently raided Stereo, approached Tenjune partner Mark Birnbaum at Houston’s and “walked directly up to him and hit him ‘openhanded’ out of his chair. He then proceeded to put him in a headlock.” The catalyst of that brawl, the source says, is that Tenjune stole DJ Suss One away from Stereo. We asked both parties for comments, and they were quick to offer statements.

The Tenjune lads aren’t the only ones to recommend not-exactly-under-the-radar places in Belvedere’s “keys to the city” series: The interview with Marquee’s “head doorman/actor” Wass makes us want to hand him a douche card, Centro Vinoteca’s Anne Burrell plugs no fewer than four Batali restaurants, and pretty much everyone plugs the Spotted Pig.

Our fave waitress Courtney Yates isn’t the only face Belvedere Vodka is using to try to look cool — the company, in association with UrbanDaddy, is running Web interviews with David Rabin, owner of Los Dados and Lotus, and Eugene Remm and Mark Birnbaum, owners of Tenjune. Remm and Birnbaum don’t exactly steer toward the underexposed when asked for their favorite restaurants: BondSt, Nobu, Bar Pitti, Los Dados, Mr. Chow, the Spotted Pig, Pastis, Buddakan, Dos Caminos Soho, Cipriani, Butter, Rose Bar, and Waverly Inn.

Though rumor had Double Happiness and its upstairs bar Palais Royale closing in late August to make way for former Tenjune promoter Emma Cleary’s restaurant and lounge Femme Fatale, it remains open. Now we can report that September 29 will be the place’s last night, when we can only assume that nostalgic types who did their first bump in the bathroom will tear the abacuses from the wall before the double doors are chained shut once and for all. Don’t like the idea of another velvet rope in the neighborhood? Just remember, the current incarnation was supposedly a gay social club and mafia hangout. Emma’s door will be a breeze in comparison.

Earlier: Double Happiness to Get $1 Million Makeover, Reopen to Privileged Few