Raise Your Glasses!

The stoic lions guarding the New York Public Library main branch, on Fifth Avenue, never flinched. And yet, streaming past them up the stairs and into the great marble hall of learning were 2,500 (perhaps more) revelers with one thing on their minds: a good, stiff drink. With liquor companies from Belvedere to Maker's Mark to Hendrick's Gin setting up shop in the grand library's three stories (and its lower level, too, where Ketel One, Don Julio, et al set up a re-creation of the city's famed and long-gone Stork Club), New Yorkers had come out to party. And despite being given wrist-bands that urged them to behave (wink, wink), the evening's attendees knew that the order of the night was to sample as many different mixologist-created cocktails as possible, while dancing and mingling the night away.

This was the Classic's second gala outing, a sequel to a smaller but still ambitious event last fall, also held in the Library. Organizers nonetheless promised bigger and better and in that, they did not disappoint, as stilt-walkers, burlesque performers, magicians and other creatures of the night roamed the halls. Although food was in perilously scant supply, the event's 9 p.m. start time was apparently the cue that event organizers expected ticket-holders to have dinner before coming to the gala. Also making matters a bit uncomfortable was the toasty temperature in the Library, no doubt exacerbated by the presence of so many well-lubricated party-goers in a building that tends to attract patrons who are considerably more sedate.

How the library's cleaning crew got the space ready for opening time the following day we don't know, but suffice it to say that we're sure they did, and for that we are duly impressed.

For more pix from the party, click here.

The Wearing of the Green

It might be St. Patrick's eve, but the celebration for the new book Black is the New Green had little to do with Ireland and everything to do with the purchasing power of what are called AAAs--Affluent African Americans. Written by Uptown magazine publisher Len Burnett and by Andrea Hoffman (left), founder of a market research firm called Diversity Affluence, the tome talks about the buying habits of wealthy people of color in the United States, a group whose purchasing power is expected to reach $1.1 trillion by 2012.

There was certainly affluence on show during the book launch this evening, which was held at the North Cabana of the Maritime Hotel, in Chelsea. Sponsored by Belvedere Vodka, the soirée amply demonstrated that the Irish aren't the only ones who know how to have fun with a little green. For a look at the book, check it out here. For more party pics, click here.