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.

And They Partied Like It Was 1899

The costumery was straight out of an Edith Wharton novel, but last night's party at The Box was anything but a dainty homage to the age of innocence. Sponsored by nerve.com and Hendrick's Gin, the invitation-only burlesque event welcomed a packed house of party-goers, all of whom impressed in their nineteenth-century finery. They sipped vintage-inspired cocktails while taking in the bawdy theatrics unfolding on stage and in the air. If this is what life was like in the nineteenth century, put us on the waiting list for a time machine. From hats to corsets, gowns to morning coats, the only things not period-accurate last night were the ever-present BlackBerrys. A small price to pay for a glimpse of life in an age that revealed less but foretold so much more.

For more photos, click here.