Forget Zero Bond and Casa Cipriani, New York City’s most exclusive private club is a poker venue above a Korean restaurant on East 58th Street.
Tony Park, a real estate mogul who owns Anto Korean Steakhouse, wanted an exclusive hideaway where he and his wealthy friends, mostly financiers and businessmen, could hang out above his upscale restaurant.
So, in December, the 47-year-old opened a private club on the third floor. Members pay $20,000 a year to socialize, receive preferential treatment at Anto, smoke cigars, play poker and do karaoke.
Privileges include monogrammed flatware and personalized lockers for storing bottles of Macallan, expensive cigars and the like: “Anything they don’t want to take home,” Park told the Post.
Tony Park at the chef’s table on the second floor of his Anto Korean Steakhouse. Upstairs, there’s a private club with poker, karaoke, cigars and single malt whiskey. Brian Zak/NY Post
Members also get their own space key, which they can access at any time.
“There’s one member who likes to come in before work to smoke a cigarette and drink coffee,” Park said. “He comes in and goes up the stairs.”
Poker nights often begin with dinner downstairs, where steak and lobster are presented in a Louis Vuitton suitcase, with steaming dry ice, and caviar is served over mini Korean potato pancakes.
Dinner, which includes options of caviar, oysters, duck, American wagyu and other delicacies, is presented in Louis Vuitton suitcases on steaming dry ice. Brian Zak/NY Post Shortly after the presentation. the steak is cooked on a tabletop grill. Brian Zak/NY Post
The club developed organically. Park’s friends often used a private dining room on the second floor for drinking and playing cards until the early hours of the morning, but he wanted the space to be used for its intended purposes.
So he transformed the third-floor apartment into a luxurious man cave decorated in rich browns and equipped with a leather couch, a big-screen TV, a well-stocked liquor cart, a humidor loaded with cigars, and a karaoke machine. which works in three languages.
“I told to my [guys], ‘Do you want to play poker? Go upstairs. If you want to sing, go up. Do you want to smoke cigars? Go upstairs,’” he said.
But his source of pride is the leather and cloth poker table. “I just got it,” Park said enthusiastically.
The dealer, a Wharton graduate, was new to poker, but learned the game quickly. Brian Zak/NY Post
There are currently 20 members and the park cannot accommodate more than 32.
On a recent Wednesday night, about ten players gathered around a table to play no-limit Texas Hold’em. (The game is completely legal since it takes place in a private place and the house does not benefit financially).
Thirty-year-old Macallan and Cabernet Sauvignon, drawn from a cellar with almost 5,000 bottles, flowed freely. A modern ventilation system cleaned the air of cigarette smoke. A lone woman snuck into the dealer’s place, despite knowing nothing about poker.
“Of course he thought about it,” said one real estate agent at the game. “He graduated from Wharton.”
Members use their lockers to store whiskey, cigars and monogrammed cutlery. Brian Zak/NY Post
The action was swift and reckless, with bankers and financiers placing excessive bets without worry.
The exuberant and lucky Park won a hand because his rags were better than those of his boastful opponent.
A player at the table asked good-naturedly, “How am I going to lose in this game?” ”
The cards are in the air and the chips are on the table at Tony Park’s private club. Brian Zak/NY Post
Around 10:30 p.m., Park ordered Little Italy Pizza (he likes that the crust is made with Japanese breadcrumbs) and then asked his restaurant manager to bring him the best cognac in the house. The game continued until after midnight.
As the French libation was poured, a Wall Street executive dressed in a Run DMC sweatshirt, picked up a pot and gushed, “When I think of hospitality, I think of Tony. He is a real estate guy who has the luxury of being good to his friends.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn