Even Fashion People Eat
Sunday night after the Badgley Mischka show, we found ourselves in downtown Manhattan on Kenmare Street at La Esquina, passing through a silver metal door marked "No Admittance." La Esquina is one of those New York restaurants that make you wonder how and why certain elements converge to transform a perfectly fine Mexican restaurant into one that is on the hot list.
At street level, La Esquina (646-613-7100) is an unassuming diner offering serviceable tacos and quesadillas. The real action is the downstairs bar and dining area. To get there, you have to get past the man with the mysterious accent and the clipboard who stands guard over the metal door.
If your name is on the list - and ours was after dutifully calling precisely two weeks in advance - you wind your way down the stairs and through the kitchen and into a tiny foyer where another person double checks that your name is on the list and you haven't somehow slipped past guard number one.
Karl Lagerfeld (AP/Francois Mori)
We made our way down the staircase and into the speakeasy style dining room, just behind Salman Rushdie, who happens to be a big fan of fashion - or at least fashion shows because we always see him at Luca Luca. Turns out there's a dinner going on in honor of Edun, the crunchy-granola, save-the-world-one-seamstress-at-a-time fashion line created by Bono, his wife and the man behind Rogan jeans. We are please to report that Bono himself was on the premises. He was wearing his sunglasses at night. He was short, which does not take away from the fact that he is handsome and talented and trying to end poverty as we know it.
We caught sight of Jefferson Hack, the editor of Dazed and Confused who is famous for being the father of Kate Moss's baby. He is the sort of man who wears a constant sneer and has one of those haircuts that looks like it was executed with a pocket knife, thus making it exceptionally hip.
We still haven't quite figured out why La Esquina has become such a magnet for fashion types. Supposedly it is one of Karl Lagerfeld's favorite restaurants but we don't know why this matters since KL claims that he has reached a higher state of being and no longer requires food. But Sunday night it was filled with models (Shouldn't they be asleep getting their beauty rest?) as well as retailers from Barneys New York and Nordstrom.
The restaurant boasts something like 100 different kinds of tequila. The food is good, but not irresistible. And that ultimately might be why it's so popular among the fashion crowd.
By Robin Givhan |
February 6, 2006; 10:56 PM ET
New York
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Posted by: Dave | February 7, 2006 9:40 AM
I just can't picture Lagerfeld chowing down on Mexican food.
Posted by: Washington DC | February 7, 2006 10:40 AM
Who cares about this stuff? All I want to know is which contestants on Project Runway are going to show on Friday. Come on Robin, you're a reporter - dig up some scoop! Pretty please!
Posted by: meg | February 7, 2006 1:36 PM
Love "this stuff." I'll catch Project Runway on bravo. Ms. Givhan, you're columns/blogs are delightful.
Posted by: Ahh Meg? | February 7, 2006 4:01 PM
YAY, Robin Givhan has a blog! What fun!
Love the columns and you were fabulous on the Colbert Report as well...
Posted by: Allison | February 7, 2006 9:25 PM
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One hundred kinds of tequila, huh?