Out & About
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Few kept their New Year’s diet resolutions at the Debauve & Gallais chocolate tasting Thursday night.
The Paris chocolate maker, which opened a boutique on Madison Avenue in November, generously passed out its pralines, truffles, and croquamandes, which cost about $100 a pound.
What goes into such chocolate? Turkish raisins, Spanish almonds, and Antilles rum. They’re made in small batches in Paris and shipped weekly to the New York store.
A pharmacist to King Louis XVI, Sulpice Debauve, opened his first shop on the left bank of Paris in 1800. Past fans include Brillat-Savarin, Proust, Baudelaire, and Hugo, the company claims.
Among the chocoholics present was Daniel Boulud, who, with the help of friends over Christmas, went through a 2-pound box of Debauve & Gallais chocolate in two days; the president of Chopard, Thiery Chaunu; and foodie and soap opera actress Robin Mattson.
Susan Liebman tries to have a piece of chocolate every day. “It makes me happy,” Ms. Liebman said. “It’s like a drug,” Pierre Lenis said of his favorite kind – dark chocolates with raspberry or hazelnut filling.
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A young man in a cashmere coat spoke softly to the crowd before him. “Only members with their cards will be let in,” he said.
Those standing outside the new private club Fizz on its opening night were perplexed.
“But my mother is inside,” an olive-skinned gentleman whined.
“Talk to him again,” urged one friend to another, who was nearer to the man with the clipboard.
“Come out here and get me!” an Italian woman pleaded into her cell phone.
Eventually, those who belonged inside found their way to the Fizz’s opening party on its lower level, in a room decorated with red curtains, leather chairs, and bejeweled columns – a pleasing architectural detail that represents the club’s luxurious-yet-whimsical image.
The owners of Fizz are fiercely protective of their members, since it is meant as a secret little place for an attractive bunch of New Yorkers and Europeans who want to have a (refined) blast far away from the Chelsea nightclub scene (Fizz is in a corner of Midtown dominated by office buildings).
About 200 people danced and drank at the opening party party. A drummer enhanced the beats of an eclectic music selection that included Usher, the Gypsy Kings, and the Supremes.
