A few years into working in advertising in NYC had brought me to the kind of nightlife that the papers write about. Exclusive events and spaces, glamorous people, and free, top-shelf drinks. But I found that I didn’t enjoy them as much as I had the parties of my youth.

I realized that there really was something different about born-and-raised New Yorkers, and that parties had very little to do with how nice the hor d'oeuvres were. It’s about the people you’re with, and how interesting they are. And oddly enough, a lot of celebrities, scenesters and hypebeasts are not that interesting, or fun at parties.

So I started throwing OGNY, a bi-monthly party with a core guest list of only born-and-raised New Yorkers. They could bring whoever they wanted, but the invites only went out to people who grew up in the 5 boroughs.

It was a fun party while it lasted. The kind of scene where the music was all over the place on paper but hung together perfectly when you heard it. The sort of place where you could meet someone new and talk with them for hours, and everyone, regardless of what they were wearing had the kind of style that you keep in a glance, a flick of the wrist, or the way you walk.