The Downtown Dossier: A Night Out With Mr. (Steve) Lewis

Posted by The Downtown Diaries on January 21, 2010 · 1 Comment 

What was supposed to be a feature in my column – ‘A Night Out With’ turned out to be ‘A Dinner with’, but nonetheless I got some one-on-one time with the man, the myth, the legend  – and fellow Queens native – Mr. Steve Lewis.   Although ‘Uncle Steve’ was dealing with a PR crisis, regarding his latest article discussing independent clubs versus clubs attached to hotels(Thompson Hotels was not very happy with him.)  BUT he still had a little time to sit down with TDD and pass the torch to the new princess of nightlife.   Well, not really, but HE DOES back The Downtown Diaries has his set of young eyes on the nightlife scene, and I back that.

Steve and I met at the Paper Mag Nightlife Awards, and had arranged to do a little cross interview.  We both showed up with no official questions in mind, and this is what went down.

The setting: Prince Street Cafe (loved)
What he got: a fruit cup, and the clam chowder
What I got: mushroom barely soup and the house salad
The situation: Steve interviewed me first for his BlackBook Mag column Good Night Mr. Lewis, which you can find [here.] Then I interviewed him. We listened to Motown music in the background, enjoyed good food, and talked about nightlife.

Steve has been interviewed hundreds of times by almost every nightlife writer, so I am not going to recite the whole transcript here, mostly because my notes are barely legible.   But I will provide you with the nitty gritty.

The Nitty:

• Steve Lewis is originally from Jackson Heights, New York. (Queens)  Not far from where TDD grew up!
• Steve Lewis has ran iconic and legendary, clubs including Limelight, Palladium, Tunnel, Life, Redzone, Plaid, and more *including my old home away from home, Shampoo Nightclub in the Philladelph*. Chances are if you are reading this blog, and from the area, you have snuck in to at least one of these clubs while in high school.
• Steve is a full time hospitality designer and owns his own company called Lewis and Dezon – with Mark Dezon.  Together they have designed, from soup to nuts, the majority of Manhattan’s nightlife hotspots. Including: Griffin, Butter, Marquee, Amalia, Red Velvet, Aspen, Aspen Social Club, Webster Hall, CV, and Hudson Terrace.
• He is currently working with Scott Sartiano and Richie Akiva on the old PLUMM space as we speak *he wouldn’t give me an opening date, but he did tell me ASAP* and a few mega-clubs in Vegas.
• They call him Uncle Steve because he’s worked with everyone in the game including Noah Tepperberg, Jason Strauss, Paul Sevigny, Mark Baker, Justine D, Scott Sartiano and Richie Akiva, and just about everyone else you can think of. He had big budgets, so he hired the best of the best.
• Little known fact: Steve spent some time in the slammer in 2002 for conspiracy to traffic narcotics.  While locked up, Steve focused on his writing skills, when he got out, he started blogging for JoonBug.
• He currently has two columns in Blackbook Mag, Good Night Mr. Lewis and Dear Uncle Steve: Relationship Advice from Steve Lewis and a Girl.
• Favorite places to go are Lit Lounge *where his bday party will be held,* La Esquina, 1Oak, SubMercer, and Bowery Electric.
• Steve does not drink.  “A mind is a terrible thing to get wasted”
• Steve Lewis is 2ce divorced, and amazingly single.  He liked to date younger women – he’s attracted to young eyes, heart, perspective, and passion and is looking for  bright, artistic, and beautiful downtown girl. Know anyone?!?!?

The Gritty:

• Steve Lewis on Nightlife’s past: “Things were looser back then…it was easier to have fun, but people were overdosing, the clubs were filled with mobsters, club kids, etc.  People were dying, and getting their lives ruined by the clubs.” *We all know what happened in Party Monster, the story based on SL’s old business partner, Michael Alig*
• Steve Lewis on Nightlife’s present: “Nightlife is as good as its going to be for right now.  It’s heavily regulated, but at least people aren’t dying.  Everyone is talking about the smoking ban, but I think it’s a good thing.  Less people will die of cancer.”
• Steve Lewis on Nightlife’s future: “The future is in hotels, for the sheer cost of doing business. A hotel gives an operator free security, free insurance, free publicity, plus lots of guests.  It’s safer and easier to work out of a hotel.  But there will be some backlash against it and  there will also be a rebirth of a true, underground scene, smaller places where culture is being curated.”
• Steve Lewis on the Brooklyn scene: “Brooklyn is now a viable community, may be even more viable than NY.  There is nothing cosmopolitan about it – it’s still very stripped down.  You can’t deny the music scene coming of Brooklyn.  I am not dragged to come out there anymore. I cross commute…often, much more often then people think.  I like the place, I hate to admit it, but I like the place. Brookyln doesn’t have to apologize for itself anymore.  It’s not a second class borough, it’s the real deal and in many ways, it more cultural than Manhattan – for a very downtown crowd.”

Filed under Dossier, NightLIFE · Tagged with 1oak, Amalia, and Bowery Electric., and Hudson Terrace, Aspen, Aspen Social Club, blackbook, butter, CV, designer, Good Night Mr. Lewis and Dear Uncle Steve: Relationship Advice from Steve Lewis and a Girl., Griffin, Jason Strauss, joonbug, Justine D, La Esquina, Lewis and dezon, Life, Limelight, Lit Lounge, Mark Baker, mark dezon, Marquee, Nells, NightLIFE, Noah Tepperberg, Palladium, Paul Sevigny, Plaid, prison, Red Velvet, Redzone, Scott Sartiano and Richie Akiva, steve lewis, Submercer, The Plumm, Tunnel, Webster Hall