Skylight

Skylight is a beautiful space to have an event. It’s too bad its not a full time club.
I’ve been to Skylight several times in the past few years, always for the Johnnie Walker tasting events (which are awesome, by the way) and I always have a good experience. The space itself is bare and open. It reminds me of a museum or a gallery without art. The corridors and rooms are large enough to have cars drive though them. I know very little about audio/​video equipment or electrical set ups, but I know Skylight can handle 360 video projection, several banks of Ipad stations, indoor red carpet photo areas, bars, lounge areas and probably stilt walkers if that’s what you wanted.
Like Greenhouse and City Winery up the street, this space could take advantage of the relatively low population density and proximity to the Tunnel to be a viable club or clubs. Unlike those other two, I only think Skylight opens for private events. That is a shame, as much as I love Johnnie Walker.
Have fun.
G

I was here last night for an event
was having in NYC. This style night event was to meet all of their New York members, as well as give us a sneak peak at their new jean collection. The gathering was fabulous, a cocktail party with a runway show that included special guest and great supporter Kimora Lee Simmons.
The venue is a wide, clean space with high ceiling. A space that can be transformed for whatever event you are planning to have. The facility even has a kitchen for any catering or on-​site entertaining needs.
I was blown away with the setup JustFab had. A beautiful back drop, a runway with stage, white sofas on each side for VIP guest, three (3) bars, photo booths, a step and repeat, so much going on but the best part was the all white linen fitting rooms to try on our FREE new jeans… That’s right, they gave us all free jeans from their new collection to take home.
Fabulous event in fabulous venue, makes for a justfab time ;)
Look into this space for your next event.

After attending an event at this space the other day, I came away trying to estimate the amount of moola needed to create a truly interesting, exciting event in the white, bare space.
As a venue, it’s classy and chic.
From the perspective of an event planner, it’s several months of work. The empty whiteness needs to be color lit, the audio needs to be set up and stretched to the far corners of the room and the ground needs something to un-​hinge it from the wall and add dimension. Furniture needs to be brought in, electricians, and coat closet workers. The beauty is both in the simplicity of the space, and the amount of imagination (and $$$) to execute a really fantastic event or show here.

A large space for the Architectural League’s Beaux-​Arts Ball in 2008, this high-​ceiling, white-​wall location fit quite well. They had a large room divided by sheets and lighting (though lots of wiring had to be done) all around. Smaller rooms in the back had plenty of space for hanging things from the ceiling like balloons and projectors.
Bathrooms, kitchen, and coat check all off the main hallway which is perpendicular to the entry hall at the beginning; smaller rooms are along the edges and in the back.
Only thing here… it got hot with a lot of people inside. Lots of heat, not enough cooling, and this was in May… ah, well.

2008 Plate by Plate Benefit was held here. Volunteered from 5pm-​close. Tickets were $ 150 and all proceeds went to Voice Your Vote. This event is held annually by Project by Project, a group of volunteers dedicated to helping causes in the Asian community. Job duties included, removing trash from stand up tables, emptying trash cans, grabbing drinks for the chefs, helping out the chefs however we can (more plates, forks, etc).
Here’s the verdict:
(I will denote the standouts with an asterisk)
–Baking by Design — Chambord soaked raspberries & white chocolate mousse — very nice use of fondant in their displays, but too bad their dessert didn’t deliver for me
–Wine Cellar Sorbets — Champagne, Rose, Sangria, Cabernet Sauvignon, Riesling, Port, Sake, Pinot Noir — cab is the best, hands down, then riesling
–Ilili — Sweetbreads w/​garlic whip, lamb ribs — lamb was very good, sweetbreads just OK
*South Gate [Kerry Heffernan] — Roast breast of Capon with basquaise peppers and coriander emulsion — a capon is a rooster whose reproductive organs were removed at a young age, OUCH, less testosterone is better tasting chicken, i liked it, well done
–Riingo [Jimmy Lappalainen] — miso cured salmon with daikon and pea shoots — good but generic, didn’t wow me, salmon was tataki style
–One if By Land, Two If By Sea [Craig Hopson] — Smoked salmon, avocado tapenade, caviar and fried shallots — cutesy in display, mushy in consistency but very flavorful
*Morimoto [Masaharu Morimoto] — Foie gras chawan mushi, fresh wasabi, soy sauce — amazing, we got sous chef Chris plenty of beers to keep his focus
–Highline/​Tong Thai Brasserie [Peter Pitakwong] — Braised beef short ribs w/​northern ‘hin-​ley’ curry, watermelon pickles and 2hr poached egg — not as tender as i would like, very complex curry though
–Icon [Michael Wurster] — Chicken Lollipops with maytag blue cheese, hot sauce and micro celery — quality blue, lolli was ok, nothing special
–Thalassa [Ralpheal Abrahante] — Diver sea scallops cured in EVOO over caviar mousse — tender scallops, nothing too memorable
–Fleur de Sel [Cyril Renaud] — Brittany buckwheat crêpe and Raspberry chocolate tart — crêpe had ikura on top, strange twist, tart was just OK
–Hudson Yards Catering [Robb Garceau] — Braised berkshire pork cannelloni with cashews, leeks and apple-​smoked bacon jus — wasn’t crazy about this, tons of leftovers at the end, tasted quite generic
*Peacock Alley [Cedric Tovar] — Grilled pork belly skewer with espresso yuzu caramel — this was AMAZING!, melt in your mouth goodness, tasted like butter, PURE CRACK!
–Elettaria [Akhtar Nawab] — Marinated calamari w/​cranberry beans, pickled cauliflower, ginger-​carrot vinaigrette — not sure if i like beans w/​calamari, just OK
*Kyotofu [Pauline Balboa] — coconut macaroon, black sesame macaroon w/​red bean filling, chocolate macaroon, chocolate cake w/​vanilla cream and green mochi on top — i esp liked the black sesame/​red bean combo, lethal!
–EN [Yasuhiro Honma]- Chicken tsukune — served cold, it was tasty, but would have preffered it hot i think
–French Culinary Institute [Nils Noren] — tuna bite — all display, nothing to write home about
–Blue Smoke [Ken Callaghan] — rib — not as tender as I would have liked, smoky in flavor though, average
–Cakeman Raven [Raven Dennis III] — acapulco cake, red velvet cupcake w/​pineapple cream cheese — this cream cheese was CRACKTACULAR!, cake part was OK, well done
–Chanterelle [Kate Zuckerman] — Maple star anise crème caramel w/​huckleberries — licorice and caramel? kinda like a crème brûlée minus the blowtorch, very complex but i don’t like those two ingredients so i’m biased
–Bouley [David Bouley] — shrimp in black truffle sauce w/​baby bok choy, hearts of palm — black truffle sauce was great, quite decadent, shrimp was high quality
*Matsuri [Tadashi Ono] — duck breast w/​andalusian pasta w/​wasabi sauce — so good, reminded me of one of the few dishes that Ko did well
–Persimmon [Youngsun Lee] — marinated eggplant — served cold, just OK
–Red Egg [Mei Kun Chen] — Ají De Gallina spicy shredded chicken served with rice and potatoes — looks like curry with deep yellow color but tastes like bland shredded chicken
*Grom — Fiordilatte & Menta w/​whole milk & mint, Lampone w/​raspberry pulp, Bacio inspired by traditional turin gianduja cream w/​hazulnut chips — bacio was amazing, chocolate w/​hazelnut combo was to die for, tasted bits of nuts in this, very rich!
–Trois Pommes Patisserie [Emily Isaacs] — PB sandwich cookies, just OK
–GuS — all their regular flavors plus, new soda in a can
–Quady Winery — tried their black muscat wine at the end, very good
–Honest Beverages — must take a pic to get a bottle campaign, very good, not too sweet
–P.I.N.K./Kirin/Leblon/Tiger Beer — couldn’t drink on the job
–Ito En — sencha shots are amazing here
–Smart Water — uh. water
Pics:

I could be wrong considering what I went to here had nothing to do with buying photography materials and was more alcohol based.
This automatically made me think of all the huge 80s spaces from the movie «Tough Guys» with Lancaster and Douglas all whacked out with high ceilings, lots of unfinished just SPACE, and probably up for some modernist art. This probably was the largest event space I’ve ever been to, although I know there are larger (recent review of Pier 60 definitely was just as big).
It seemed big. Basically you walk in through the front door and it’s all just huge space (it took me about 10 minutes to walk to the bathroom even though I could see it directly in front of me) and more space and spaces upon space and studio after studio. There’s a main hallway that connects everything. And then just more and more room. It could easily fit thousands of people here. It made me feel really odd that in the strict grids of Manhattan and the coziness of parts of Brooklyn and the overall notion that 8 million people are crammed into 5 boroughs that I could walk into a white-​walled, empty place where you shrink into this excessive drug-​fuelled party. That last part didn’t happen, but it has such a «party scene from Less Than Zero» kind of attitude about it.