On we go with The Gatekeepers, a photo series we've commissioned from Michael Harlan Turkell. For the next several weeks, we'll be presenting portraits of The Gatekeepers: the very folks that stand between you and some of your favorite impossible-to-get tables. Installment 1, Mary's Fish Camp, is here.
Though Gaylen Zamarra helms the kitchen, it is Ivilisse V. Esguerra (aka "Ivi") who runs the door at the West Village treasure Mas. Ivi: "If there's room on the list, knowing 'someone' and/or being "someone" (ie vouge, ny magazine) helps. But I won't deny a patron already on the list, just to make room. I don't like to make people wait. Once we made a table in front for a party of four for patrons that persistently pestered and insisted of being 'very hungry'."
