Welcome back to The Door Report, the Eater feature that will give you the skinny on the toughest doors in New York City. It's been a while, so don't be alarmed if you see some surprises in the list. If you have a suggestion for the Door Report, please drop them in the comments or let us know.
1. BOOM BOOM ROOM— Call it the Boom Boom Room, call it the Top of the Standard, or any other thing you want, but we call it the hardest door in New York City right now. The Boom never did turn into a members only club as was rumored, but it operates like one for all intents and purposes. The penthouse palace uses iPad's to maintain its guest list and its refusal to relax its stringent door policies during a benefit to raise money for Japan cements its place on top of the list. Please note that being #1 doesn't mean the Boom is the most fun, and rumors of Le Bain customers sneaking across the hall have made their way to the Door Report committee.
Who you need to know: Andre Balazs, Kamil Parchomienko
Civilian Chance of Entry: 1%
2. PROVOCATEUR— Sorry Mike Satsky, but your Gansevoort Hotel hot spot has been bumped down the list. The club has worked hard to keep its door policies tight, but time is the ultimate enemy in this business, and even the most exclusive places sometimes bend a little to keep the music playing. That's not to say this door is easy by any means, but we've heard rumors of some slippage. It will be interesting to see what happens when Satsky and partner Brian Gefter's new venue at Gansevoort Park opens in a few weeks.
Who you need to know: Mike Satsky, Brian Gefter, Sheena Tesora
Civilian Chance of Entry: 4%
18 9th Avenue
3. KENMARE— After Don Hill's opened, it seemed likely that Nur Khan and Paul Sevigny's other lounge would suffer a little bit. Think again. Despite not going hard to land any Fashion Week events, Kenmare continues to draw a crowd. The small room still has a good feel in a great location, and is a bit more laid back than Don's. Questions still remain about the longevity of the lounge if the restaurant doesn't make it, but since most of the tables are booked for tonight, you can worry about that another day.
Who you need to know: Nur Khan, Paul Sevigny, Megan Ronney
Civilian Chance of Entry: 8%
98 Kenmare Street, Nolita
4. BUNKER— Congrats to Matt Abramcyk's subterranean lounge for its first appearance on the list. The club, which is buried deep below 9th Avenue, has been drawing them in since its relatively steal opening last fall, and despite its location right smack in the middle of weekend tourist-ville, has consistently been attracting a quality crowd while being focused less on bottle service and more on fun. Note, several Little Birdies have told us that getting inside is even harder than it should be because the door operations themselves are not really up to snuff. A change could be in the works, which we will keep in mind going forward.
Who you need to know: Matt Abramcyk, Eddie Bilowich
Civilian Chance of Entry: 11%
24 9th Avenue
5. LAVO— What is Midtown's biggest club, a bottle service friendly place that is literally open to anyone willing to provide a credit card and commit to a few bottles on a weekend night, doing on this list? We'll tell you. The other places on this list will deal with in a prompt manner, but the 58th Street entrance to the nightclub gets so crowded on a weekend night that it makes it almost impossible to get any of the door staff's attention to get inside. Now that's a tough door! Lucky for Lavo guests that the club is building a new auxiliary bar to handle some of the traffic. Lucky for club's aspiring to climb into the top 5 that this expansion will knock Lavo from this list.
Who you need to know: Noah Tepperberg, Jason Strauss, Rich Thomas, Andrew Goldberg, Jayma Cordoso
Civilian Chance of Entry: 60%
39 E 58th Street
TRACKING LIST— Mister H, Jimmy at the James, Westway, Le Baron, Madame Wongs,
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