Public Hotel’s Opening Party Gives a Glimpse Inside the Exclusive Scene

Music icon Patti Smith joined hotelier Ian Schrager last night at the invite-only opening party for Schrager’s Public Hotel, set to open this weekend. Public Hotel is the one housing prolific chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Public Kitchen, which is also set to open along with the hotel on Saturday. JGV himself was on the scene last night, seemingly to oversee the event’s elusive food.

It was rainy out, but that didn’t stop hordes of fashion people from waiting in line to get the perfect rooftop photo. In fact, that seems like all they were there to do — take a whole lot of photos.

Amid endless “going out in public,” and “in the public eye” captions (though, amazingly, no “public displays of affection” captions), a few insights were gained from last night’s party. Here’s what’s public knowledge so far:

The one and only Patti Smith performed and had a pretty good read on the crowd (do read the caption):

Questlove was there without the Roots:

FTWC, Real Housewives of New York star Dorinda Medley was also there:

Not one person took a single photo of any food. So, all we have is this menu photo from JGV:

People are already acting stupid on the hotel escalators:

But really, those escalators are pretty cool:

The view isn’t bad either:

Stay tuned for more info on the Public Hotel and Public Kitchen as it becomes available.