Los Americans

Your meal comes with a back-story at Los Americanos, a new Latin eatery in Tribeca. Located on Church Street, the late night corner restaurant is the brainchild of Billy Gilroy, Tommy Hill and Emmanuelle “Mannie” LaSalle, the daughter of legendary supermodel China Machado.

The collection of owners, not to mention the support of actress and friend Michelle Rodriguez, lends itself to an interesting narrative for how Los Americanos, an upscale, trendy south of the border diner, came into existence.

Let’s start with LaSalle’s childhood. “My mother was the first non-Caucasian model in the American fashion industry,” LaSalle explains, re-telling Machado’s story of re-locating to Buenos Aires from Shanghai in 1946, becoming a flight attendant, and eventually moving to Europe. “She ran away from home with a damn bullfighter,” LaSalle’s husband, Tommy Hill, a former model and singer, adds with a laugh. “He was like the Michael Jordan of bullfighters.”

Apparently so. LaSalle remembers how her mother’s relationship with Luis Miguel Dominguín diminished when actress Ava Gardner took interest in him. “My mom says, ‘Okay, I’m not going to compete with Ava Gardner.’ She went off to Paris and met my dad.” Machado then moved to New York City in 1959 where she was first shot for Harper’s Bazaar, but LaSalle says her mother’s Latin American upbringing was always present in her home and life as a child through both food and music.

When Gilroy, a partner in Employees Only and Macao Trading Co., approached the husband and wife duo with the idea of Los Americanos, the fit seemed natural.

“I love doing restaurants. You pull in different kinds of people,” Gilroy explains.

Meanwhile, Rodriguez’ connection to the restaurant added an extra Hollywood touch at its opening party, when Los Americanos screened Francesca de Solas flick 1%ers, in which Rodriguez stars. The crowd included Sienna Miller, Peter Saarsgard, model/musician Jamie Burke, nightlife guru Nur Khan, and a lot of men on motorcycles. “It got a little scary,” LaSalle jokes of the rough and tough, but extremely fun and friendly, crew of Hell’s Angels who arrived for the party alongside A-list guests.

Los Americanos, it seems, has something for everyone.

“It means ‘lots of us together, all of us together,’’ LaSalle says of the name. Which probably also explains the menu: “We wanted it to be a hit-list of Latin America,” says Gilroy as if describing a mix CD.

The food and drinks are a savory, exotic summary of Peru, Venezuela, El Salvador and Argentina. There are ceviches (the Peruvian style fish is a favorite), Salvadorian griddlecakes and café Cubana for a pre-disco, sugary energy bolt. As for the décor, the collective owners were careful to make sure the early-morning to late-night crowd would be at home with the chic diner feel. “They aren’t reproductions; they’re vintage pieces,” Gilroy points out of the lighting and chairs.

And for those on the go, who aren’t able to take advantage of the outdoorseating, Los Americanos offers a rare perk in Manhattan: a take-out window.

We’d tell you to get it while it’s hot, but that’s what their varieties of—you guessed it—hot sauces are for.

Brooke Travis, Masha Ma, Steven Kolb photo by Arthur Marker/BFAnyc.com

Last night, W New York Times Square and CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund welcomed Masha Ma. The Chinese born designer is a part of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund China Exchange Program. The program, in its second year, allows American designers to develop their fashion-relations in China and Chinese designers to visit America attend fashion events and further develop their understanding of the U.S. retail market. Ma will be staying at the W New York Times Square for two weeks. (W Hotels is an underwriter of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund). Ma was greeted last night with a cocktail party at the Extreme WOW suite—W New York Times Square's newly renovated suite which doubles as an event space. The thoroughly thought out venue—what appears to be a mirrored table doubles as a DJ booth and the dining table is on hydraulics to lift to serve as a bar—feels as though you are inside of The Times Square Ball. Ma enjoyed the company of other CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund affiliates including the CFDA's CEO Steven Kolb, CFDA designers Arielle Shapiro, Ari Dein and Daniel Vosovic.

Nude Beach Tube Tints by Bobbi Brown

Whether you’re spending the day at the beach or trekking through the summer heat, you want your makeup to look as effortless and relaxed as you are. Bobbi Brown’s summer collection, Nude Beach, features bronzers, lip-glosses, nail polish and eye shadow—all the essential beauty products needed to create a long lasting, light summer look. Although eye shadow may seem like the first thing to ditch on a hot summer day, the Long Wear Cream Shadow Stick is full-proof. Available in new Golden Bronze and Sunlit Gold, these small sticks glide on shine, and shimmer effortlessly and are compact enough to throw in your beach bag for a touch up at any point in the day. Not that you should need it since the products are made to withstand long, fun-filled days. For a pop of color without worrying about heavy lipstick, try the limited edition Tube Tints. Available in four different shades, they will definitely be your new summer favorite! Since most of the products in the collection are limited-edition we recommend getting your hands on them before summer is over.

Designer Isabel Marant, Photo by Clint Spaulding /PatrickMcMullan.com

H&M does it again! This morning the Swedish company announced their latest collaboration with French designer Isabel Marant. The designer—whose wedge sneakers are still a must-have—will create a collection of clothing and accessories for women and teenagers, as well as her first-ever men's collection. Marant—best known for her relaxed, boho-chic style—plans on translating the same themes for her collaboration with H&M. “I aim at creating something real—something women want to wear in their everyday lives—with a certain carefree style. I think this is very Parisian: You dress up, but don’t pay too much attention to it, and you still look sexy, ” Marant stated.  

The collections will hit 250 H&M stores worldwide on November 14 and will also be available online. Now all we have to do is wait, er patiently.

Click here to check out an interview released yesterday with Isabel Marant about her upcoming H&M collection

Full Spectra Eyeshadow Palette in Night Fall

Heavy eye makeup doesn’t stand a chance in the city's summer heat. Sephora has teamed up with Pantone Universe (the company known to design collections of lifestyle products based on fashion color trends) to create a SpectraLight collection. The newest line of Sephora and Pantone Universe includes mascaras, eyeshadows, bronzer and lip glosses inspired by the palette of the northern lights. It is designed to help achieve the perfect summer look without a worry about the weather. The products are armed with holographic shimmer to make all wearers glow without requiring weighty layers. The Light Flicker Mascara has added pearlescent shine to provide dimension and drama with just a few brush strokes. Try the Light Flicker Mascara in the Ombre Blue shade to enhance light colored eyes. The Spectra Eyeshadow Palette comes in two colors, Day Break and Night Fall, which helps achieve a glamorous eye. Mix and match the colors to create a unique look. All of the products are Paraben, Sulfate and Phthalates free. So feel free to get your shine on all summer long.

Click to view slideshow.

Click to view slideshow.

Lauren Lawrence

How did you get into interpreting dreams? I read Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams at a young age. I’d read a dream and tried to decode it, like a sleuth looking for clues. I’d interpret friends’ dreams and they always said I nailed it. Years later during sessions with my psychiatrist, I learned how amazing dreams were, how convoluted and multi-faceted—I saw them as jewels. I wanted to know if what one did in life was reflected in the psyche. Freud never focused on this. What did the Duchess of Windsor dream about just after the abdication? What was Einstein’s dream? Coco Chanel’s? Picasso’s?

What was one of your first experiences with celebrities and their dreams? I was John Kennedy Jr.’s “Political Dreams” columnist at George. I interpreted the dreams of speakers, senators and other members of Congress. That was a crazy time… During the Monica Lewinsky scandal, John wanted Bill Clinton’s dream so I called Joe Lockhart (who I knew was an avid reader of my column) and he really chewed me out saying he would never let Bill tell me a dream. But John thought it would be fun to write “In bed with… Bill Clinton” under my “Political Dreams” column.

How did you learn to become an expert dream interpreter? I studied in school and read everything, but really had to develop a feel for the language of dreams and become fluent in the grammar, metaphor and imagery. I always say I am fluent in Dream. It was my own dreams that drew me in. And I feel strongly about them and their purpose: “Dreams are to the mind, what exercise is to the body.”

What was the last dream you had and what do you think it meant? The last dream I remember was of this incredibly expensive Louis XVI commode I wanted desperately to acquire (in reality, from Florian Papp Antiques on Madison Avenue). I saw it in my dining room, but when I walked over to it I saw that beyond it was the edge of a cliff and a cavernous drop... in my bank account, no doubt.

What are the most recurring symbols you hear from clients? Mirrors, nakedness, falling, houses, teeth falling out, crashing, not being able to move. Mirrors reveal the wish for self-reflection. Nakedness shows vulnerability, the wish to be noticed, and the wish for exposure. Falling can signify control issues and the desire to let go. Houses symbolize one’s personality: a grand house reveals a grand sense of self, a shabby home reveals a poor self image. Losing teeth is a gender related symbol: for women, it means a wish for pregnancy, or the wish to fill a void; for men, it represents a sexual fantasy. Crashing reveals the need for confrontation. Feeling paralyzed usually reflects indecision and/or conflict.

Do you interpret nightmares differently? Nightmares are sexier… they expose more symbolism and in doing so reveal more about the dreamer.

What is the oddest dream you’ve heard? Pierre Salinger, President Kennedy’s former press secretary, had a frightening dream. It was the strangest dream I ever interpreted because it had no visual—only audio. This heightens the importance of what is being heard. These dreams are often prophetic. He heard a voice tell him that the worst terrorist attack would occur in Paris, in August, in the last week. He called me at 2:00 p.m. on August 30, 1997. I wrote up my interpretation and faxed it over to my friend Soheir Khashoggi at 4:00 p.m., 10 p.m. Paris time. She’d wanted to read one of my interpretations. Two and a half hours later, Soheir’s nephew, Dodi Fayed, was dead along with Princess Diana, in Paris.

Who are some of your celebrity clients? Regarding celebrity clients, my lips are sealed. But celebrities tend to dream what they call “actors nightmares” which are really performance anxiety dreams. So they’ll dream of showing up at the wrong theater, or they’ll have the wrong script, or they’ll be wearing the wrong costume or the costume won’t fit because they’ve gained weight and buttons are popping off.

I’ve interpreted the dreams of all the following celebrities and public figures, such as: Kate Moss, Michael Douglas, Gore Vidal, Kurt Vonnegut, Oliver Stone, Sophia Loren, Valentino, Chris Kattan, Francesco Clemente, and so forth, many dreaming variations of the same dream, trying to perfect what is great about them.

How can our readers get in touch with you for help interpreting their dreams? My work email: yourdreams@nydailynews.com

Go to the next page to read Lawrence's interpretation of Zac Posen and others’ dreams.

Zac Posen [PatrickMcmullan.com]

What it means: Any change into something else—the rodent-turned-termite—reveals the wish for transformation. Dreams of transfor -mation reflect creativity and a sense of resourcefulness particularly relevant for a fashion designer. The dream highlights Posen’s ingenuity and his desire to design something new.
Zac’s dream presents a daunting challenge! How to turn a drab, shabby pack rat into something that will bring the house down—say, at a fashion show, perhaps? The problem is solved when the rat transforms into a termite. Termites have been known to bring down a house or two. At the heart of the dream is the wish to master something and make it work for you.

Alanis Morissette’s dream: In a recurring dream, I am driving alone at night, trying to find my way “home” although I have no sense where that is. I know I am in charge of finding where it is that I am going, but I have no sense of where to go, and I'm panicked. I park in a parking lot to regain my composure and wind up driving up around and around this beautiful hilly village, trying to get where I’m supposed to be.

What it means: The mode of transport defines the dreamer—quite literally, it reveals her drive. In these Jack Kerouac-styled “road” dreams, the direction home is often unknown, the destination, convoluted and hard to reach because there is more ground to be covered. Dreams of disorientation often express anxiety over meeting daily obligations; they worry over the direction one takes in life. Necessarily, the progression home is hilly—it has its ups and downs. There is an awareness of the circuitousness of life: Although “getting where I’m supposed to get” is important to the dreamer, the ride is more essential. At the core of the dream Morissette’s real joy is found not in finishing an activity but in the act of doing it.

Natalia Vodianova’s dream: I dreamt that I was strangling someone.

Natalia Vodianova [Patrickmcmullan.com]

Nicky Hilton’s dream: I dreamt that my grandmother was sitting in the living room but she had plastic, cellophane paper like saran wrap covering her face. She was all wrapped up.

What it means: It is not by chance that the deceased grandmother is viewed in a specific.   location: the living room, a room which has the symbolic meaning of living. The wish is that the grandmother is still alive. The unconscious, having dealt with the grim reality of the grandmother's death, wraps her like a mummy so this mournful certainty is transformed by saran wrap. The cellophane covering the grandmother's face is a preservative—the corporeal being, kept fresh, will not decay.

Nicky wishes for permanence. The see-through paper allows the grandmother to see, and be seen. Nothing has really changed. A clever coping dream indeed!

Kick Kennedy [Patrickmcmullan.com]

What it means: The dream reveals a sense of estrangement, of feeling out of place in one’s surroundings—like a Democrat at a Republican fundraiser—yet Kick loves this challenge! Alienation is joyous when exclusion becomes exclusivity. Befriending the elephant in the room reveals a fondness for what is different or outside the norm, for that which departs from humdrum expectations. In other words, Kick  runs from the routine, seeks out the extraordinary and leaves those who want something from her behind in the dust.

Brendan Fallis by Angela Pham/BFAnyc.com

This sought-after DJ shares his style staples and grooming go-tos

Who is your favorite designer?

I’m sold on Jil Sander. Everything in her collection is always very attractive. I am also a big fan of Ian Velardi. He is an exciting up-and-comer in menswear.

Who is your style inspiration?

James Dean and Paul Newman—they wore simple, classic pieces.

What is your go-to shoe for a night out?

Cole Haan Lunar. I have quite a few now. You can really wear them on all occasions as long as you have the right colorways and styles. And you can’t beat the comfort—I could stand at the bar all night and be fine with it.

What is your most prized piece of clothing?

I have a pair of Uniqlo jeans that I’ve had patched and re-patched six times now. I don’t think I could give up at this point. I never thought a pair of Uniqlo jeans would even get this far, but every time I wear them someone asks me who makes them.

Do you collect anything? 

Not so much. Getting a pretty good selection of vintage Persols going, but I wouldn’t call it a collection yet. Besides that, I’m pretty minimal.

What do you never leave home without?

Keys, wallet, cellphone and passport—I always check all four pockets to make sure they are there.

What items are you coveting right now?

A 1953 Vintage Omega Seamaster. I have to get my hands on one of these sooner than later! It’s been a long time coming.

Describe your style in three words:

Clean, simple, classic.

What cologne do you wear?

I’m actually allergic to cologne, a little known fact. Beyond that, I once took a nonverbal communication course in college, and it taught me that people are attracted to others via pheromones, and cologne and perfume provide a false sense of who you’re attracted to. Concluding that divorce rates are rising because we’re not actually attracted to our partners, but their false smell.

What’s the one beauty item you can’t live without? 

Under-eye cream. Steadily in search of the best one out there. I also use Baxter Hair products.

If you could live in another decade, which would it be? 

I’d live in the 1960s. It just seems like it was a damn good time that I missed. But fashion wise, it wasn’t so much for me. I would have been more suited for the ‘30s.

Bobby Flay by Courtney Heeney

Bobby Flay, a man whose concern for the retirement of horses is as great as his talents as a chef, was honored last night at The Inaugural Belmont Stakes Charity Celebration. The event, which took place at the chef's restaurant Bar Americain, raised over $450,000. The benefiting charities were the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. The New York native gave us a personal interview on how his love for horses developed, which foods he loves most and if there are any dishes he won't try.

When did your love for horses start?

It began when I was 16-years-old. My grandfather had taken me to the horse races at Saratoga Springs.

Do you go to races now? 

Yes, I go to the Derby, Del Mar and Saratoga. Saratoga is my favorite. 

How many horses do you own?

I have 20. They live in Kentucky, Florida and New York.

How did you get involved with these charities?

I was asked to participate years ago in an auction and offered to cook a meal as an auction item.

How will you continue to be involved with these charities?

By cooking and raising money though events like this.

Was tonight's menu inspired by the racetracks?

Yes, I wanted to use summer ingredients like corn and tomatoes.

Do you have an all-time favorite food?

Lobster.

A favorite dessert?

Ice cream sundaes. My favorite is pistachio and dark chocolate with chiles from L'arte del Gelato at the Chelsea Market.

Alright, you're only able to have one dish for the rest of your life, what would it be? 

Cheeseburgers.

Is there a dish you won't try?

No. (without any hesitation)

What can we expect from you next?

I'll be opening up a new Mediterranean restaurant at the end of this year.

Finally, who inspires you?

Lots of people inspire me. People I meet though travels. And other cooks and chefs. If I'm not at my restaurant, I'm at someone else's.