Even on a Friday night in the dog days of summer, when the who’s who of Manhattan has scurried to the Hamptons, the Blond lounge in Soho still attracts a well-heeled crowd.
“Our Uber helicopter to Montauk broke down so I guess we’re stuck here,” jokes a 20-year-old Ford model wearing an ASOS slip dress and Giuseppe Zanotti sandals. The 5-foot-10 blonde, who declined to give her name for professional reasons, saunters past the velvet rope, up the spiral staircase and into the dimly lit lounge stocked with middle-aged men, Ivy League grads and pretty young things.
“Love this place because it has great music, but sometimes I get hit on a lot by creepy old dudes,” she tells The Post, as an A$AP Rocky song blares through the speakers. “But that’s how it is in New York.”
Soon after real estate mogul Aby Rosen opened the Blond in March, it became a magnet for beauties and barons: Carine Roitfeld, editor of CR Fashion Book, hosted a star-studded birthday bash there for Kate Upton in June. Since then, the Blond has drawn media mogul Jason Binn, the aforementioned rapper A$AP Rocky, Victoria’s Secret Angel Jasmine Tookes and Jennifer Hudson, among others.
“A lot of clubs in the Meatpacking District and downtown are full of college kids who want to get s–tfaced,” says Aaron Toscher, a 31-year-old personal trainer from the Upper West Side. “[The Blond] is one of those cool, chill spots for locals. It’s got a good-looking crowd and everyone dresses the part.”
The lounge certainly looks its part: It boasts modern décor with burnished mirrors, velvet couches and bronze sculptures of people wearing masks à la “Eyes Wide Shut.” Atop the long bar are mushroom-shaped lamps made of copper, and coasters are printed with portraits of famous blond celebs like Marilyn Monroe, Paul Newman and Candice Swanepoel. The buff bartenders sport man buns, and a glass of rosé will set you back about $16.
Alex Combias, a 22-year-old entrepreneur and co-owner of Tiqo Beverage, stopped in the other night after her friends told her it was a great place to hang out.
“Attractive crowd, but I was surprised by how old some of the guys are,” says Combias, who’s based in the Flatiron District. “But it has a super loungey, laid-back feel and it’s fun. Other lounges can be super stuffy and packed, and this place was very open and airy, which was refreshing.”
After 11, the lines outside typically spill around the corner, overseen by a couple of bouncers. Though there’s no official dress code, guys have been turned away for wearing shorts, while pretty girls in skimpy dresses magically move to the front of the line.
At midnight, the DJ turns up the bass and plays hip-hop as a gaggle of blondes in off-the-shoulder dresses start shimmying along to Drake and Biggie Smalls. A trio of balding men in blazers and jeans watch, cocktails in hand. Emblazoned above them, a neon-light installation shows a nude blonde emerging from the clouds. Spelled out underneath her are the words “We are just complicated animals.”