JEFF KLEIN has ruled Los Angeles’ social scene – with Tower Bar and two locations of his sexy member’s club San Vicente Bungalows – for years. PETER DAVIS speaks to the charismatic hotelier, who has taken over The Jane Hotel and created the city’s most lusted-after membership at SVB New York.
PORTRAIT BY AARON STERN
Everyone in New York wants to join San Vicente Bungalows!
We’re seeing that with applications. There’s a lot of interesting people. We definitely have the rich bankers applying. But also, a lot of colorful people doing interesting things with their lives. We want media people, fashion people. We’re set with Hollywood.
New York is thrilled you are here.
I’m a New Yorker, born and raised. I always knew L.A. would be a chapter in my life, not my whole life. I waited for the right project in New York. And this is everything: the location, the history of the building, built in 1908, the architecture. These projects are like children. You need to spend a lot of time and attention in the beginning, then you let them become their own thing. I still love Los Angeles, but they’re very different lives. In L.A., the weather is always nice, and you drive everywhere. I hate driving. I can’t get into car culture. I either take an Uber or my husband drives. At this moment, New York is more thrilling to be a part of.
The famous Sunset Tower maître d’ Dimitri is in New York too.
Tom Ford introduced me to Dimitri 20 years ago. And he was so right about it. I’m really like a movie producer or director. But it’s every single minute of your life. You can’t call cut. I’m always thinking: what will be exciting for my customers?
“You can’t take photos, period. We suspend people. We kick people out. If you talk about what you see there, you get kicked out.”
The disco at SVB is so chic and just what New York needs.
The designer Rose Uniake had never designed a disco. I said I want it to feel like a place Madonna would’ve gone to in the Eighties. She got an artist from London, and he did this whole Jackson Pollock thing to the walls. He splattered different colors of pink, blue and yellow paint. It feels like you’re inside a Pollock. It’s so cool.
The SVB stickers guests are requited to put over their iPhone cameras are now legendary. I’ve seen them stuck on laptops in London!
Each one has its own color. The stickers in West Hollywood are green. Santa Monica is blue. And New York is maroon. I was in Italy, sitting next to this couple, and they had the stickers on their phones. It was the funniest thing. Of course, I didn’t say anything. I got such a kick out of it.
I’ll take a picture of anything, but the strict no photo policy is so smart.
One of the things that I offer is privacy. And it’s really the ultimate luxury today. You can have your own plane, your own boat, your own chef. It doesn’t matter. No one gets privacy. I wanted to create a space that enforced that. You don’t have to be a celebrity to appreciate that. You can’t take photos, period. We suspend people. We kick people out. If you talk about what you see there, you get kicked out.
