What’s in a club’s name? Well according to Paul Sevigny quite a lot actually…
According to page 6, Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter is planning to relaunch the much ballyhooed Beatrice Inn, once a mainstay amongst the downtown elite (before being closed in 2009) which frankly isn’t going down too well with previous owner Paul Sevigny who reckons Carter is riding off his coat tails by insisting on staying with the same name, ‘Beatrice Inn’ at the same location.
At present Sevigny is arguing that the Beatrice name was not properly transferred to Carter, which is his way of trying to nab $500 000 out of Carter who dare if this trash tabloid writer suggests probably has a bigger name than Paul Sevigny and the Beatrice Inn combined.
That said, Mr Sevigny, who by all accounts is quite the gregarious chap and the unabashed king of the hipsters (you know that Paul) may simply be attempting to preserve the intellectual integrity of bringing to the fore one of NYC’s most admittedly illustrious nightclubs in a decade, which raises the question if Mr Carter has his own cache why doesn’t he simply rename the club; ‘The Craydon Carter Inn?’ (there goes by only chance ever writing for Vanity Fair…).
pagesix: “It’s an intellectual-property issue,” a nightlife insider said. “The [former owners] could make that amount if they threw three parties [under the Beatrice name]. It’s a name that could launch worldwide. The space, and Graydon, is capitalizing on the club’s reputation.”
Yet here is where things get a little sticky, according to another insider, “the venue was known as the Beatrice Inn for 50 years” as an Italian restaurant, well before Sevigny took it over. Which may all be true but let’s all be honest here, the restaurant wasn’t being patronized because of its name and reputation which is something that is clearly a legitimate consideration if Mr Carter were to re open the club with the same name. And then let’s not forget all the hard work Mr Sevigny put in building the venue’s brand identity.
Then of course there’s the legitimate claim that Mr Sevigny could easily host three parties a year bearing the same name at another location drawing the same crowd as the club used to draw, something interestingly Mr Sevigny has not chosen to do at this juncture.
What do you think kids, will you be waiting in line to do all those magic ‘bumps’ at the ‘Craydon Carter Inn,’ like you did yesteryear in the near future?
