Fascinators and oysters, tuile and crab, seersucker and fried chicken. The Kentucky Derby is nothing if not a chance for a bunch of fancypants people to don their fancy pants and fancy hats and mingle. New York City restaurateur Danny Meyer wasn’t about to let this congress of mint juleps, Dixie nostalgia and erstatz Southern hospitality pass him by. [I mean, he owns a company called Union Square Hospitality for Christ’s sake.]
So on Saturday, the rich and the striving, those who adjudged $175 was worth the chance to sip hand-hurty cold metal Mint Julep tumblers in the company of similarly-clad gathered in the restaurant Eleven Madison Park, detabled especially, to smoke cigars (outside); drink (inside); and quietly judge the outfits of others.
