Amy Sacco

A Jersey girl from a big family, Ms. Sacco moved to New York in 1990 and became a hostess at Bouley. In 1998 after a series of restaurant and nightclub jobs, she parlayed her spunk and connections into opening Lot 61, a restaurant along a seedy stretch of West 21st Street near the West Side Highway. Bruce Willis showed up. There was artwork by Damien Hirst, and a revolving door of art, fashion, film and finance types. Then, in 2001, Ms. Sacco took a small garage on a deserted stretch of West 27th Street — before the redone High Line, the galleries and the luxury high-rises — and created a clubby jewel box, inspired by the bungalows at the Beverly Hills Hotel. She put a no-vacancy sign out front and palms inside, and handed out key cards guaranteeing entrance to the elite. Actors, models, authors, artists, socialites and celebrities arrived. Hilton sisters, Olsen twins. Bill Clinton, Sean Penn, George Clooney. People compared it to the Stork Club and said it was a much-needed jolt in the years after 9/11. With only 11 tables and no dance floor (which is not to say there wasn’t dancing on the tables and the floor), it was an outsize sensation, partly because it was so hard to crack, including for the undercover police who couldn’t get in to monitor the shenanigans. There were hookups and breakups. Sex and drugs, too, presumably. But nothing was verifiable because of Ms. Sacco’s tight door, closed lips and conscientious hosting of her licentious crowd. Ms. Sacco was busy cooking up boom-time ventures, including advising a Manhattan condominium developer on lifestyle amenities and consulting for Eos, an all-business-class airline between New York and London. She also opened Bette, a restaurant at the London Terrace apartments in New York, and a second Bungalow 8, run as a private club at the St. Martins Lane Hotel in London. By the time Ms. Sacco shuttered Bungalow 8 in 2009 (after closing Bette the year before and Lot 61 in 2006), her New York presence had faded. She was making test reels for a Bravo reality-television show that didn’t go anywhere. The Bungalow 8 in London lost its license in 2011 and closed. She juggled business ventures, side projects and volunteer work that dovetailed with her buzzy social network, like continuing on the boards of the Art Production Fund and Free Arts (for children) and joining the board of Bonnie Young, a clothing designer. When LDV Hospitality (which owns restaurants, including Scarpetta in the meatpacking district) approached her to join as a brand consultant for projects around the country, the chance to return to Manhattan night life came up.