Georgetown’s Café Milano is practically a salon for the city’s boldfacers, so it seemed the perfect setting for Monday night's party for GQ’s list of Washington’s 50 most powerful people—many of them were probably heading there for dinner, anyway.
The event let the stars of the evening—the powerbrokers who made the list—shine, with distinctly low-key decor and little fanfare. A few blowups from the magazine’s pages featuring the “Powerful” list graced the walls; otherwise, the event, produced by GQ director of publicity Dan Scheffey and New York-based Wise & Company, lacked the usual trappings of a glitzy party: no fancy lighting, no signature cocktail, no swag-filled gift bag. Food and libations were understated, too, with simple-but-luxe bite-size hors d’oeuvres (crowd favorites included teensy spoonfuls of foie gras with fig jam) and trays of red and white wine.A handful of the honorees dropped by, including Vermont senator Patrick Leahy, Illinois representative Rahm Emanuel, Washington Post scribe Dana Priest, and super-lobbyists Billy Tauzin of PhRMA and Bill Novelli of AARP. Rumors persisted that bigger fish were en route (and GQ says 20 of the 50 did show), but, alas, Senate majority leader Harry Reid never did turn up, and White House bigwigs like Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were nowhere to be found.
Plenty of the town’s partying class—journalists, lobbyists, and Hill staffers, all with heads swiveling in the hope of catching sight of a real D.C. celeb—rounded out the crowd. And the presence of fashion-forward New Yorkers from the GQ staff wasn’t lost on the much more staid Washingtonians. “You can tell who the GQ guys are, 'cause they’re the ones in the skinny ties,” one partygoer observed.
The event had been billed as an über-exclusive soiree (which we reported last week), and, true to form, clipboard-wielding staff manned the door to screen out any potential party-crashers—but the tight guest-book policy didn’t appear to cause any snags, with roughly 250 people managing to get through the door.
Inside, though, the power-mingling clearly impeded the waiters bearing trays, and the noshes were so scarce that one prominent (and hungry) journalist boasted that he had consumed the single shrimp available that evening. With little fuel and temperatures in the restaurant no cooler than those outside in the muggy Washington evening, many in the hard-working crowd turned in early.
The event let the stars of the evening—the powerbrokers who made the list—shine, with distinctly low-key decor and little fanfare. A few blowups from the magazine’s pages featuring the “Powerful” list graced the walls; otherwise, the event, produced by GQ director of publicity Dan Scheffey and New York-based Wise & Company, lacked the usual trappings of a glitzy party: no fancy lighting, no signature cocktail, no swag-filled gift bag. Food and libations were understated, too, with simple-but-luxe bite-size hors d’oeuvres (crowd favorites included teensy spoonfuls of foie gras with fig jam) and trays of red and white wine.A handful of the honorees dropped by, including Vermont senator Patrick Leahy, Illinois representative Rahm Emanuel, Washington Post scribe Dana Priest, and super-lobbyists Billy Tauzin of PhRMA and Bill Novelli of AARP. Rumors persisted that bigger fish were en route (and GQ says 20 of the 50 did show), but, alas, Senate majority leader Harry Reid never did turn up, and White House bigwigs like Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were nowhere to be found.
Plenty of the town’s partying class—journalists, lobbyists, and Hill staffers, all with heads swiveling in the hope of catching sight of a real D.C. celeb—rounded out the crowd. And the presence of fashion-forward New Yorkers from the GQ staff wasn’t lost on the much more staid Washingtonians. “You can tell who the GQ guys are, 'cause they’re the ones in the skinny ties,” one partygoer observed.
The event had been billed as an über-exclusive soiree (which we reported last week), and, true to form, clipboard-wielding staff manned the door to screen out any potential party-crashers—but the tight guest-book policy didn’t appear to cause any snags, with roughly 250 people managing to get through the door.
Inside, though, the power-mingling clearly impeded the waiters bearing trays, and the noshes were so scarce that one prominent (and hungry) journalist boasted that he had consumed the single shrimp available that evening. With little fuel and temperatures in the restaurant no cooler than those outside in the muggy Washington evening, many in the hard-working crowd turned in early.
GQ's \"50 Most Powerful People in D.C.\" chart—a play on the periodic table of elements—allowed guests to see who ranked where.
Photo: Courtesy of GQ
Photo: Courtesy of GQ
Barack Obama graced the cover of September's
Photo: Courtesy of GQ
GQ editor in chief Jim Nelson mugged on the red carpet with listee and Café Milano owner Franco Nuschese.
Photo: Courtesy of GQ
