The Best NYFW Party Wasn’t Even a Fashion Party—Inside Café Zaffri’s Glamorous Opening at The Twenty Two

Word travels fast—to the extent that there’s supposedly already a waiting list for membership to The Twenty Two. The New York City outpost of the posh Mayfair hotspot revealed itself and its Café Zaffri restaurant to the public (or at least, to a carefully curated guest list of fashion and hospitality heavyweights) ahead of opening its books for dinner reservations this week.

The Twenty Two, which encompasses a hotel, public spaces, and a private members club, has taken over and transformed the landmarked Margaret Louisa Home townhouse on East 16th Street. Originally opened by Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt Shepard in 1891, its earlier days saw this historic slice of Manhattan serve as an empowering and welcoming short-term hotel for single, working women to help get them on their feet when they moved to New York. As such, when it came time for The Twenty Two’s founders to conceptualize what the in-house eatery should be, it was imperative to work with trailblazing females.

On Friday evening, Café Zaffri, from executive chef Mary Attea and executive pastry chef Camari Mick (of Raf’s and The Musket Room fame), was filled with faces from the books of every modeling agency in town. A Calvin Klein runway-fresh Kendall Jenner and the Biebers sat together enjoying a Levantine-inspired family-style feast. Elsewhere, nestled in plush curved copper booths, were Georgia Fowler, Joan Smalls, and Bambi Northwood-Blyth, while design savants like Athena Calderone and Colin King took in the impressive Tiffany Glass ceiling and marble bar.

The evening, hosted by The Twenty Two founders Michael Chetrit, Jamie Reuben, and Navid Mirtorabi, had the air of an upscale house party. Refreshingly, despite the world-famous stars nonchalantly having pow-wows at tables and tucking into share plates, there was none of the elements we ve become accustomed to—no flashbulbs, no looming bodyguards, no cell phones taking sneaky Instagram stories. (Sorry, Deux Moi!)

Later on, with DJ Nikki Kynard at the decks accompanied by a live band, the room started to swill with revelers for an invite-only after-party. Ready to blow off some steam after a day of shows and collection previews, more and more pretty people filled the room to enjoy fries, caviar bites, ice cream sandwiches, and an obligatory stop at the flowing Negroni fountain. Everywhere you dared look there were A-listers of the expected nature during fashion week (Laura Harrier! Alexander Skarsgård! Lila Moss! Amelia Gray Hamlin! J Balvin!) and the entirely unexpected (....Beck!?) An honorable mention, too, to JJ, the impossibly cute 10-month-old long-haired chihuahua who’s been featured in The Twenty Two’s email marketing as of late. Pooped from his duties as a would-be model for the property, the sweater-clad pup was taking a well-deserved little nap in the bar room beside his owner.

As The Twenty Two will simultaneously operate members-only areas, naturally, the festivities eventually turned into a wink-wink-nudge-nudge-meet-us-upstairs afters for those lucky enough to get a tap on the shoulder and a knowing nod. Someone who didn’t get the invite? The on-duty party photographers. At least something is sacred.