With new restaurant, Jay-Z makes his own VIP list
PUSSSYKATT
Jay-Z's restaurant, 40/40, opens tonight. It's all about the list. Derek Jeter,
Michael Jordan, Britney Spears and Tiki Barber are on it.
Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey and Mary J. Blige, too. Kobe Bryant, unless he's at
the Special Olympics in Ireland.
Carson Daly, Russell Simmons, Magic Johnson. Many "Sopranos."
The cast of "Sex and the City," once its own season premiere party has wound
down.
Beyoncé: No doubt.
Nas: What do you think?
The list is supposed to put Jay-Z at the top of a new list: rap stars as club
entrepreneurs.
Already a certified mogul in the recording and fashion businesses, tonight he
opens 40/40 Sports Bar, a $4 million, high-tech, low-decibel, 8,000-square-foot
luxury lounge on 25th St. just off Madison Square Park.
And 40/40 is not just another celebrity endorsement deal.
Jay and others are trying to change the business model for entertainment stars.
He owns the place together with Juan Perez, the former minor-league baseball
player, Rucker League coach and founder of Roc-A-Fella Records' Baseline
Studios, and nightclub entrepreneur Desiree Gonzalez.
"I don't know any other way," Jay-Z says of his business approach, "because
that's how I had to do it coming up. No one would give me a record deal, so I
started Roc-A-Fella. I don't know how to be an artist who signs over his rights
to someone else."
Sponsorships are another Jay twist - both Cohiba cigars and Rémy Martin cognac
are underwriting designated areas in the club.
Jay, a sports fanatic, says he came up with the name 40/40 "because Barry
Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and Jose Canseco, the three ballplayers who hit 40 homers
and stole 40 bases in one season, are the most exclusive club there is. We want
40/40 to be exclusive.
"We're grownups now," says Jay, 33, "and appreciate being around a controlled
environment where everything is laid back and relaxed, not hectic like when
you're 18."
That's why he's invited close to 700 good friends to celebrate the opening with
him.
Most will be spread around the first floor in its deep, gray-leather
banquettes, along the Brazilian slate bar flaunting $4,000 bottles of Rémy
Louis XIII and at the round metal tables manufactured in Brooklyn, near where
Jay grew up. Twenty-seven televisions will show all sports, all the time.
On the menu is upscale "Latin-Soul Lounge Food" - miniburgers, stuffed wings,
little tacos, deviled eggs with Southern-fried chicken bits and homemade Moon
Pies - produced by Cynthia Sestito, Jay's personal chef. Upstairs are three VIP
rooms, including the one where Jay likes to shoot big-paper pool.
They open off 40/40's Memorabilia Hallway of Fame, its glass cases holding
personalized mementos sent in by Jordan, Rodriguez, Lawrence Taylor and others.
There's also an ATM. And a Blue Cross-Blue Shield medical plan that Gonzalez
has instituted for all employees.
A line? Of course there'll be a line. Legal occupancy is 297, Gonzalez says.
That crowd count won't include the "Jay-Hova" faithful expected to cram the
sidewalks to catch a glimpse of His Jigganess as he welcomes guests. To them,
he continues to rule with his series of multi-platinum albums, with his
concerts, his Roc-A-Wear clothing line, Roc-A-Fella Films, Reebok's S. Carter
sneakers, his noisy showdown with rival "Nas" Jones and his three-year
probation for stabbing producer Lance (Un) Rivera in an argument over
bootlegging in 1999.
And they remember - because he's always reminding them - that before he
freestyled his way to stardom, he hustled his living around the Marcy Projects.
That's another reason security will be tight, with "23 guys outside, 20
inside," Gonzalez says, "and a lot of help promised by the 13th Precinct."
But by tomorrow the muscle will be down to two, she maintains. "This is
supposed to be the kind of place where people from the office buildings around
here can go after work. Where three girlfriends can just come hang out
together."
Jay wants that same word put out to Chicago, Miami and Las Vegas - "a very big
sports town." He says he's planning 40/40 Sports Bars in those cities next.
Start another list.
Rappers have had their names attached to restaurants before Jay-Z.
P. Diddy's Justin's is about four blocks away on W. 21st St. between Fifth and
Sixth Aves. He opened Justin's (home of the puffy shrimp, by the way) in 1997.
This spring, Damon Dash, Jay Z's partner in the Roc-A-Fella business empire,
launched the Breakfast Club in the West Village with DJ Samantha Ronson. Fat
Joe is teaming with restaurateur Jimmy Rodriguez on a seafood restaurant on
City Island - called Jimmy's City Island - and plans a nightclub soon.
But clothing came first - Russell Simmons' Phat Farm, followed by P. Diddy's
Sean John and Jennifer Lopez's J.Lo. Nelly rolled out his Vokal threads two
years ago.
Another lucrative area is liquor, which is why Jay bought Scotland's Armadale
last year, a premium vodka distiller. He also has his eye on franchising his
current concert venture, the Roc the Mic tour he headlines with 50 Cent.
"I gotta take Hollywood down next," says Jay. "Some acting, some producing,
some directing."
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