McInerney and Ahluwalia Celebrate Travel in Leisure

JAY MCINERNEY AND CHEF GEOFFREY ZAKARIAN AT THE LAMBS CLUB BAR LAST NIGHT

Last night, fashionistas, film stars, and frequent travelers gathered at the Chatwal Hotel’s Lambs Club bar to celebrate The Luxury Collection: US Destination Guide. The guide, complete with a “Proust Travel Questionnaire” for each owner to fill out, is being put out by French publisher Prosper Assouline in collaboration with The Luxury Collection Hotels & Resorts. “I was born in fashion; I was 18 when I edited my first magazine,” Assouline explained. He strayed from his favorite subject simply because he loves to travel. And, when you are staying in Luxury Collection hotels, how could you not?

Trying not to get caught up in the décor (there were mini Empire State Building lamps hanging over the red-and-chrome bar) and chef Geoffrey Zakarian’s hors d’oeuvres and cocktails inspired by each of the Luxury Collection’s US Hotels (a shot of New England Clam Chowder, anyone?), we chatted with the guests about their travel habits and involvement with the guide—starting with the two hosts, Jay McInerney and Waris Ahluwalia. “When they called me, I was renovating my apartment, and they own the St. Regis, which I happened to want to stay in, so… the St. Regis is a very nice hotel, what can I say?,” McInerney joked. He had a quick answer when we asked about his favorite travel destination: “Italy—it’s like forty different countries!”

But domestic travel was definitely the theme of the evening. Jessica Joffe lamented, “I’ve been traveling for a while, the same route back and forth, New York to LA.”  She always travels with her iPad. We were briefly distracted by the appearance of Mary-Louise Parker, looking tough in a leather shift dress and boots. Although we did not catch her drinking noisily through a straw, she did make her famous Nancy Botwin “yikes” expression.