MEMBERS ONLY

Scott Sartiano's private club, Zero Bond, became postpandemic New York's celeb-friendliest playground, luring the likes of Taylor, Elon, and Mayor Eric Adams. What's the secret sauce?

- NATE FREEMAN

ON THE DAY before the Super Bowl, Scott Sartiano, owner of the New York City private members club Zero Bond, was an hour late to meet me at a party at another club, Marquee, in another city, Las Vegas. It was four in the afternoon and the sports merch billionaire Michael Rubin was holding his annual party, generally considered one of the most exclusive of the weekend.

As security waved Sartiano and his three plus-ones through, he apologized for the traffic, which was hardly his fault. It was the biggest weekend in Las Vegas history, with an estimated $600 million added to the economy, helicopters ferrying VIPS down the Strip to avoid gridlock, and almost 900 private jets landing at the airport. Even for a career hospitality guy, the full onslaught was a bit much.

"All of...this," said Sartiano, his arms motioning to the elaborate maze of hallways and checkpoints and wristband allotments and hand stamping.

"This isn't really my thing," he said.

For a long time, it was. Sartiano has been the invisible hand helping New York City's rich and famous blow off steam in the hours after midnight, a force behind the hottest clubs and clubstaurants in post-9/11 Manhattan. Sartiano and business partner Richie Akiva started Butter, the defining celeb-heavy eatery of the aughts, and then the pair and their partners opened 1Oak, a nightclub that defined the teens. In 2013, Jay-Z rhymed "10ak" with "ended up near broke." Lindsay Lohan was accused of stealing an $11,000 mink coat at 10ak in 2008. (Lohan was sued, and per Page Six, she settled the case, and while the coat was returned to its owner, Lohan never admitted to wrongdoing.) Then she reportedly claimed someone stole part of her $75,000 fur coat at 10ak in 2014. The Safdie brothers set a chunk of the 2012-set Uncut Gems there. The club and its various outposts around the world grossed $250 million in their first decade.