Watching New York watch the election.
From Republicans in Chelsea to socialists in Ridgewood. 🗽
Hello everyone. Today, we’re celebrating Zohran’s win in the Feed Me HQ. I said last week that Feed Me would donate paid subscription revenue to Food Bank NYC for a week. Today, we donated over $10k, and $1=15 meals, so that’s over 150,000 meals. Thank you to everyone who subscribed over the last week.
Today’s letter includes:
’s party reporting from election night, a rabbi says he’s building a new Jewish day school in the Hamptons, 2026 is the year we start eating at The Smith again, and the painter behind ’s Instagram photo has a new gallery show in Soho.
Political Parties is a nightlife column by Cami Fateh. It offers readers a glimpse into the unspoken politics of party culture, in rooms that they didn’t even know existed.
This column is called Political Parties, so when it came to election night, I knew I had one job to do: instead of just watching the election, I needed to watch New York watch the election. From despondent Republicans in Chelsea to jubilant socialists in Ridgewood, here’s what I saw as I crisscrossed the city last night.
7:30 pm: Manhattan Institute for Policy Research election watch party at Maxwell Social, Tribeca
My evening began at a watch party thrown by The Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. Men wearing suits and ties mingled throughout the space, which was decked out with velvet curtains and ornate Persian rugs. I chatted with an editor at Christian conservative journal First Things who said he voted for Sliwa because Cuomo doesn’t have a chance. ”I’m bracing myself to wake up tomorrow in the third world version of this city that HE [Zohran Mamdani] wants,” he said. “He’s surrounded by some deeply evil people.” I asked him what he meant by that, to which he said “you know they’re deeply evil because you can see it in their eyes.” He shook his head and looked really disturbed.
On the upside, there was a fabulous spread of burgers, chips with guacamole/salsa/queso, and falafel and hummus (we’re traveling around the world tonight), so I decided to eavesdrop on a nearby couple while picking on some falafel. The man said there will be “a lot of AI religions” coming soon. Another guy learned that I was a journalist and came over to me to show a clip of him being interviewed on CBS about why he’s voting for Cuomo (more political experience). Close by, a guy in a suit explained how he lost access to Casa Cipriani after his member-friend got barred for taking a picture of Taylor Swift. “But it’s a shitty club anyways,” he said. I was starting to itch for a new scene myself, so I called an Uber to my next stop.
“So I got in a 45-minute-long Uber ride to Boyfriend Co-op, a new worker-owned lesbian bar in Bushwick that was hosting one of the many Democratic Socialists of America parties tonight.”
9:00 pm: New York Young Republican Clubhouse, Chelsea
Naturally, the headquarters for the New York Young Republican Club was a third floor walk-up. I don’t know what I expected, but I was still taken aback by the posters of Nixon and Trump everywhere, and wooden crosses hung up on each wall. They had a huge black and white poster commemorating Charlie Kirk, and a portrait of the current NYYRC president with an American flag emblazoned on his face. The portraits read “Free America” and were signed by “MAGALangelo.”
I chatted with NYYRC’s director of social media, a blonde woman my age wearing an American flag sweater and jeans. She invited me to join the club. Another woman yelled “FUCK JAKE TAPPER,” when the CNN host appeared on the TV, and the crowd joined her with booming boos.
“I thought you said you fucked Jake Tapper,” joked the friend standing next to her.
“Oh my god, NO!” she responded.
I complimented her oxblood leather Prada handbag, which she admitted to me was a fake. Her friend jokes that she won’t be getting a real one with Mamdani as mayor. “Maybe I’ll get another one from Canal street once he brings all the illegals back,” she said.
Everyone started booing, louder this time, before I realized what was playing on the TV. CNN had projected Zohran Mamdani as the winner of the Mayoral race. Some guys crushed cans and others had their hands in their faces.
The president of the NYYRC got on the mic. He told the crowd they could learn something from Mamdani’s win, which proved that voters “are deeply concerned with the economy. And they wanted something different.” The result? “We are under the occupation of a foreigner in Gracie Mansion,” he added, noting that the New York Young Republican Club has “already started a legal memo that would disqualify Zohran Mamdani from taking office under the 14th Amendment of the Insurrection Act.” The crowd broke out into a chant of “USA, USA, USA” and I headed for the door.