Chase InfinitiZach Hilty/BFA.com
The intrigue of Cafe Zaffri at The Twenty Two precedes itself. The upscale restaurant and private members club-slash-hotel, imported from London and located within a former Victorian-era women-only boarding house, has made for a frequent bedfellow of Met Gala festivities, one in which unforgettable stories unfold.
This year, collaborating once again with GQ, the notable names on the guest list were in no short supply, starting with the host committee. Rallied by new instated global editorial director Adam Baidawi and global fashion correspondent Samuel Hine, the line-up was a snippet of the entertainment zeitgeist: Chase Infiniti, Damson Idris, Blackpink’s Lisa, and Paul Anthony Kelly.
Just past midnight, both Baidawi and Hine could be found greeting guests upon arrival as the Revered Al Sharpton looked upon the scene from a corner banquette. “Last year was so great, so we thought we might as well do it again,” Hine told Vogue. “I think every GQ party is just about getting a ton of different people together across art, fashion, music, sports, and Hollywood, or whatever else it might be. They’re all members of this family that we’ve assembled, so we like to throw it all together and see what happens.” The result? The sort of pinch-me scenes that only the First Monday in May could bring to life.
While most guests opted to pop by their hotels for an outfit change, Paul Anthony Kelly arrived still sporting his Dior tailcoat—one he referred to as “dastardly” during the Met Gala live stream when interviewed by La La Anthony. The Love Story actor was also decked out in countless pricy baubles including a ruby and diamond pinky ring that glistened in the flashbulbs.
The Canadian star was just one of the many friends of GQ that filled the room, and as the late night trays of burgers and chicken fingers began circulating around 1 a.m, the scene felt more akin to a suburban basement’s rumpus room while your parents might be out of town; a recipe for non-stop revelry with many unlikely pairings. Think: Angela Bassett and Babyface, Lena Dunham and Sarah Pidgeon, Laufey and designers Tanner Richie and Fletcher Kasell, and Alyssa Liu and Shaboozey all mingled and mixed, plotting future projects and rehashing a night at the Met. Some even shared their verboten photos, snapped in the museum’s bathroom. Others gushed of the evening’s performance by Sabrina Carpenter and Stevie Nicks; as one partygoer gushed: “I mean, how could you not cry at a rendition of Landslide?!”
Meanwhile, Heated Rivalry’s Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams (sporting a beret and a pair of boxer shorts) took to the dance floor alongside Colman Domingo, BJ Novak, and Olivia Rodrigo before holding court in an unexpected rooftop gathering that stretched on until the wee hours.
By 4 a.m. some pop stars began plotting the next stop of the evening—perhaps Rihanna’s shindig on the Lower East Side or Madonna’s in NoHo? While some other big screen names, due to film the next day, called it a night. Such are the highs and lows of a day like the First Monday in May, which is inevitably followed by a distinctly average working Tuesday.
