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Miley Cyrus posed with Sean Combs. Kendall Jenner hung out with Justin Bieber. Vanessa Hudgens chatted with Selena Gomez. John Legend and Chrissy Teigen held court in one corner, while Madonna danced in another.
麦莉·赛勒斯(Miley Cyrus)和肖恩·库姆斯(Sean Combs)合影。肯德尔·詹纳(Kendall Jenner)和贾斯汀·比伯(Justin Bieber)在一起玩。凡妮莎·哈金斯(Vanessa Hudgens)和赛琳娜·戈麦斯(Selena Gomez)闲聊。约翰·传奇(John Legend)和克丽茜·泰根(Chrissy Teigen)占据了一个角落，麦当娜(Madonna)在另一个角落跳舞。
It was the night of the Met Gala, and after all the red-carpet posing, cocktails, dinner and assorted parties, the A-list celebrities ended their night at Up & Down, a two-story club on West 14th Street.
那是大都会艺术博物馆慈善晚宴(Met Gala)之夜，在红毯拍照、鸡尾酒会、晚宴和各式派对之后，这些一线明星在西14街的两层俱乐部Up & Down结束这个夜晚。
Sure, that may have had something to do with the host, Rihanna. But it was also a testament to the celebrity-charming magnetism of Richie Akiva, one of the club’s owners, who is becoming a boldface name in his own right.
当然，这可能与派对主人蕾哈娜(Rihanna)有关。但它也证明，这家俱乐部的其中一位老板里奇·阿基瓦(Richie Akiva)具有吸引名人的魅力。他正凭借自己的能力成为一位知名人物。
After buying out his longtime partner, he is now the sole owner of the Butter Group, a company that runs a growing empire including 1Oak clubs (the name stands for “one of a kind”) in New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Mexico City, which cater to celebrities and hangers-on.
在买下长期合作伙伴的股份后，他现在是Butter Group公司的唯一所有者。该公司经营的帝国在不断扩张，包括1Oak俱乐部（俱乐部名字的意思是“独一无二”[one of a kind]）。这个俱乐部在纽约、拉斯维加斯、洛杉矶和墨西哥城设有分店，专为名人及其随从服务。
They are places where the bass always throbs, the champagne is perpetually being popped, bottles of vodka are delivered by beautiful women in lingerie and celebrities are coddled — with their comings and goings dutifully reported in the tabloids the next day. “Bella Hadid parties at 1OAK with Miley Cyrus in NYC,” the Daily Mail announced in a recent headline.
在这些俱乐部里，低音炮永远在震响，永远有香槟在被打开，身穿性感内衣的美女们奉上一瓶瓶伏特加，名人们在这里被悉心呵护——第二天，各种小报会尽职尽责地报道他们的行踪。“贝拉·哈迪德(Bella Hadid)和麦莉·赛勒斯在纽约市的1OAK聚会，”前不久，《每日邮报》(Daily Mail)的一个头条这样写道。
“I don’t use them to better my business, they’re my friends,” Mr. Akiva said. “I try to protect them as much as I can.”
“我不是利用他们提升我的生意，他们是我的朋友，”阿基瓦说，“我尽可能努力保护他们。”
His ease around his star clientele was evident on a recent afternoon, during lunch at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. Wearing a crisp blue button-down shirt and a gold Rolex, Mr. Akiva, 37, carried himself like the coolest kid in school, who is humble enough not to brag about it.
前不久的一个下午，他在加利福尼亚州贝弗利山的四季酒店(Four Seasons Hotel)用午餐，他和明星客户们交往时的轻松自在显而易见。37岁的阿基瓦穿着一件湛蓝色衬衫，戴着劳力士(Rolex)金表，他的姿态像是学校里最酷的孩子，同时非常谦虚，没有炫耀。
On his way in, he ran into Naomi Campbell. They kissed cheeks and chatted like old pals about their evening plans and whose house they would meet at beforehand.
在进餐厅的路上，他碰见了娜奥米·坎贝尔(Naomi Campbell)。他们互吻双颊，像老朋友一样谈论晚上的计划以及先在谁家碰头。
“I host all my parties with him,” Ms. Campbell said. “I don’t go to any other clubs in New York but his. I know I’m safe, and I know I’m taken care of.”
“我所有的派对都是和他一起举办的，”坎贝尔说，“在纽约，我只去他的俱乐部。在那里，我知道我很安全，有人会照顾我。”
Famous friends echoed a similar sentiment. “Richie creates an experience, it’s much more than just a club,” said Sean Combs, who attended Mr. Akiva’s birthday party at 1Oak in West Hollywood last September. “No matter what property, whether it’s 1Oak New York, L.A. or Cannes” — where Mr. Akiva organized a pop-up during the annual film festival — “it’s always a good time.”
其他名人也表达了类似的感觉。“里奇创造了一种体验，远远超越普通俱乐部的感觉，”肖恩·库姆斯说。去年9月，他在西好莱坞的1Oak参加阿基瓦的生日派对。“不管是哪里的1Oak，不管是在纽约、洛杉矶还是戛纳（阿基瓦在一年一度的戛纳电影节上组织品牌游击店），你总能获得美好的体验。”
Mr. Akiva has also been romantically linked in the tabloids to various celebrities, including Rihanna and Heidi Klum. He neither confirms nor denies those reports. “I take a page from friends of mine who are celebrities,” he said. “Let people believe whatever they want to believe.”
一些小报还声称，阿基瓦与多位名人有过恋情，包括蕾哈娜和海蒂·克鲁姆(Heidi Klum)。他从未承认或否定这些报道。“我听从名人朋友们的吩咐，”他说，“人们愿意怎么想，就怎么想吧。”
He was not born for flashbulbs and gossip. Mr. Akiva grew up in TriBeCa with his father, who manufactured and imported sportswear, and two sisters (his mother died when he was 3).
阿基瓦不是生在被闪光灯追逐、被八卦新闻困扰的名人之家。他和父亲、两个姐姐（他妈妈在他3岁时去世了）在翠贝卡区(TriBeCa)长大。他父亲从事运动服装制作和进口生意。
He lived on two tracks, spending days at the private Dwight School on the Upper West Side, and nights on a skateboard, scrawling graffiti and partying downtown. He started going to nightclubs before he was of legal age and began promoting parties, like Monday nights at Lot 61 in Chelsea and Friday nights at Life in Greenwich Village, as a way to meld his uptown and downtown circles and to make a little money.
他过着双重生活，白天在上西区的德怀特私立学校(Dwight School)上课，晚上滑着滑板，在市中心涂鸦或聚会。还没到法定年龄，他就开始去夜总会，开始推广派对，比如周一晚上在切尔西(Chelsea)的Lot 61咖啡馆或周五晚上在格林尼治村(Greenwich Village)的Life俱乐部，他用这种方式把他在住宅区和商业区的圈子融合在一起，同时挣点小钱。
That is also how he met Scott Sartiano, a Columbia University student, who would become his business partner for more than a decade. As promoters, cultivating the connections they made at Lot 61 and Life, they turned the nightclub Spa, near Union Square, into a celebrity hive during the early 2000s.
在这个过程中，他结识了哥伦比亚大学学生斯科特·萨尔蒂亚诺(Scott Sartiano)，在之后的十多年里，他们是商业合作伙伴。新千年之初，利用他们在Lot 61和Life建立的关系网，他们把联合广场(Union Square)附近的夜总会Spa推广成为名人聚集之地。
“It was the No. 1 club for four years in New York,” Mr. Akiva said. “It was where Justin Timberlake met Pharrell, where Pharrell met Jay-Z.”
“它曾连续四年是纽约排名第一的俱乐部，”阿基瓦说，“贾斯汀·汀布莱克(Justin Timberlake)就是在那里遇见法雷尔(Pharrell)的，法雷尔也是在那里认识Jay-Z的。”
But they wanted more. “I said, ‘You know what, I’m tired of making money for all these owners, I’ve got to do my own thing,’ ” Mr. Akiva said. So in 2002, he and Mr. Sartiano, with money raised from friends and investors, opened Butter, a scene-y restaurant on Lafayette Street. Their reputation preceded them.
但是他们想要的更多。“当时我说，‘你知道吗，我厌倦了为所有这些老板挣钱，我得自己做点事情，’”阿基瓦说。所以，2002年，他和萨尔蒂亚诺从朋友和投资者那里筹钱，在拉菲尔街(Lafayette Street)开设了外观醒目的Butter餐馆。当时他们已经声名远扬。”
“The day we opened, there was a line around the block because people thought it was a nightclub,” Mr. Akiva said. “We went and took business cards and said, ‘It’s a restaurant, please make a reservation.’ ”
“开业那天，排队等候的人绕了一个街区，人们以为它是夜总会，”阿基瓦说，“我们走过去，拿出名片说，‘这是餐馆，请预订。’”
In 2007, they opened their first nightclub, 1Oak, on West 17th Street in Chelsea. “We didn’t want to force people to spend money,” Mr. Akiva said, a reference to the mandatory bottle service that ruled night life at the time. “It was about great music and enjoying a room filled with a beautiful mix of models, celebrities, artists, photographers and fashion designers.”
2007年，他们在切尔西的西17街开设了自己的第一家夜总会1Oak。“我们不想强迫人们消费，”阿基瓦说。他指的是当时夜总会盛行的强制性酒水消费。“重要的是有美妙的音乐，房间里全是美人——模特、名人、艺术家、摄影师和时装设计师。”
Their clubs sometimes land in the news for the wrong reasons. In April, the N.B.A. player Chris Copeland was stabbed outside 1Oak in Manhattan, and last August, Suge Knight was shot at a pre-MTV Video Music Awards party at 1Oak Los Angeles.
有时，他们的俱乐部会因坏消息出现在新闻报道中。今年4月，NBA球员克里斯·科普兰(Chris Copeland)在曼哈顿1Oak俱乐部外被刺伤。去年8月，苏吉·奈特(Suge Knight)在洛杉矶1Oak的MTV音乐录影带大奖(MTV Video Music Awards)预热派对上遭到枪击。
“It was an unfortunate, isolated incident that happened to be at 1Oak,” Mr. Akiva said about the shooting. “I hire the right security, I make sure my door is as tight as it can be.”
“那是碰巧发生在1Oak的不幸的孤立事件，”阿基瓦谈起那次枪击事件时说，“我安排了严密的保安，我确保我的大门看管得很严。”
The fast pace of night life may have contributed to Mr. Sartiano’s decision to leave the partnership in March. “My passion for things I wanted to do in the future shifted,” said Mr. Sartiano, who got married last year and now splits his time between New York and Los Angeles.
今年3月，萨尔蒂亚诺决定结束合伙关系，原因之一可能是夜生活的节奏太快。“未来我有激情去做的事情已经不同了，”萨尔蒂亚诺说。去年他结婚了，现在在纽约和洛杉矶两地工作和生活。
“I’m on a different path right now,” he said. “I don’t really want to stay in this nightclub business.”
“现在我在另一条路上，”他说，“我不太想做俱乐部生意了。”
For Mr. Akiva, last call seems far off. He plans to open outposts of 1Oak in London, Dubai and Tokyo in the coming year, and bring Up & Down to Los Angeles.
对阿基瓦来说，打烊时间还远未到来。在未来一年里，他计划在伦敦、迪拜和东京开设1Oak分店，在洛杉矶开设Up & Down分店。
Still, he knows that even the most prolific club kid must eventually hang up his snapback hat. He recently broke ground on a 140-room hotel in the NoMad district of Manhattan in partnership with Richard Born and Ira Drukier, whose past projects include the Mercer Hotel and the Jane. While Mr. Akiva has yet to decide on a name, it won’t borrow from one of his club franchises.
不过，他知道，甚至连最赚钱的俱乐部最终也会收场。前不久，他和理查德·博恩(Richard Born)、伊拉·德吕基耶(Ira Drukier)合作在曼哈顿诺玛德区(NoMad district)开始动工兴建一家有140个房间的酒店。他的两位合作伙伴以前的项目包括默瑟酒店(Mercer Hotel)和简酒店(Jane)。阿基瓦还没给新酒店起好名字，但他不会借用自己连锁俱乐部的名字。
“This is going to be a Richie Akiva project,” he said.
“这将是里奇·阿基瓦的项目，”他说。
