“Am I boring you yet?” Paz de la Huerta cooed into the microphone, her inflection such that it could have been whispered in bed. She was reading an excerpt of the new Lydia Davis translation of Madame Bovary at Playboys party at a makeshift tea room set up under the austere metal buttresses of the High Line. Much to her dismay, however, the din of the crowd had risen. “Yes!” cried a few people standing nearby, perplexed as to why a reading would interrupt the usual routine of music, schmoozing and liquor.”Well,” she sighed. “I’ll try to make it more interesting. Maybe I’ll start stripping for you.”

The stunning actress, model, and embodiment of sex was brought in to justify calling this sub-High Line gathering a “literary salon.” The House of Waris Tea Room is a pop-up space that jewelry designer and occasional Wes Anderson troupe member Waris Aluwalia has opened for a ten-day period, to display his documented affection for the brewed leaf. The drink of choice last night, however, was a bit on the stronger side: scores of bottles of Belvedere vodka were dumped into glasses, mixed with juice or tonic and affixed with Playboy bunny stirrers.  As is to be expected when Playboy-approved fiction meets Waris’ downtown cache, the crowd was a mix of writers and the usual subjects. Waris said he could only level one real criticism against such an event. “Next time we’re gonna make sure there’s bunnies,” he told us. “I said to Playboy, ‘I’m not doing anything without bunnies. Bring me the bunnies!’” -Nate Freeman, OBSERVER.COM

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