65 Irving was a recurring dining and social venue in Pat Hackett’s account of Andy Warhol’s circle, where professional introductions and celebrations could give way to awkward silences or open conflict. Its significance lies less in any single occasion than in its repeated use: meals there gathered artists, colleagues, interview subjects, and friends, making the place a practical meeting point and a stage for the social relationships around Warhol.

Place in the Factory’s social world

The diary places 65 Irving within a world whose working geography shifted over time. The Factory, once at 33 Union Square West, moved in 1974 to 860 Broadway; around the same period, its name gave way to the more ordinary office. The office and Interview remained closely connected, but 65 Irving appears in the diary primarily as a place for meals and gatherings rather than as a workplace. The distinction matters: business was arranged there, yet the setting also drew people together beyond the immediate demands of the office.

Interview helped make those crossings between work and sociability routine. Andy Warhol initially conceived the magazine around conversations with film stars, and its format invited prominent people to speak in their own words. After Warhol bought out Peter Brant in 1975 and became the magazine’s full owner and publisher, he became more involved in layouts and in pitching the magazine to advertisers. By then, Interview had also become a source of new faces and professional opportunities. Against this background, the meals and interviews at 65 Irving belong to a broader social circuit in which a dinner could serve as hospitality, an introduction, or part of the work of the magazine.

Dinners, guests, and an evening of conflict

On one evening in 1978, a gathering at the office preceded a dinner Bob Colacello was hosting for Elizinha Goncalves at 65 Irving. Colleagues rearranged furniture and cleared the office, while Vincent Fremont went out to gather supplies. Tommy Pashun arrived with flowers. The sequence links the venue to the effort of preparing and hosting: the meal was not an isolated appointment but the next part of a social occasion assembled across the office and the restaurant.

Another evening began after an opening and a crowded bathroom, where the diary’s narrator suspected some guests were using cocaine. A group went to 65 Irving, including Jed Johnson, John Reinhold, John Fairchild Jr., Belle McIntyre, William Pitt, and Henry Post. Bob Colacello objected to the invitation to Henry Post, warning that his exposé-style articles might cause trouble. The concern was not abstract for long. René Ricard arrived at the dinner and criticized Warhol’s work as merely decorative. Warhol became visibly angry, blushed, and shouted back; Ricard responded with personal accusations, and the confrontation recalled earlier fights involving Ondine. Those present were startled by the intensity of Warhol’s reaction. Henry Post, the person whose presence had worried Bob, was seated at another table and missed the argument. The scene captures how a dinner intended to bring people together could expose rivalries and anxieties about artistic judgment in front of an audience.

Lunches and professional introductions

At 65 Irving, meals also provided a setting for arranging work. In August 1979, Warhol took a taxi to Irving Place for lunch with the artist de Antonio and his wife. They asked de Antonio to write for Interview, and he agreed to find someone to interview. The lunch continued while the owners of 65 Irving interviewed prospective waiters in a corner. The practical business of the magazine and the restaurant’s own staffing thus occupied the same room, without becoming one and the same enterprise. The diary records the meal’s duration and cost as well as its purpose, presenting professional networking as part of an ordinary lunch rather than a formal office meeting.

A later Interview visit brought Ron Reagan Jr. to 65 Irving. The initial conversation was hesitant: both he and Warhol were shy, and Bob Colacello helped get the interview moving by asking about Reagan Jr.’s father. Warhol then asked whether his father dyed his hair, attributing the question to Bob when Reagan Jr. noted that people often asked it. Warhol shifted the conversation to the film Ordinary People and Mary Tyler Moore, before the interview turned to food. When Warhol mentioned that he had never tried frogs’ legs, Reagan Jr. ordered them so that he could taste them. The meal softened a conversation that had begun awkwardly and gave the interview a personal, hospitable texture.

Repeated use and social texture

The encounter continued outside the restaurant. Annie Leibovitz joined the group; Warhol took Polaroids and gave the visitors copies as souvenirs, along with books including The Philosophy of Andy Warhol and Exposures. They discussed Merce Cunningham’s work with helium pillows, and Warhol explained that he had made the Silver Pillows, though Reagan Jr. had not known that when he named the piece as a favorite. The party later dropped the Reagan children at their home. In this account, 65 Irving is part of a larger chain of conversation, gifts, photographs, and transportation: the meal creates the occasion, but the social exchange carries on around it.

The venue recurs again as a place to reward colleagues after work. On another evening, Warhol worked until 8:30, and Jay Shriver agreed to stay late. Because they had worked overtime, Warhol invited Rupert Smith and Shriver to 65 Irving, where John Reinhold joined them. The reason for the outing is plainly stated: a shared meal followed extra work. Together with the lunches, interviews, and more turbulent dinners, this visit shows the location’s range in the diary. 65 Irving could accommodate a publishing proposal, a tentative celebrity interview, a colleague’s thank-you dinner, or an argument that unsettled everyone present. Its recurring role is modest but revealing: it is where the business and social worlds around Warhol repeatedly met in person.