Who

The nightlife doyenne operates the perennial New York hotspot Bungalow 8. Sacco's Chelsea restaurant, Bette, closed its doors in June 2008.

Backstory

Sacco grew up in New Jersey, the youngest of eight kids and the daughter of a trucker. As a teenager she worked in a local restaurant part-time and snuck off to the city at night to hit up clubs like Area and Palladium. She went on to attend culinary school before snagging a front-of-the-house gig at David Bouley's restaurant Bouley, later taking jobs at Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Vong, Peter Glazier's Monkey Bar, and the club System. In 1997, thanks to a little help by Yvonne Force Villareal (who had worked alongside her at Bouley), Sacco rounded up the $1.2 million she needed to open a venue of her own, and Lot 61 debuted a year later in an art-filled former truck garage in Chelsea. She followed with the tropically-themed Bungalow 8 in 2000. Bette, which she named in honor of her mother, opened in 2005.

Of note

While Lot 61 closed its doors in early 2006 and Bette closed in 2008, Bungalow 8 is still humming along, even if it's ancient by club standards and not quite as popular as it once was. The club's velvet rope remains notoriously impenetrable, not that there's anything so spectacular awaiting you on the inside. The fraying nightspot is really only remarkable for the boldface names who occasionally pop in, which means if you're lucky, you might just get the chance to wait in line as some B-list celeb or A-list socialite spends 10 minutes in the bathroom powdering her nose.

But Sacco's had plenty of other projects to focus on. In 2006, she published her first book, Cocktails. In 2007, she opened a Bungalow outpost in London at the St. Martins Lane Hotel, and signed on as "lifestyle director" of real estate/diamond magnate Lev Leviev's Ann Street condo development District. (In exchange for promoting the project, she got a sweet deal on a penthouse condo.) In a similarly dubious arrangement, she's the "creative director" of that most exclusive Vegas venue, the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, where she's charged with conceiving four new venues by 2010, one of which will supposedly be a poolside space called Bungalow 8 Beach Club. She's also consulting for all-business-class Eos Airlines and designing a lingerie line with skivvies magnate Nick Graham.

Namedrop

Sacco teamed up with Ian Schrager to open the Bungalow in London. Vivi Nevo has invested in some of her properties, including Bette. Armin Amiri used to work the door at Bungalow. Nadine Johnson handles her PR. And Nello Balan sued Sacco after he claimed he was beaten "senseless" at Sacco's nightspot.

Personal

The 6'1" Sacco's first love was Le Bernardin chef Gilbert Le Coze, who died of a heart attack when she was 26. In 2007, she was engaged to marry Luigi ("Gigi") De Carolis, an Italian dental surgeon, but the nuptials were called off. After living near her nightspots on 23rd Street for years, Sacco is planning to soon move to a penthouse at the District. She also owns a place in London.