The legendary Russian Samovar Restaurant and Piano Bar hosted a literary star-studded book release party for authors Allen Salkin and Aaron Short, featuring some of the restaurant’s authentic Russian delicacies and cocktails. In their new book, The Method to The Madness: Donald Trump’s Ascent as Told by Those Who Were Hired, Fired, Inspired—and Inaugurated (released July 9, 2019, by All Points Books), veteran journalists Salkin and Short has written an objective, nonpartisan oral history devoid of anonymous sources. The book shows that Trump had carefully planned his bid for the presidency since he launched what many considered to be a joke candidacy in 1999. The administration is still a joke to us!
Among those media friends and colleagues in attendance were: the New York Time’s Tiina Loite; the New York Post’s Susan Edelman, Melkorka Licea, Katharine Ann Boniello, Heather Hauswirth, Melissa Klein, Doree Leewak and Zach Kussin; Author Allison Schrager; Food and Wine’s Sara Ventiera; Get Me Roger Stone Director Morgan Pehme; the Hollywood Reporter’s Jeremy Barr; Rolling Stone’s Tana Ganeva; ProPublica’s Nadia Sussman; Newsday’s Matt Clark; the Wall Street Journal’s Andrea Fuller and Jay Cheses; Journalist Justin Rocket Silverman; Ish Productions’s Michael Hirachorn and Melissa Cooper; Producer Joe Allegro; CNN’s Michael Southworth; the National Review’s Kyle Smith; Rachel Maddow Show’s Lisa Ferri; Meredith Magazine’s Amy Brightfield; Author of Duped, Abby Ellin; and Russian Samovar’s Vlada Von Shats (longer list of media attendees below photos).
What sets Allen Salkin and Aaron Short’s new book, THE METHOD TO THE MADNESS: Donald Trump’s Ascent as Told by Those Who Were Hired, Fired, Inspired–and Inaugurated apart from many of the books concerning the Trump Presidency is the exclusive use of on-the-record comments and anecdotes to tell objectively the story of Donald J. Trump’s rise to the Presidency of the United States between 1999 and 2015.
Russian Samovar is owned by Roman Kaplan and managed by his daughter Vlada Von Shats and her two sons Michael and Nicholas. It was previously co-owned by ballet legend Mikhail Baryshnikov and Nobel Prize winner for poetry Joseph Brodsky. Jilly Rizzo, friend, and bodyguard of Frank Sinatra, owned the establishment in the past, and Sinatra held many personal concerts there and often spent time with The Rat Pack, playing games of baccarat in the upstairs lounge. Cyndi Lauper and Liza Minnelli are also known to stop by and offer the odd performance. The restaurant keeps attracting several generations of Russians. In a cozy atmosphere, they can eat their favorite Russian food, meet musicians, actors, and writers from Russia and all over the world.