Omar Hernandez: The Raleigh’s Renegade Ringmaster

It’s Thank-God-Art Basel’s-Over Sunday at the Raleigh in South Beach, and Food, Beverage & Nightlife guru Omar Hernandez looks damn good for a guy who just threw 22 parties in four days. Must be his Gucci glasses. Or, the natural telegenicity of a Plum TV host.

“I don’t know how we pulled it off,” he says, giving props to his staff of 65, a big clue to his cool management style. “We had 800 people for Visionaire, 500 for Vanity Fair, Deitch Projects’ live band Gossip out back, and the after-party for Che with Steven Soderbergh, Benicio del Toro and Rodrigo Santoro in the ballroom.”

Not to mention Kelly Klein’s “Horse” book signing and hotelier Andre Balazs’ sit-down uber-dinner on the patio with Bruce Weber, Marc Jacobs, Ingrid Sischy and Sandra Brandt, Paul Wilmot, and, of course, Calvin. Ah, the usual snowbirds, all Raleigh regulars. I should know. I was a charter member of the Raleigh Pool Club in 1993. (Andre: “Cyn., that was 15 years ago!”)

Pan down to a table in the garden where suprastylista Rachel Zoe shows off her latest snag — black shiny platforms Amanda Lepore would kill for. You go, girl! Omar’s buzzing through the moneyed crowd like a skinny bee to honey, a trilingual bee from Caracas, Venezuela, mind you, schooled in English and French Philology with an Electrical Engineering degree in Microwave Telecommunications from McGill U.

How did he get here? Standing (and smiling and hosting) at all the right places — Mercer Kitchen, Standard Hollywood, Balthazar, Asia de Cuba, Dolce.

His secret: “I love to see people happy, having a great time! This year at Basel, I put everyone together — big, small, rich, famous, not-so-famous. I did it like a fiesta. I created a bar-restaurant-party within a party. I didn’t use partitions to separate each event, just some nice plants to keep the energy flowing. It worked. Every day about 2,000 people were partying here till 5 a.m. In this economy, people are definitely drinking more.”

Cut to Visionaire’s 55th anniversaire sponsored by Krug. Team Raleigh crafted a 12-foot crystal fountain tall as a Christmas tree out of champagne glasses.

Omar’s hard-to-forget, behind-the-scenes moment: At the New York Times’ T fete in the penthouse, artist Takashi Murakami turned up in a Sumo-sized, Chicken Little-y, flower-power costume. How big was he? So big he needed a chair.

Omar: “Omigod! We ran around trying to find one that fit but his costume was too big, so we put him in the middle of the room and made him the centerpiece. People took pictures then walked around him to the bar.”

Omar’s Favorite Vendors:

Florist: Black-eyed Susans (305) 759-3286

Set Design: Ace Props Miami (305) 756-0888

Cakes, cupcakes: Stella Sweet Shoppe (305) 479-9098

Sweets: MarieBelle New York (212) 925-6999

To host your next event at The Raleigh, contact Omar Hernandez at (305) 534-6300 or via email.

PHOTO CREDIT: Cyn. Zarco

Writer-photographer-webwiz Cyn. Zarco has chronicled South Beach since 1986 when she sublet her East Village apartment to the drummer of the Ramones. For a good read, go to www.SouthBeachForDummies.com