Susanne Bartsch is flitting about the club room at The Soho Grand, a mini whirlwind of gauzy black tulle. It’s 10pm and this is just the first of the two parties she hosts every Tuesday night. 

“Can I get you a drink?” she asks the evening’s performer, Bridget Everett. The buxom singer asks for a chardonnay, her signature tipple, but Bartsch produces a coupe brimming with champagne. Because, you know, what else would anyone drink, darling?

“At the end of the day I’m just a cocktail waitress,” Bartsch says with a self-depreciating laugh as she pops olives into her mouth, waiting for more drinks for her other guests. “I love the tiger you’ve wrapped yourself in tonight!” she tells DJ Johnny Dynell who is in fact celebrating his birthday in a splashy leopard print suit ...