Big buzz for entrepreneur from 'best beer bar'

By Farnoosh Torabi, Special to amNewYork | amSmallBusiness@gmail.com

September 10, 2007

Michael Sinensky, owner of The Village Pourhouse. (Photo by Jefferson Siegel / September 9, 2007)

Just one year after opening The Village Pourhouse, 28-year-old entrepreneur Michael Sinensky is onto his next project, a three-floor nightclub along Midtown West Manhattan.

"My specialty is high school and college kids, which has a lot of potential," said Sinensky, who also owns a few other bars, including Proof Bar and Lounge in the Gramercy area.

His latest venture, The Village Pourhouse, has been one of his most successful concepts to date, recently voted the City's "Best Beer Bar" by Time Out New York.

"It's a neighborhood-friendly place that looks like it's been there for 100 years," said Sinensky.

The space tries to accommodate various groups, with themed rooms ranging from a chic lounge with French doors to a dugout room where patrons can order kegs of beer.

"The whole point is we want to have enough space where we can do four parties at once with a different feel for each one," he said

Since his days selling candy and school supplies in elementary school (thanks to his dad's variety store in Queens), Sinensky has been an active business leader. "I had 10 kids selling 25 cent tootsie roll pops," he said.

Later on during his years at Midwood High School, Sinensky threw a few parties by renting out a local bar -- all alcohol-free events, he notes -- and charged admission.

The experience would later serve him well in college at New York University's Stern School of Business where he became one of the youngest party and nightclub promoters, managing 250 other promoters and luring in thousands of guests to various nighttime events around the City.

"I was 19-years-old and I was running Carbon, which then became Exit, all before I could even technically drink," said Sinensky. It was also during college when he launched his first corporate event management company.

Today he owns three event-planning services, including promtime.com, incollege.com and newyearseve.com.

Sinensky, newly married, recently attended his 10-year reunion at Midwood High School. Asked if he was the most successful graduate at the party, he jokingly replied. "I'm not sure. Instead, I was telling people I started Google."