On a recent Wednesday evening outside Happy Ending, a sceney Lower East Side bar, a throng of fashionable would-be revelers awaited appraisal.
Evidence submitted to gain entry included a business card from Givenchy, name-dropping the bar’s owners, and text messages from cronies already inside. Julio Montero, 31, the stocky, dark-jacketed doorman, appraised the unfamiliar faces and weighed the veracity of their testimonials. Some didn’t pass muster.
