The Host with the Most
Arley C. Pressley brings decades of event planning experience to his new role as co-owner of Harlem’s Row House restaurant.
Arley C. Pressley ’89 knows how to throw a party. It’s all about pulling together the details: location, people, music, lighting and food that create a memorable vibe.
As one-third of Assorted Flavors Entertainment, an upscale, event planning, marketing and promotions company, Pressley and his partners have hosted an annual Black Tie Ball at venues around the New York City area, attended by more than 1,000 guests each year, for nearly 20 years. For 17 years, they hosted a TGIF after-work party at Katra, on the lower east side, and a “mix and mingle” the last Thursday of each month at Taj Lounge, as well as various happy hours, dinner parties and day parties around the city. In 2019, they launched a monthly Saturday brunch at the popular Harlem restaurant Row House, featuring a changing theme, menu and DJ, expanding to a b-weekly event in 2022.
“The Row House has a great location on the corner of 115th street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, right in the heart of Harlem, with both indoor and outdoor seating,” says Pressley. “We hold the brunch from 1 to 8, so it’s not super early and people can also get home at a reasonable hour.”
The popularity of the event made Pressley believe he could help the establishment better cater to the tastes of its diverse clientele and he pitched a partnership agreement to the restaurant’s owner. In January, he and his Assorted Flavors partners became co-owners of Row House. “We’re all African American, so now the restaurant is Black-owned and that’s huge for the community,” he says. “People are very excited about it.’
While the restaurant was already successful, Pressley says he and his partners bring a different perspective to programming. For the first time this year, for example, Row House held a Juneteenth celebration. The restaurant holds a regular after-work Humpday Wednesday gathering and a happy hour and dinner party with a DJ every Friday.
Naturally social, Pressley says that trait used to get him in trouble at school. “I was the one told I was talking too much, being disruptive to the class, not paying attention,” he says.
His foray into hosting and promoting parties began as an undergraduate student at Syracuse University, when he joined Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc.
“That’s where I started planning events and learning what was involved—booking the space, coming up with a theme and getting the word out,” he says. “That was my start.”