The ‘It’ Boy: Emeric Harney Brings People Together
Last Sunday night, on the eve of his 22nd birthday, Emeric Harney who lives in Lakeville, CT, and works in Millerton, NY, hosted a party in the border town of West Stockbridge, MA. "I wanted to bring together guys from three states,” says Emeric, who organized the gay "Men's Martini Night" at the French bistro Rouge. "I'm a very social person. An ability to talk to strangers is instilled in me. It's a Harney trait to be able to schmooze.” The Harneys are, in some ways, the Kennedys of northwestern Connecticut—a family that's civic minded, ubiquitous, and larger than life. "Growing up, everyone knew me because of my grandparents,” he says. Emreic's grandmother runs Elyse Harney Real Estate, which has offices in Salisbury, New Preston, Norfolk, and Riverton, CT, and Millerton, NY (and she sells houses in southern Berkshire County, too.) "People always remark on her matriarchal charm,” Emeric says proudly. His grandfather, John, is the president of Harney & Sons Fine Tea, where his father, Michael, and his uncle Paul both work. Emeric's mother, Brigitte, is French and Emeric spent his childhood summers in France, which has given him a cosmopolitan perspective but down-home country values. "When you grow up here, you always feel like you can trust people,” he says. "You wear your heart on your sleeve.”
He's learned that big cities are not as conducive to his brand of open-heartedness. After high school, he moved to LA to pursue acting and modeling. "But I had to work three jobs so I had no time to do any acting or modeling,” he says. He came back home and got a part in The Pajama Game at TriArts in Sharon, which was a great experience and taught him that he did not want to purse a career on stage. He moved to Paris and took some courses at the American University and worked for the Canadian TV show Fashion File. "I went to a lot of fashion shows and learned a lot about photography, which is the career I am now pursuing. I just launched my website a few weeks ago.‘ (The black-and-white photograph of him is a self portrait.)
When he returned from Paris, he enrolled in art and graphic design courses at Northwestern Connecticut Community College. Preternaturally gregarious. he started waiting tables at the Harney Tea cafe and his presence animates the genteel dining room. Last fall, he went with friends for dinner at Rouge in West Stockbridge and he hit it off immediately with Maggie Merrelle, who owns the restaurant with her husband, William. "We started talking in French,” he says. "Her husband is French and my mother is French and we just clicked.” Emeric proposed hosting monthly gay parties at her restaurant near the Mass Pike, which has made Martini Night accessible for men from as far away as Albany, Hartford and Northampton. "The whole purpose is to mesh people and get people out of their zones,” says Emeric, who chats up strangers and introduces them to each other. "This is much more relaxed than a bar or a club. They can eat or just have a drink." Merrelle is awed by his grace and tact. "He has this spark and contagious enthusiasm,” she says. "He has the ability to talk to anybody about anything at any time. He's going to do great things. He's already doing great things!” Scott Edward Cole, who owns nearby Caffe Pomo D'Oro, is also a fan. "I am still in shock that I seem to have a monthly tri-state gay bar within walking distance of my house,” says Cole.
Emeric seems to enjoy the fact that people find it curious that he is organizing parties where many of the guests are more than twice his age. "I like talking to people who are older and have much more experience of life than I have,” he says. "I'm interested in everybody.” He also gets a kick out defying stereotypes by being a fashion-conscious young gay man who enjoys rural life. "When I was younger, I did feel trapped but now I don't see it that way at all,” he says, sipping a cup of Paris blend tea that he credits his dad with creating. "I had to go to LA and New York to appreciate living here. I don't feel trapped but free of the expectations of the big city.”
Even as he pursues photography professionally, he is learning the tea trade and accompanying his father on a two-week business trip to China at the end of the month. "I expect I will follow in his footsteps someday,” he says. For now, Emeric is forging his own path, lining up jobs as a photographer, waiting tables and sending out email-and-Facebook invitations for the next Men's Martini Night on April 18. "It's our first one on a Saturday night,” he says, "so nobody will have a good excuse for why they can't come and stay out late.”
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