Diane Mantouvalos playing in the fast lane at F1 Boston

Malcolm Rogers playing America's pastime in front of the MFA.

The ICA's Jill Medvedow playing Monopoly

> PUBLIC RELATIONS

Nancy Civetta

Civetta Comunicazioni

Civetta is not a restaurant publicist per se, but she may do more than anyone in town to promote the local dining scene. She is the PR force behind the Anthony Spinazzola Foundation’s events, Chefs Collaborative, Gordon Hamersley’s book tour (Bistro Cooking at Home), Bostonchefs.com, Restaurant Week, Boston DineAround, Divas Uncorked, and the Wellfleet Oyster Festival.

Chris Lyons

Chris Lyons Communications

Chris Lyons was a woman before her time when, in 1986, she began to focus her formidable public-relations skills on restaurants. Lyons’s clients are fiercely loyal, and for good reason — her no-nonsense, amiable style gets results. Her clients include the restaurants Bricco, Mantra, and Icarus.

George Regan

Regan Communications Group

It’s no surprise that George Regan, the former press secretary to Mayor Kevin White, is well-connected in the political world. Since 1984, his full-service firm has represented a wide range of clients in many realms. Current clients include such diverse organizations as Dunkin’ Donuts, the Boston Celtics, the Olives Group, Mohegan Sun, Clear Channel, and FleetBoston Financial Corp.

Lynne Kortenhaus

Kortenhaus Communications

Lynne Kortenhaus started her eponymous PR and marketing firm in 1984 (the same year that Regan started his). In the ensuing 20 years, Kortenhaus Communications has grown to become one of the most important firms in New England. Current clients include the Nine Zero Hotel; Shreve, Crump & Low; the Sports Club/LA; Louis Boston and L Restaurant; and Azure.

Chris Haynes

CBH Communications

Haynes, a regular on the Boston social scene, is at the forefront of the new wave of independent publicists who focus mainly on restaurants. He is known for his ability to get the word out about new establishments, and his contacts in the local and national media are very solid.

Lisa O’Neill

Newton O’Neill Communications

What is an affable native Texan doing in this chilly social and physical climate? Running a very successful PR firm, that’s what. In addition to doing the PR for her husband Brian O’Neill’s Good Life and Centro restaurants, O’Neill also handles the Fireplace, Bob the Chef’s, Leon & Company salon, and more.

Kate Shamon

Independent publicist

Shamon’s highest-profile nightlife role is as the publicist for Radius, Great Bay, and Via Matta, which, in case you haven’t noticed, have been all over the local and national media lately. She is the founder of the Greater Boston Concierge Association, the chair of the New England Spring Flower Show preview party, and has worked with such clients as H&M, House of Blues, Talbots, Emporio Armani, and many others. She’s also an active presence on the local charity and social circuit.

Rosanne Mercer

Mercer Public Relations

Mercer has a long and storied history in entertainment media, dating back to her work on the old Mike Douglas show. As a PR force in modern Boston, her clients include McCormick & Schmick’s, Top of the Hub, Old Town Trolley Tours, and Dick’s Last Resort.

Julie Fox

Julie Fox Communications

Fox’s clients include local stalwart restaurants L’Espalier, Sel de la Terre, and UpStairs on the Square, as well as Tiffany (!), Westport Rivers Winery, and Buzzards Bay Brewery. If you want to buy her flowers, you can get them at Winston Flowers, another of her clients.

Lori Moretti

CM Communications

In recent years Moretti, with partner Michael Caglianone and go-getter Marlo Fogelman, has brought CM to the next level of Boston PR firms (CM calls itself an " integrated marketing agency, " for the record). Hotel clients include Hotel Marlowe, the Colonnade, and Beacon Hill Hotel & Bistro, while restaurant clients include Les Zygomates, Brasserie Jo, and Le Soir.

Diane Mantouvalos

Andonia Public Relations/Sudiko Marketing Group

Beauty, brains, and ambition come together in the feisty package of Diane Mantouvalos. As a PR professional and event planner, Mantouvalos helped to launch Mantra, has been involved with countless national and local PR campaigns, and currently works with the hot spot Saint. She also serves as executive director of Midnight Santa, a nonprofit community-outreach program she founded in 1993.

> FINE ARTS

Bernie Toale

Bernard Toale Gallery

Toale’s is one of the most respected names in Boston’s contemporary-art scene. His gallery features work that is both cutting-edge and impeccably crafted.

Randi Hopkins

Allston Skirt Gallery

Hopkins, who also works as an art critic for the Boston Phoenix (a Phoenix Media/Communications Group company, as is STUFF@night), runs her Harrison Avenue gallery with partner Beth Kantrowitz. The gallery is as smart as Hopkins’s writing.

Barbara Krakow

Barbara Krakow Gallery

For over 20 years, Krakow has been presenting some of the world’s top contemporary artists in her gallery. Artists whose work has been shown at the BKG include Alex Katz, Sol LeWitt, Richard Serra, Chuck Close, Kiki Smith, and Michael Mazur.

Kenn Gray

Kenn Gray Interiors, etc.

Gray, formerly of the Judi Rotenberg Gallery and his own Media Gallery, is the head of his own interior-design firm. In addition, Gray is the founder and executive director of Boston KidSmart, a non-profit organization that works to supply public-school kids with art-supplies and programming. Gray also curates private shows in galleries, alternative exhibition spaces, and nightclubs (like Swank in Manhattan).

Malcolm Rogers

Museum of Fine Arts

Has it really been 10 years since Rogers was appointed Ann and Graham Gund Director of the MFA? It most certainly has, and the museum has become a much more respected (internationally) and welcoming (locally) place in that time. Rogers, a native Brit, was recently honored by Queen Elizabeth II with the title of Commander, Order of the British Empire — not a bad resumé-builder, eh?

Jill Medvedow

Institute for Contemporary Art

As the James Sachs Plaut Director of the ICA, Medvedow is the one in charge of the organizations’ rise to national prominence (and its new future home on the waterfront).

> NIGHTCLUBS AND BARS

Fenton Hollander and Fred Taylor

Water Music and Regattabar; Scullers

Although they work for competing companies, Hollander (Water Music and Regattabar) and Taylor (Scullers) are inseparable as the faces of jazz in Boston. The top international jazz acts look to play at either the Regattabar or Scullers when they come to Boston, and both these gentlemen work to bring jazz to other parts of New England.

Lou and Jeff Delpidio

Boston Ballroom Corporation

This father-and-son operation is behind the Roxy, a powerhouse club with one of the most beautiful old ballrooms in the entire Northeast. The Delpidios are also involved with the Matrix club (which has started booking rock acts) downstairs from the Roxy, and another Matrix in Taunton. And they play a role in Caprice, News, Venu/Nick’s Comedy Stop, Felt, and Club Lido at the Wonderland Ballroom.

Frank De Pasquale

Il Panino, Bricco

De Pasquale is a North End legend, a good guy who knows how to run a successful business. The Il Panino chain of restaurants/clubs is his, as is the red-hot restaurant Bricco on Hanover Street.

Bill Blumenreich

Comedy Connection

Boston has always been a top-notch comedy town, and the Comedy Connection has been a big part of that history and success. It is where all the top names in stand-up perform when they come to Boston. Blumenreich also has clubs in Chicopee and Providence.

John Somers

Somers Pubs

" Musician, barman, and businessman " is what Somers’s business card might say, if we were in charge of designing it. This Dublin native is the proud owner of the following establishments: the Green Dragon, the Grand Canal, Kennedy’s Midtown, Hennessy’s, Q, and Mr. Dooley’s. Think he knows his way around a pint of Guinness?

Michael Glynn

Glynn Hospitality Group

Michael Glynn, a lawyer by training, knows what it takes to operate a successful enterprise. Among his group’s holding are the Black Rose (known as one of the finest Irish pubs in the country), Dillon’s, Clerys, Hurricane O’Reilly’s, Jose McIntyre’s, and Coogan’s. This family business was started by Michael’s father, Patrick Glynn.

Austin O’Connor

Briar Group

Austin O’Connor Jr. is, like Michael Glynn, a chip off the old block when it comes to running his family’s restaurant-and-bar empire. The Briar Group’s establishments include Azure, City Bar, Anthem, MJ O’Connor’s, the Harp, the Green Briar, and Kinvara. That the city’s three most powerful Irish-pub groups — Somers Pubs, the Glynn Hospitality Group, and O’Connor’s Briar Group — share so much history and warm feeling speaks to the fact that these people know how to succeed with a smile.

Bonney Bouley and Randi Millman

T.T. the Bear’s Place

Theirs is the kind of intimate, DIY rock club that has defied the odds by continually booking some of the finest rising acts in the world. T.T.’s rocks, and owner Bouley and talent buyer Millman are the reason why.

Carla DeLellis

Johnny D’s Uptown Restaurant and Music Club

How hard is it to succeed as an internationally renowned music club that serves food in the same space? Very, very hard — just look at how few establishments can pull it off. Owner DeLellis oversees both aspects of this bustling Davis Square hot spot, which is one of the better roots-music clubs in the Northeast.

Frank Ribaudo

Club Café

For more than 20 years, Club Café has been the place for gay singles to meet, mingle, and flirt in a classy, festive atmosphere. The restaurant is fantastic, and what goes on in the Moonshine Video Bar has to be seen to be believed. Ribaudo is the man who has made it all happen.

Brian O’Donnell

Felt and Vinalia

Felt is four floors of party. Combining a restaurant, a highly designed upscale pool hall, and a nightclub in one venture, it is also unlike anything else in the city. Brian O’Donnell, the GM and partner (he is also a partner at Vinalia), is the man who keeps it all running smoothly.

Russell Robbat

The Palace

Talk about a shrewd businessman: Robbat made the Palace (which, with 12 clubs under one roof, is the largest nightclub in the world) into a huge success, and sold it for a hefty price to go into retirement. Like many successful men of his stature, retirement didn’t sit well with Robbat, so he bought the Palace back for a song, and now it is again thriving. This is a guy with the Midas touch.