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How do you open the hippest place in town? One approach is to not open it at all and run it as a quasi-private club instead. That’s what Paul Sevigny did when he reclaimed this former speakeasy and Italian restaurant for the art and fashion elite. If you’re hoping to enter his warrenlike space of oil paintings, antique furniture, and nautical mirrors, you’re going to need to make sure you’re on the guest list first—and under seven feet tall. Past the tiny den with its candle-filled fireplace, and a main room with deep-set couches, tie-wearing barkeeps in the white-tiled barroom serve up classic cocktails akin to those at co-owner Matthew Abramcyk's other bar, Employees Only. Steps ascend to a back room lined by mirrors and banquettes. Here a surprisingly mainstream mix—U2? Tom Petty? "My Sharona"?—gets the hipsters dancing instead of posing. — Daniel Maurer