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Down a dark staircase below downtown institution Lucky Cheng’s—home to waiter/-esses in drag and “Hello Johnny” penis cakes—is the Fortune Cookie Lounge, a bar and music venue that’s as “unvarnished East Village” as the restaurant upstairs is “Bridge-and-Tunnel bachelorette.” Past the liquor-heavy bar and two-table front-room lounge hides a modest performance space lined with deep-red walls and undisguised soundboards; only the leopard-print banquettes hint at the cheery gender-bending above. Acts onstage tend toward the loud and frantic, and are often of the kicking-mannequin-heads and shrieking-about-zombies variety, while the colorful crowd spans the decades, from metal-studded striplings to hard-living Vietnam-era holdovers—with the occasional glammed-up “waitress” drifting down from upstairs. — Carey Jones

The space is only open on performance nights, so check the website for a schedule.