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 We figure this place deserves a look, if only to see what’s become of the bi-level space that held China 1. There was a time when the smoke machines at this underground lair drew the last of the bridge-and-tunnel die-hards, but they’ve now been replaced with male “bottle butlers” and waitresses in hats designed by Christys’ London, wielding fancy-schmancy feather pens. The look here is rather Madame X (as befits nightly burlesque performances staged by ex–Pussycat Doll Kiva Dawson), but don’t call this a bar. Chef Edgar Navarrete of La Mediterranée and Café du Soleil has designed a menu inspired partly by recipes from owner Andrew Krauss’s Parisian mother, though it’s safe to say she didn’t have anything to do with the “buffalo-style” frog legs. Rest assured, there are stil D.J.'s downstairs. — Daniel Maurer