THIS WEEKEND
The Westway
75 Clarkson St., at West St.;212-620-0101
After teasing the city for months with talk of stripper poles and topless dancers, Carlos Quirarte and Matt Kliegman (of the Smile and the Jane Ballroom) have opened their stylishly grimy strip-club-that-isn’t. In addition to already mobbed Thursday Yesway parties, they’re starting a free-for-all gay night in September, co-hosted by the East Village Boys.
Silver Lining
75 Murray St., nr. Greenwich St. 212-513-1234
Turn onto dark little Murray Street and descend into the basement of a nineteenth-century cast-iron building, where the team behind Little Branch has installed a grand piano and a corps of cloth-draped café tables for the leisurely enjoyment of jazz and classic cocktails. Order the Silver Lining: rye, lemon, and egg white ($14).
NEXT MONTH
The Tippler
Chelsea Market, 425 W. 15th St., nr. Ninth Ave.; 212-206-0000 opens early Sept.
Self-proclaimed “tippling brothers” Tad Carducci and Paul Tanguay have teamed up with Michael Barrett (China Club) to open a new place, appropriately named the Tippler. And what a place it will be: stationed in the cavernous basement of Chelsea Market, with steampunk New Yorkiana décor and a drinks list featuring the duo’s frozen “lushies.”
Bathtub Gin
Stone Street Coffee Company,132 Ninth Ave., nr. 19th St.646-559-1671; opens Sept. 6
Another season, another secret bar; but speakeasy fatigue is no reason not to give this one a shot. Behind the Stone Street coffee shop’s false wall, this dimly lit den with copper ceilings and a copper bathtub (for the gin—get it?) implores you to drape yourself over a silk sofa, order a dry martini ($14), and vamp.
The Electric Room
At Dream Downtown, 355 W. 16th St., at Ninth Ave.; no phone
When an exclusive club opens at a swank new hotel, it will draw attention. When nightlife titan Nur Khan (Rose Bar, Kenmare, the late Don Hill’s) is behind it, it will draw hordes. Details are sparse, but the room is said to be an open-floor-plan bunker that will hold only 100 people. Prepare to not get in.
Le Baron
32 Mulberry St., nr. Mosco St.no phone; opens mid-Sept.
All of clubland was breathless last fall waiting for André Saraiva to open the Stateside offshoot of his famed-and-fabulous Parisian nightclub Le Baron. Then, nothing. After a year of consolation parties at André Balazs’s Le Bain, rumor now has it that the club will finally open during Fashion Week. Saraiva has been typically mum, except regarding the door policy: “It’s going to be more … poets,” he told Guest of a Guest. “If you are a poet, you can come.”
BEFORE CHRISTMAS (PROBABLY)
Bagatelle
1 Little W. 12th St., at Ninth Ave. 212-255-9717; opens late Oct.
While the goal of Bagatelle’s infamous weekend brunch parties will remain the same (get blotto—early), the setting is about to get more traditionally nightclublike. The restaurant will soon reopen in a much larger space along Ninth Avenue (formerly the Collective), where you can expect booming speakers, faux-tanned patrons, Southern French cuisine, and a sea of splishing rosé.
Demi Monde
90 Broad St., nr. Stone St.; no phone yet; soft-opens in Nov.
Lower Manhattan continues to flower as a going-out district with Demi Monde, a bar from a Death & Co. alum David Kaplan opening near City Hall. A street-level coffee shop will serve FiDi office workers by day, while at night an underground space will offer small plates and an approachable cocktail list aimed at livening up one of the borough’s final nightlife frontiers.
Experimental Cocktail Club
191 Chrystie St., nr. Stanton St. no phone yet; opens Dec. 1
Frenchmen Romée de Goriainoff, Olivier Bon, and Pierre-Charles Cros opened the New York–inspired l’Experimental Cocktail Club in Paris in 2007. Now the trio are reversing course, bringing the bar to the Lower East Side. They’ll offer more than a dozen seasonal cocktails, and, like at their Paris and London locations, an atmosphere that can only be described as un joyeux bordel—a jolly mess.
The Wick
260 Meserole St., nr. Bushwick Pl., Bushwick; 347-799-1049; late fall
Called a “fast-developing musical fortress” by its creators, this 8,000-square-foot concert venue joins the Main Drag Music store, Sweatshop rehearsal studios, and Newtown radio station (not to mention the offices of girl-drummer magazine Tom Tom) in the former Hittleman Brewery space. The three founders have, between them, worked at the Knitting Factory, the Highline Ballroom, and Manumission in Ibiza, at the time the world’s largest club. So, basically, the place is going to bump.