Travel & Food
Second Life
What happens when bars take over temples of sex, beauty and religion
patrchang@gmail.com
Nearly every York City building was once home to something else. An apartment building may have been a bank; a club had a former life as a slaughterhouse. Some places, though, take the opposite approach: they play up their building’s historical value. We visited three quirky nightspots that tried.
Happy Ending Lounge
302 Broome Street
Tel: 212-334-9676
www.happyendinglounge.com
Happy Ending Lounge reminds customers why it feels so good to be bad.
It’s no longer a massage parlor/brothel, but the windows are tinted black, and the awning outside is a faded dirty pink, printed with the words: “Xie He Health Club.” At the entrance is a pile of hand towels, embroidered with the lounge’s chic logo.
“It’s fun. I mean, it is what it is,” said Wendy Shao, 24. “They found a way to make it different from other places, and people like it.”
The two-level lounge oozes sleazy charm. It’s just dirty enough to make visitors feel naughty, but not trashy. The upstairs has deep-set, high, horseshoe-shaped booths covered in red velvet, and black tables that glitter beneath the dim lighting.
Downstairs is another bar, and seating of a different kind. Half of it is tiled—the vestiges of three steam rooms. The showerheads are still sticking out from the walls, and the tile is most likely still the same. Signs in Chinese warning patrons to be “be careful!” are still stuck to the walls, and original etched glass partitions are still in use.
Wendy had fun with her friends, taking pictures in the steam rooms. The DJ spins a mix much like the bar’s eclectic crowd—groove, hip hop, disco and pop. The bar’s website calls the downstairs atmosphere “pre-Giuliani New York” with a “touch of 1960’s Las Vegas.”
Avalon New York
47 West 20th Street
Tel: 212-807-7780
This former church is now a sinfully delightful nightclub. The stained glass windows reflect light: not of the sun, but of the many spinning multi-colored lights. The pews have been ripped out to make room for a giant dance floor. The ceiling has the original steeple-shaped structure that housed Sunday mass many years ago. Outside, an ancient-looking fountain continues to carry water, though it’s probably dirtier than it once was. The brick-laid path is littered with cigarette butts.
Each DJ in a labyrinth of rooms spins a different type of music: hip hop, house or techno. With more than three bars, and a VIP section on an upper floor, the booze flows freely.
“People come here because it’s huge, and I guess more interesting than a regular club, because it does look like a church,” said Christopher Moyer, 21.
In earlier iterations, the club was known as Limelight, then Estate. Recently the City of New York briefly took possession of it, when the owner failed to pay his taxes. It’s back in business now — but one wonders if the Man up there is trying to send a message.
Beauty Bar
231 East 14th Street
Tel: 212-539-1389
www.beautybar.com
The 1950s Thomas Beauty Salon sign still hangs in the window. Old barber chairs stand in for seating, and chrome-domed hair dryers and a box with vintage hair and beauty products sits by the bar. Club-goers are treated to photos of smiling women with big hairstyles that look held up with aerosol hairspray. The walls are striped yellow and green, with a layer of sparkly glitter, for that va va voom touch.
Perhaps the greatest thing about Beauty Bar is its manicurist on duty. Ten dollars buys a drink and a manicure. They even throw in a hand massage.
“It’s really retro,” said first-time visitor Amy Chiang, 21. “I feel like I’m lost in time.”
Not everyone is charmed. Josh Reichert, 21, stumbled upon the place with his friend. He thought it was an actual beauty parlor that served drinks at night.
“It looks like it’s a beauty salon that hasn’t been touched for 30 years, and someone turns the lights on and starts serving drinks,” he said. He wasn’t a fan of the dim lighting or objects on display, either — but he gave the bar “points for originality” for its use of the hair dryers.
The author enjoys an evening in a former erotic massage parlor, now a bar. Photo courtesy of Patricia Chang.