Harried New Yorkers might easily miss the brown door on the platform separating the street from the subway at the station on 28th Street at Seventh Avenue — home to the No. 1 train. Half a flight of stairs up, and you have the street. Half a flight down, the turnstiles.
This intriguing experience is brought to you by Jey Perie, 41, who grew up in France and moved to New York in 2012. Eight years later, he opened La Noxe, a 600-square-foot hidden bar in between the street and the uptown train.
The bar holds 30 people and is reminiscent of a speakeasy, “because it’s so hard to find, which was never my intention,” said Mr. Perie, who started looking for commercial rentals online in January 2019.
“I wanted something unique and intimate that would emulate the late ’70s and early ’80s in New York,” he continued. “I stumbled upon an abstract drawing of a subterranean staircase with hardly any description, just a location and that they were asking $10,000 a month. But I was interested. When I saw the space I fell in love with it.”
He negotiated a reduced rate of $7,000 per month, gutted everything and planned to open March 2020. Covid hit on the day he was to pick up his liquor permit, and the world shut down. The bar’s opening was delayed. Mr. Perie started to worry. More setbacks occurred as the world reopened at 25 percent, then closed again, only to reopen a few months later.
“The stops and starts were really hard,” said Mr. Perie, who previously was the creative director and buyer for Kinfolk, a clothing store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “But I didn’t want to give up. I was going to stick it out.”
In 2021, a random customer who shot a short video changed everything.
This interview has been edited and trimmed for clarity.
Why invest in something so small? I lived in Tokyo for six years and learned every inch matters. Space is very valuable, filled with high concepts and sophistication. New York is the same. In Tokyo they have a sushi restaurant, Jiro, in their subway. I wanted to bring that here and create my own vision of a nightclub.
How many drinks do you sell? We have a DJ on the weekends so those are our busiest days. Then we can sell 150-200 drinks a night.
What is the most popular? More Passion More Problems: vodka, passion fruit liqueur, lemon, orange zest.
What does the subway add to the customer experience? The M.T.A. is the vein of the city. It’s a great equalizer and helps make the city what it is. The craziness of the subway adds another energy. A 24-hour experience that never shuts down, it’s perfect for someone who loves nightlife like me. I loved the roughness of the outside and the subway staircase. There’s a transient feeling. Through the glass you can see people coming in and out of the subway, but it’s just a shadow. I wanted to create a dichotomy inside. Something cozy and warm. A cocoon. When the music is on and people are here, the rest of the world disappears. You never know what time it is.
How did this space become so well-known? In March of 2021, we had been closed for months because of Covid, and then told we could reopen, but only at 25 percent, which is like eight people, only to close again a few months later. When we were trying to figure out how we were going to survive, a random girl booked a reservation. She made a TikTok video showing her opening the door and walking out. She only had 400 or 500 followers, but her video got a million plus views. That got picked up on other social media. The M.T.A. president gave us an award. We became a New York comeback story. She brought the news, and Jimmy Fallon had us on his show. We went from 10 people DM-ing on Instagram a week to 1,000 people. We started taking reservations on Resy. Without that video, we would be closed.
In the beginning, was it hard to get permits? We got a full liquor license, and were grandfathered in as a “Use Group 6” retail space, and given permission to stay open until 4 a.m., but we usually close at 2. Initially they wouldn’t give us a permit. The city isn’t always friendly for quirky spaces and businesses because the city doesn’t think you can make money with something so small.
What was in the space when you first saw it? A massage parlor, with no permit, an illegal shower. It was six rooms with a panic button in every room.
How did you make this space work? The M.T.A. and Department of Buildings had to approve all of my designs and material. We gutted the space completely. There was no plumbing for food and beverage or a grease trap which we had to create and install for the first time. We rebuilt the bathroom. We created a back kitchen and a separate bar area. We replaced the carpet, added a countertop and furniture. A concrete wall was taken down; glass blocks and a door were added along with red and black marbleized corking on the walls and red lighting to create ambience. All that took eight months.
Have you seen a lot of bad behavior? Not too much. The challenge of a small room like this is one person can ruin it for everyone. No one has ever had a physical fight. The worst I’ve seen is a businessman, who was probably with an escort. They were getting high; I had to ask them to leave.
What do you love about owning a bar? I love being part of something tangible and creating an experience. I’m making someone’s day better. To know people met their husband or wife in a place I created is rewarding. I made great friends here. I found my partners for a second La Noxe, which we opened in January at Trinity Centre, a historical building in the financial district. It’s 1,600 square feet, with high ceilings and huge windows on the first floor. It’s the opposite of this space. This space became my “proof of concept.”
The post Step Off the No. 1 Train and Into La Noxe appeared first on New York Times.
