New York, New York · Part 9 · Nightlife & Entertainment
On the morning of January 1, 2019, Output, on Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg, was still open. John Digweed had played a New Year’s Eve marathon to close the club for good. At 9:45 a.m., the last track went out over the Funktion-One sound system. (The New York Times; Brooklyn Vegan) Output had opened in early 2013 as Brooklyn’s first fully licensed venue dedicated to house and techno, with no hassle at the door and a no-photos policy on the floor. (The New York Times)
A few weeks earlier, Manhattan had lost Cielo, the Meatpacking District club that opened in early 2003 and closed in December 2018. Nicolas Matar owned Cielo and co-owned Output, and their closures, Pollstar wrote, symbolized the end of an era. (Pollstar) To understand what ended, and what came next, start on one block of West 27th Street.
Club Row
In 2000, New York magazine recalled, West 27th Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues was a block of leather bars and chop shops in what brokers called Outer Chelsea. The rise and fall that followed took five years. (New York) In the spring of 2001, Amy Sacco opened Bungalow 8 in a small space at 515 West 27th Street. It held 125 people, almost none of whom got in, and Sacco allowed no photographs inside. (New York) Its peak came between 2005 and 2007, and it closed in 2009. (Wikipedia)
In 2004, in an abandoned taxi garage on the corner of 27th Street and Tenth Avenue, two of Sacco’s younger friends opened Marquee and introduced bottle service on an industrial scale. (New York) Eater, looking back on the decade, described the shift: owners began building smaller rooms for high-end clients willing to pay for bottles. (Eater)
Then came Home and GuestHouse. The promoter Jon Bakhshi opened Home in July 2005 and GuestHouse that August, both on the second floor of the old Twilo building, at 532 and 542 West 27th Street. GuestHouse had a wall of hundreds of candles and black-and-white velvet Rorschach inkblots papered up to the ceiling; Home had a 35-foot bar, plush couches and chandeliers. Bakhshi’s doors were known as easier than his neighbors’. (New York on Tap; New York on Tap; Wikipedia) He closed both in July 2009. (Grub Street) The building later became the McKittrick Hotel, and in 2026 reopened under new management as the Culture Club. (New York on Tap)
Meatpacking
Further south, the Meatpacking District made the same journey from industry to nightlife. Florent, the 24-hour diner, opened there in 1985. (Observer) Lotus, on the corner of 14th Street and Ninth Avenue, was meant, Eater wrote, to be a place for “dancing dining, conversation and wildness.” (Eater) In August 2006, Tenjune opened at 26 Little West 12th Street, beneath the steakhouse STK, with a famously selective door, a small horseshoe of a dance floor and music from hip-hop to techno. (New York on Tap) Cielo, Tenjune and Bungalow 8 were the after-dark fixtures of the era for celebrities and fashion people, the Observer wrote in 2025. (Observer) Tenjune’s closing date is not on record; the city’s tourism site lists it as out of business, and another business now holds a license at the address. (New York on Tap)
Midtown and Varick Street
Touch was due to open in November 2007 at 240 West 52nd Street, in a 12,000-square-foot former club space steps from Times Square, with a bar that changed color when touched. Snoop Dogg and Macy Gray played private parties there, and Tuesdays were a gay night with house music. (Grub Street; New York on Tap) By August 2012 it was “the former location for club Touch.” (New York on Tap)
In November 2008, Bakhshi opened Greenhouse at 150 Varick Street, an eco-friendly nightclub designed by Bluarch with recycled or recyclable furnishings, from the couches to the coasters. He said it cost at least a third more to build than a conventional club. (The New York Times) After police responded to complaints, Greenhouse closed indefinitely in April 2014, and in 2015 it was denied a liquor license after an eviction. (DNAinfo; DNAinfo)
Down the same street, at 204 Varick, is the survivor. Larry Gold opened SOB’s, Sounds of Brazil, in 1982 to amplify the musical heritage of the Afro-Latino diaspora. (SOB’s) Within nine months he added African music, “a natural extension,” he told the Christian Science Monitor in 1989, “because so much of the roots of Brazilian music are African.” By then it was booking Kanda Bongo Man, Yellowman and Ray Barretto’s salsa orchestra. (Christian Science Monitor) It is still open, and its calendar this season includes Sak Pasé, a Haitian Friday party, and a night of Afrobeats and British soul. (SOB’s)
Brooklyn and Queens
Manhattan’s clubs, Pollstar noted, had been ceding their crowds to Brooklyn for years. (Pollstar) Elsewhere opened on October 31, 2017, at 599 Johnson Avenue in Bushwick, a multi-room venue and arts space that calls itself “fiercely independent.” (Brooklyn Paper; Elsewhere) In June 2015, the DJs Justin Carter and Eamon Harkin, of the Mister Saturday Night and Mister Sunday parties, opened Nowadays at 56-06 Cooper Avenue in Ridgewood, Queens, on the Brooklyn border, as a 16,000-square-foot outdoor space with trees and picnic tables in the backyard of a former cabinet factory. (DNAinfo) Its site still posts weekly programming. (Nowadays) In April 2019, Public Records opened at 233 Butler Street in Gowanus, in a 1910s building that once housed an ASPCA office and animal shelter, with a vegan café by day and the Sound Room by night. (Wikipedia; Public Records)
Ballroom, still
And the balls go on. On August 20, 2026, Elsewhere hosted the Never Could They Ever Kiki Ball, with Mother Soki, Evil Adeline and Lockimara on the bill. (Elsewhere) The categories and the houses are the ones Harlem built, now in a Bushwick warehouse.
Twenty-five years after Bungalow 8 opened, New York nightlife has traded the velvet rope for the sound system and Manhattan for Brooklyn and Queens. What has not changed is the promise each of these rooms made: that somewhere in the city, the night is still being invented.
Sources
- The New York Times, “‘Long Live Output’: Remembering the Magic of a Beloved Brooklyn Nightclub” (Jan 7, 2019)
- Brooklyn Vegan, “Output closing for good on New Year’s Day” (Dec 11, 2018)
- Pollstar, “Why The Plugs Were Pulled On New York’s Output and Cielo” (Mar 4, 2019)
- New York, “From Paris to Prostitutes: The Short, Drunken Life Cycle of 27th Street”
- Wikipedia, “Bungalow 8”
- Eater NY, Scott Solish, “The Great Nightlife Venues That Came And Went in the Aughts” (Dec 29, 2009)
- New York on Tap, “Guest House”
- New York on Tap, “Home”
- Wikipedia, “Jon Bakhshi”
- Grub Street, “Ultra, Home, and Guest House Close, But Owners Open New Ones” (July 2009)
- Observer, Lindsay Cohn, “Is the Meatpacking District Cool Again?” (Aug 29, 2025)
- New York on Tap, “Tenjune”
- Grub Street, “1OAK and Touch Delayed, Clubland Remains Dormant” (Nov 2007)
- New York on Tap, “Touch”
- The New York Times Green blog, “‘Green’ Nightclub Trend Comes to New York” (Nov 25, 2008)
- DNAinfo, “SoHo Nightclubs Greenhouse and WIP Close After Complaints” (Apr 21, 2014)
- DNAinfo, “Troubled SoHo Nightclub Greenhouse Denied Liquor License After Eviction” (Mar 11, 2015)
- Christian Science Monitor, “An Answer to Rock ’n’ Roll. Sounds of Brazil…” (May 30, 1989)
- SOB’s, home page
- SOB’s, events calendar
- Brooklyn Paper, “It’s ‘where’ to go: New music venue Elsewhere has it all”
- Elsewhere, “About Us”
- Elsewhere, “The Never Could They Ever Kiki Ball” (Aug 20, 2026)
- DNAinfo, “DJs Known for Dance Parties Open Outdoor Bar in Ridgewood” (June 19, 2015)
- Nowadays, official site
- Wikipedia, “Public Records (venue)”
- Public Records, official site
Photo: “The Westerlies at Public Records, June 2025” by Spaghettifier, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Editor’s note: facts in this article were checked against the linked sources in November 2026. Status of each venue as checked: Output, 2013–January 1, 2019 (closed); Cielo, 2003–December 2018 (closed); Bungalow 8, 515 West 27th Street, spring 2001–2009 (closed; New York and Wikipedia); Marquee, opened 2004 (status not checked; mentioned for context only); Home and GuestHouse, 532 and 542 West 27th Street, July and August 2005–July 2009 (closed); Tenjune, 26 Little West 12th Street, opened 2006, closing date unknown, listed out of business; Touch, 240 West 52nd Street, opened late 2007 (Grub Street reported a delayed opening in November 2007), gone by August 2012; Greenhouse, 150 Varick Street, November 2008–April 2014 (closed); SOB’s, 204 Varick Street, 1982–present (open; calendar checked November 2026); Elsewhere, 599 Johnson Avenue, opened October 31, 2017 (open; events listed for November 2026); Nowadays, 56-06 Cooper Avenue, opened June 2015 (official site live with programming); Public Records, 233 Butler Street, opened April 2019 (official site live). The New York magazine 27th Street feature is undated on its current page. Home and GuestHouse descriptions and the 2026 Culture Club note come from New York on Tap, which cites earlier New York magazine and Citysearch listings. The Kiki Ball lineup is from Elsewhere’s event page. Damian’s “Greenhouse” refers to the club, not the recruiting software. Le Bain and the Standard are not discussed; the secondary photograph of the hotel is optional. The featured photograph shows a June 2025 concert at Public Records.
