Party Like It's 1989

Excited to read about a planned night spot on 23rd Street in Chelsea looking to cater to the "over 35" crowd that prefers music with actual lyrics and melodies.

Jeff Wittels, who has been in the wine business for more than two decades and once owned a music entertainment company that provided DJ services for private parties, plans to turn the space next door to the Malibu Diner into an as yet-to-be-named venue that will offer a mix of live and recorded music from the '70s, '80s and '90s, in addition to Broadway tunes and some modern songs.

“I’m just excited about bringing back some of the music from the '70s, '80s and '90s and having people go out and be able to enjoy it again… instead of going out and hearing house music where you don’t know what’s going on,” he said.

This building was briefly a gay bar called Blu in the late '90s I frequented -- they used to have Gay Family Feud night hosted by the bitchiest drag queen in town -- before it became more of an urban joint called Suede that Justin Timberlake supposedly co-owned. Most recently it was Meridien, which my friend Tim and I visited once only to find out it was a "world music" club that didn't even play Bananarama.

Depending how it plays out, perhaps this could be a hangout for gay men of a certain age living in the area -- guys who miss (most recently) XES and the good old days of videos at Splash and Uncle Charlie's -- or maybe one night of the week could be promoted for gay men. Or it could become a bridge-and-tunnel nightmare ... who knows?!