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When Don Hill, previously the owner of the East Village's long-running Cat Club, set up shop on quiet Greenwich St. in 1991, he was hoping for a swank club akin to Max's Kansas City but aside from the corner banquette of tufted leather poised near the door, his club has since happily surrendered to divedom—drink prices notwithstanding. A wall painted with sailor tattoos separates two rooms illuminated by spinning multi-colored lights; each section’s bar is outfitted with stripper poles. Amid the effortless squalor, DJ parties like Squeezebox as well as live performances from countless up-and-coming metal/indie bands have managed to attract bigger names such as The Strokes and Courtney Love. Somehow, throughout it all, grey-haired Don, who occasionally pops out of his basement "green room" to schmooze the ladies, has avoided a complete surrender to cheesiness despite the success of his own 80s night—or so seem to think the androgynous photoblog starlets when they toss plastic shot cups to the ground and their modesty to the wind to Yeah Yeah Yeahs remixes on Saturday nights.

  — Daniel Maurer

$5-$20