Bagatelle-Lure

As I showed in my tour of the Meatpacking District's lost leather locations, what used to be The Lure is now Bagatelle, that site of infamous bacchanal brunches, where guys who work in finance get together with girls who work in fashion to flaunt the burning of their bail-out packages.

Since I can't find any photos of The Lure, I thought it might be fun to pair descriptions of their Pork party along with photos of Bagatelle's brunch party. Perhaps some frisson will emerge from such a mix. All quotes are from Guy Trebay's 1999 Voice article The Other White Meat. What a difference a decade makes.


photo: NY Times, Michelle V. Agins

"If you've been living on Mars, you'll want to know that the Lure is a large and intentionally grungy leather and s/m bar in the meatpacking district with a permanently installed slave-training cage, handcuffs suspended from the ceiling, and a predominantly gay male demographic. Tonight's more various crowd stands as a kind of testament to millennial gender blur, and the signifying power of costume."


photo: Nightclub City

In that cage, a boy "hung by his hands, wearing nothing but a loincloth and a crown of thorns. Oh, and several buckets of cow's blood...purchased at a nearby meat market."


photo: Guest of a Guest

"There'll be some mighty unusual objects headed in rectal directions this evening, including an electric device called a Violet Wand. This novelty insertion, which occurs about 2 a.m., follows a series of $5 per person spankings."


photo: Steven Ekerovich, Guest of a Guest