Narcissus' Favorite Club New York City’s Remote Lounge Brings Validity to Voyeurism
By Jenny Adams
For Narcissus, life’s beauty was a reflection
in a pond. In today’s New York City social scene, overflowing with
neon, fashion and the pinkest of Cosmopolitans, many people are still
slaves to the allure of reflection. Only now, some of them are
mesmerized by television screens in the East Village’s Remote Lounge
and the reflections of its extremely trendy crowd. It’s a scene
unparalleled and assertively unique, a place where modern technology
and the time-tested methods of flirtation and crowd interaction
intertwine and become a new entity. It’s also a club where the
operators have successfully capitalized on their concept for years and
mastered the art of crowd satisfaction. Step inside and see what it’s
all about, and smile — you’re on camera.
Vibrant Meets Voyeuristic
Stepping into Remote Lounge is to be transported back to the 1950s.
Reminiscent of the Jetsons’ cartoon abode, Remote Lounge is elegant yet
playful, with décor that Owner and Co-creator Robert Stratton refers to
as retro-futuristic.
“It’s really like you are sitting in some big toy,” Stratton says. “We
were worried all the technology would be intimidating, so we wanted to
keep it bright and friendly, but not geeky.”
Jordon Parnaff, interior digital architect, was the perfect man for the
job when it came to creating the atmosphere. The concept of the
interior was to design a space that mimicked the belief of what the
future would be back in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Offering oversized buttons
on the monitors and joysticks instead of touchscreens, Remote is
dressed in a color scheme only seen now on reruns of “Happy Days.” And
this place is redolent of TV Land — in more ways than one. Customers
can find a seat on one of the vinyl-padded barstools or in one of the
larger booths and settle in for a night in front of the tube. But
wearing sweatpants is not recommended here, because this truly is a
place to see and be seen.
Beneath this flashback furniture lays technology only possible in this
millennium. Stratton’s partner, Leo Fernekes, flexed his mental muscle
in developing the tricky side of all this cyber spyware. With a
background in electrical engineering and product development, Fernekes
created the brains for the bar. Remote Lounge boasts 13 custom-designed
consoles with TV monitors built into each one.
All of these are hooked up to 60 pan and tilt state-of-the-art cameras
in the ceiling, and each one of these is controllable by a joystick in
the front of every screen. Customers can sit at any of the monitors and
change channels to view other areas of the club and, more importantly,
other people in the club. The joystick allows for different angles and
zoom capabilities while the channel buttons allow for one-on-one
chatting options via a type of e-mail system. Taking the senses one
step further, if both parties are interested, a phone conversation is
possible before a face-to-face meeting.
“The thing about Remote is that it is intimate yet private,” Stratton
says. “You can change the channel or even lock people out if they are
annoying you.”
The result of this sharp setup? Stratton’s cashing in with drinks and PG-13 voyeurism.
Crowd Pleasers
Pulling taps of Anchorsteam, Stella Artois and Rheingold, the 15
bartenders of Remote Lounge are equipped to keep patrons thirst-free
and are equally savvy at fixing the system when problems occur.
“The feeling in the bar is dependent upon the crowd and their reaction
to each other,” Stratton says, “which means no two nights are ever the
same.”
Promoters are a huge part of Remote’s revenue with mailing lists of New
Yorkers who love the nightlife, and the themes are as varied as
participants.
“This place just seems to draw a good deal of publicity in all by
itself,” says Partner and Manager Laura Flauto. “We had one night which
was a spin-off of the ‘Dating Game’ ... the place was packed and
everyone had a blast.”
With bars on both levels of this 3,700-square-foot club, most of the
spying goes on upstairs while cameras catch every moment of lowered
inhibitions on the dance floor below.
“I’ve seen some women do some crazy things because they are on camera,”
says General Manager Roderick Lewis-Shabazz. “Remote Lounge offers its
customers a chance to get camera-happy and slaphappy drunk on, well,
anything and everything. We don’t have a signature drink,”
Lewis-Shabazz says. “Lower Eastsiders want beer, the Lesbian nights
demand a lot of Apple Martinis, and the Hip-Hop crowd will drink us out
of Hennessey.” Friday and Saturday evenings are always Hip-Hop at
Remote, and Thursday dishes out $2 Pabst Blue Ribbon with bad singing
at all-night Karaoke. Roderick says he is always amazed at how the
technology is a natural catalyst for any crowd, no matter how strange.
Invaded by every group imaginable, this bar can play hostess to any and
all.
Wednesday night, however, brings something altogether unique to a
specific group of East Villagers when Remote is reserved not for hungry
singles but for starving artists. The technology is turned over to
video mixing and manipulation using laptops to make live electronic
video collage. Having been an art student and a bartender in college
himself, Stratton particularly is interested in creating something more
than just a singles bar. “We are now bringing in reputable local
artists,” he says, “and are celebrating and supporting this new art
trend.” NCB
