![]() In the scene, the uber bachelorettes set the tone for the next decade in New York. The tide turned in 1998- Sex & the City premiered and used Lucky Cheng's as the location for their first ensemble scene in Episode 1: "another 30-something birthday with a group of unmarried female friends." One described her style as very different from American drag queens-not Brady Bunch, but futuristic Asian sci-fi goddess. In a 1994 New York profile of the place, the clientele consists of "nightcrawlers and voyeurs," some Wall Streeters, "waves of the aren't-we-trendy," and Yoko Ono.īack then, all the drag queens at Lucky Cheng's were Asian. Still, it wasn't yet the " Bachelorette Party Capital of the Universe" we know today. Prince Albert of Monaco dined at Cheng's in 1995 and the place became hugely popular. In 1993, Suthon turned it into Lucky Cheng's-named after a business partner and former busboy named Cheng who later went on to run the neighboring S/M-themed restaurant La Nouvelle Justine (Hayne took him to People's Court for stealing her chocolate shoe molds but they've since worked it out). Said Suthon to TIME in 1989, "It's the only place you can go swimming in New York without cement shoes and garbage bags."īut Cave Canem didn't last. In the 80s, Cave Canem was called " a real hot spot for the chic-est of the yuppies" and " the place for downtown's hip art scene." (They threw a party for Bret Easton Ellis on opening night.) You could also take a dip by the dance floor. NY Songlines also reports a basement full of lesbian orgies-so maybe Rita Mae got her wish. Guests at Cave Canem sat in oxidized-metal chairs and ate lobster dumplings, but some bathhouse features remained, like the vaulted tile ceilings and a five-foot-deep empty jacuzzi surrounded by dog statuary. ' We had a lot of glamorous lesbians working here,' Hayne said." The New Yorker reported that Suthon "hired a Harvard food historian and converted" the bathhouse "into Cave Canem, a restaurant that served ancient Roman dishes. Suthon at Cave Canem, New York Mag., 1988 "We found all these artifacts," said Suthon, " huge rubber dildos and everything-it would have made a great museum." Once a labyrinthine maze of small rooms filled with parrots, palm trees, and orgies, the interior was opened up with help from a crew of "neighborhood skinheads, models, and graffiti artists," wrote New York in 1988. ![]() Our Xanadu would be less competitive than the gay man's baths."Īfter Club Baths was shuttered during the AIDS crisis and ensuing municipal panic, Hayne Suthon and her family bought the building in 1986 for $2.9 million-money earned from their natural-gas wells in Louisiana, according to New York magazine. She wrote: "I want the option of random sex with no emotional commitment when I need sheer physical relief. In his book Make Love, Not War, David Allyn notes how Brown wondered if the "fuck palace" of the gay bathhouse meant total "erotic freedom" or "the ultimate conclusion of sexist logic." In the end, Brown decided that lesbians need bathhouses, too. She wrote about her adventure in the essay "Queen for a Day: A Stranger in Paradise." In 1975, lesbian author Rita Mae Brown snuck into the bathhouse disguised as a man in fake mustache and codpiece. And suddenly you are sitting there and there is a jungle, there’s parrots, and palm trees and exotic flowers." For the people coming, you pay your money, there’s going to be sex. Keith Haring was a regular and preferred the Monday and Friday Buddy Nights.įormer manager Bob Kohler recalls the scene, "We had these huge palm trees, real live trees. Rumor says the building at 24 First Avenue will be sold, and that means either demolition or renovation-either way, we're going to lose a significant piece of history, and you can bet that whatever comes next will fail to be anywhere near as interesting as the last half-century here.įormerly a Lower East Side Russian baths, the Lucky Cheng's building was home to Club Baths, the first openly gay-owned bathhouse, from 1971 - 1983. The rumor has been floating for a few years, but by now you've heard the official news that, after nearly two decades, Lucky Cheng's is leaving the East Village for Times Square.
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