NYC Nightlife: Everything You Need To Know Thursday

The Salvation Army hotel goes bold in design, Coyote Ugly howls once more, and prostitution gets the kibosh in New York. Derek Jeter's personal chef launches a tequila joint, Lit celebrates its ninth, and Tenjune unleashes its $400,000 renovation. It's all here in today's nightlife round-up!

1. Salvation Army Hotel Architect Defends His Design [The Local]

Many are critical of the seemingly out of place conversion of the vacant Salvation Army building on the Bowery and East 3rd St; the aesthetic plans themselves open up an entirely new Pandora's box.

"Several local blogosphere commentators have made it clear that this addition is not welcome in their neighborhood. Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, jokingly referred to the 11-story, 72-room hotel as the 'red tumor building' in reference to a series of asymmetric balconies that will protrude from the building and glow red at night."

Gene Kaufman, the architect hired by the Louzon Group to design the hotel, is pretty used to such negative reactions to his daring designs. He brushed off some of the uproar with a disarming bromide:

"The neighborhood sentiment in the beginning is the start of a process."

Kaufman wants to create a building with white facades that reflect the sky and a design that looks forward in contemporary style, not backward as an allusion to 19th century Bowery architecture.

2. Coyote Ugly Reopens A Little Prettier [EV Grieve]

"As you may know, the DOH shuttered Coyote Ugly last week...and according to saloon founder Liliana Lovell, they're back open."

Yesterday on the bar's website, she wrote,

"Hot damn the NY bar is back open!! 153 1st ave NYC (between 9th and 10th I am sure tonight will be crazy at the bar. So happy."

But then the tale got a lot more interesting with Lovell's decision to go the TMI-route:

"Last Tuesday the NY bar scored a 90 on the surprise inspection, 2 days later on Thursday we were reinspected and scored a 16 and they did not reopen us. Over the weekend we put in a new basement floor repainted the whole bar...Ok positive energy. No worries. I actually downloaded a tibetan positivity chant. I lit candles and sang the chant. Also officially have pneumonia. I went to the doctor yesterday. I swear that all the dental problems started some bad mojo."

Here's hoping Lovell and Coyote Ugly can get their mojo back.

3. Could Prostitution Ever Be Legal In New York? [Ephemeral New York]

"You know the story: After Times Square's heyday through the 1950s, it slid into seediness and decay. By the early 1970s, West 42nd Street was packed with sleazy characters, leaving the people who made their living in the Theater District feeling unsafe. So a group of 52 performers came up with a radical idea. They sent a letter to Mayor John Lindsay proposing that the city create a legal red-light district, where the 'prostitutes,' pimps, perverts, and panhandlers,' who made Times Square so dangerous could ply their trade."

And you thought the pedestrian thoroughfares were worth crying about.

4. Derek Jeter's Chef Goes Tequila [DNA Info]

"Teqa--which officially opens next Tuesday--has built a buzzworthy team with Derek Jeter's personal chef, Lisa Schoen, at the helm. She racked up other star cred as the executive chef for 'Saturday Night Live' and food stylist for Emeril Lagasse, Mario Batali, Paula Dean, Lidia Bastianich and Katie Lee."

The chandeliers apparently appear as if they're made of tequila bottles. This is a new Murray Hill hotspot, and honestly, it couldn't have come soon enough.

5. Lit Lounge Celebrates Its Ninth [The Feast]

[Image via The Cobra Snake]

"Lit Lounge In The East Village turns nine tonight, and Paul Sevigny will be on hand to D.J. the celebration. Sevigny certainly owes a debt to the bi-level rock club. His Beatrice Inn mimicked Lit's grunge-chic formula to great success."

6. Tenjune Renovation Is Complete, Will Unveil $400,000 Treatment This Weekend [WSJ]

[Image via @NYNightlife]

"As the Meatpacking District club approaches its fifth anniversary in September, this weekend, Tenjune, on Little West 12th Street, will unveil a $400,000 facelift. The culmination will be a live performance Saturday by the rapper Fabolous."

The refurbished look courtesy of iCrave couldn't have come at a better time.

"'January and February are the slowest months of any business,' said Eugene Remm, one of the owners of the EMM Group. 'It's the perfect financial time to make renovations.'"

[Wednesday's Round-up]

[Tuesday's Round-up]