NYC’s most unhinged new nightclub is hiding in plain sight — just steps from Billionaire’s Row: ‘I’m crawling around as a poodle’
NY Post
West 57th Street is the new Bushwick.
In spring 2023, a historic church around the corner from Columbus Circle reopened its doors as a wildly wacky nightclub described as “a Broadway show, but with house music” — and the neighborhood may never be the same.
Seemingly plucked from grungiest Brooklyn and plopped down on the western fringe of Billionaire’s Row, The Stranger fills the labyrinthian, cavernous 10,000 square-foot space at 311 W. 57th St. with a maximalist, variety show-like spectacle that comes alive every weekend, featuring eccentric performance artists and a diverse clientele ranging from curious normies who came of age during the no-nightlife COVID years to L train-riding scenesters.
Not that any of this is immediately apparent to passersby — for all the partying indoors, the club has maintained an impressively secretive existence, online and in real life.
On a recent weekend evening, it was far from clear how much, if anything at all, was going on behind the facade of the former house of worship, tucked below a 16-story prewar rental building.
The answer is, plenty.
