New to the ever-growing number of spaces near the High Line is Provocateur, the latest venture from Michael Satsky and Brian Gefter, the owners of the East Hampton nightclub Lily Pond. The new venue, a $4 million club that opened in December in the spot that once housed the Garden of Ono, encompasses 7,000 square feet at the foot of the Hotel Gansevoort and is comprised of two distinct spaces—Provocateur Café and Provocateur Nightclub.
To decorate the site, Lionel Ohayon and his team at ICrave looked to European doll houses and Madonna's 1985 Virgin Tour for inspiration; the result is a feminine aesthetic marked by lace details, ornate furniture, and a purple color palette. Provocateur was also designed with an eye toward functionality as an event space and thus offers amenities like a Funktion One audio system and light programming from SJ Lighting, as well as a large coat check and roomy entrance area to allow for check-in tables.
Provocateur Café is the larger of the two spaces, covering 4,000 square feet at the front of the venue and offering a 25-foot-high retractable glass roof. In this 300-person capacity area, individual backdrops accent each of the eight tables that line the perimeter of the room and the central space is furnished with floral swings and several imported European silver birch trees. By contrast, the focal point of the 3,000-square-foot nightclub is a set of 20-foot-wide, eight-foot-tall Egyptian phoenix wings that hang over the bar. This portion of the venue has 17 banquettes and tables as well as an 80-person skybox.
In addition to serving dishes from the adjacent Tanuki Tavern, Jeffrey Chodorow's recently opened Japanese restaurant, Provocateur offers a cocktail menu infused with anti-aging ingredients from skin care company Borba.
