Pyramid Club

Few rooms can claim both RuPaul's first New York show, in 1982, and Nirvana's, in 1989^{1, 2}. In an 1876 building at 101 Avenue A, the Pyramid helped define the East Village's drag, gay, post-punk and no wave art scenes¹. In 1981 a group of organizers approached the bar's owner, Richie Hajguchik, and started the club's parties³.

It was known for socially conscious drag from Lady Bunny, Lypsinka and RuPaul, and Madonna appeared at her first AIDS benefit there^{1, 2}. On Labor Day 1985, Lady Bunny, a Pyramid performer, hosted Wigstock in Tompkins Square Park¹. Our old listing put it more modestly: one of the few clubs where friends who bat for different teams could go out together, depending on the night.

The building joined the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District in 2012¹. The club shut in the pandemic in 2020, and by April 2021 it was being mourned as gone for good^{1, 3}. Forever lasted until July, when it came back under the daughter of the longtime owners, who also own the building⁴. The second Pyramid threw a final Halloween-weekend party and closed on October 31, 2022, giving no reason⁴.

In July 2023 Nick Bodor's Baker Falls, a cafe, bar and performance space, soft-opened there, its stage billed as Knitting Factory New York at Baker Falls⁵. A year later Baker Falls moved on, and the team behind Williamsburg's Baby's All Right took over the space with the Knitting Factory^{2, 6}. Their Night Club 101 opened with a New Year's Eve party on December 31, 2024, and pours drinks and puts on shows every night from 5 in the evening^{2, 7, 8}.