Overview
New York on Tap listed this bar without a review.
History
Pink walls and silver palms, under the Chelsea
Serena was the caterer Serena Bass's bar in the basement of the Chelsea Hotel, and it had bright pink walls and silver palm trees1, 2, 3. By September 2001 it was two years old1.
Star Lounge took over the space on March 9, 2007, and its owners, Charles Ferri and Vekrum Kaushik, did away with the pink walls and the palms2, 3. In October 2010 the basement became the Chelsea Room, a candlelit bar in what Time Out called a onetime speakeasy, gutted to its original vaulted brick ceilings and hung with vintage crystal chandeliers2, 4. In 2011 the developer Joseph Chetrit bought the hotel for $80 million, and that July he stopped taking new guests2.
The hotel soft-reopened to guests in March 20222. In September 2025 Teruko opened in the old nightclub space beneath the hotel, past guitars and a secret stairway; it is named for the Japanese-born artist Teruko Yokoi, who once lived and made work in the hotel5, 6.
Sources
Researched October 2026.