China Club

Prince, Bowie, Bruce, Sting, Stevie Wonder, Rod Stewart, Elton John and Rick James all jammed at the China Club at one point or another¹. That was the original, opened in 1985 by Michael Barrett, Danny Fried and David Boyd² in the basement of the Beacon Hotel at 75th and Broadway¹.

Monday at China began as a promotion for what is generally the deadest night of the week in clubland, and by 1994 it drew crowds of 800 to 1,100³. When the Rangers won the Stanley Cup that year, they celebrated at the China Club¹.

By the end of 1997 the club had moved to 47th Street and Eighth Avenue, in part because of neighborhood complaints¹. Time Out later found it years past its peak as a music-industry after-hours hang, with a bar on each of its three levels and, on weekends, each level drawing from a different wedge of New York's suburbs⁴. It did still have the Jade Terrace, a top-floor indoor-outdoor garden⁴. When we listed it, we said it was no longer the A-list draw it once was, and far more fun for it. Time Out now lists it as closed⁴.