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La Nouvelle Justine is New York's first S&M restaurant. Though sharing the same owner as Lucky Chengs, the city's transvestite restaurant, it aims to be much more than just a theme dining-place. The staff have all been drawn from New York's S&M scene. Speaking to them at the pervert-studded official opening party, I discovered that the restaurant has a twofold purpose. It will be an unusual place for people to have a night out - to eat, drink, gaze and take group photos. But it will also serve as an ideal pre-fetish-clubbing watering hole. Here you can walk in dressed in fetish gear, drink cocktails and then move on to your chosen venue. From outside, the venue's 'bound Gwendoline' logo art is a giveaway to those in the know, but the otherwise anonymous exterior can fool the initiated. While I was there, a family group walked in, looked around, froze and then walked out - the husband lingering and balefully looking over his shoulder as a well-known mistress administered a beating in the middle of the floor. For the average customer this can be a slice of the fetish world in the congenial setting of a restaurant. Inside, mixed large groups sit at the tables, giggling nervously as the waiters take their orders, heads down, cardboard 'slave' signs hanging round their necks. La Nouvelle Justine employs mistresses to keep a cool eye on the establishment, and to make sure customers toe the line - Diane and Formica performing this function at the launch party. But you could be forgiven for thinking bad behavior is positively encouraged as the menu includes such 'specials' as Birthday Spanking and Dinner In The Doghouse. And recruiting bar staff from the NY perv scene certainly pays off when it comes to dealing effectively with lewd customers. Bartender Dawn stood behind the counter in a shiny red nurse's uniform, cooly reeling off the names of the cocktails and their definitions and shrugging off laddish comments with a curt "shut up and let me finish". Unfortunately, though the style of La Nouvelle Justine may be racy, the service during my visit was extremely slow, and it has been suggested that disorganization was more to blame than any desire to live up to the restaurant's "maybe your dinner will be ready by nine...maybe it won't" sales pitch. But hopefully by now, the management will have got the balance right between serving and punishing the customer. Eating there certainly brings a whole new meaning to the term 'nouvelle cuisine'! La Nouvelle Justine is at 206 West 23rd Street, New York, NY 10011 (1-212-727-8642) Back to Cabo |