AvenueA.org – By Tim Murphy
IN the annals of New York?s postpunk, polysexual downtown bohemia, celebrated haunts are best known by their memorable evenings. The night at the Pyramid in 1984, when the Red Hot Chili Peppers first played the East Coast and shocked the dive?s drag queens with wardrobes limited to artfully placed socks. Or the final marathon, in December 2000, of the cult party Jackie 60, which reigned on Tuesdays in the 1990s at Mother, the club-cum-salon in the meatpacking district.
If the Rapture Cafe ? which opened last December at 200 Avenue A, between 12th and 13th streets ? joins that pantheon of clubs, its opening-night party may well have been the first evening there to attain such lofty status.
When the old-school demimonde of the Lower East Side heard that the cafe was being managed by Brian Butterick, whose drag alter ego, Hattie Hathaway, had been a fixture at places like Pyramid and Mother, 200 people turned out for a night of catered booze (pre-liquor license), burlesque performances and even an appearance by the former Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry, 61, whom many consider the godmother of the downtown scene. (The cafe takes its name from Blondie?s hit song.)