Jue Lan Club Throws a Limp Party in the Former Limelight Space

You might not have heard of Jue Lan Club, which opened in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood at the end of last year, but you probably know the famous rectory that houses it. In the 1980s, the deconsecrated Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion on Sixth Avenue was converted into a nightclub that later became Limelight, “one of the wildest clubs in history” according to journalist Michael Musto, “a den of hedonism for a generation of heat-seeking Club Kids.”

Grace Jones partied there. So did Madonna and Debbie Harry. But to entrepreneurs, the star was owner Peter Gatien, known then as the king of the New York club scene. After Gatien was deported to Canada following a tax fraud conviction, the church became a rehab center and later, a mall-slash-gym. Reviving its '90s-era glory (already fading by 1998, when it was featured in Sex and the City) would be impossible, but Jue Lan Club has made a winking effort by naming one of its private dining rooms in Gatien’s honor. There is work by Keith Haring on show, along with new ceramic sculptures by artist Yeats Gruin.