On the Town with New York City’s nightlife kings

GayCities’ New York Editor, JJ Keyes chats Bob Pontarelli and Stephen Heighton, owners of Barrage, Elmo, and the upcoming Industry Bar.

Names: Bob Pontarelli and Stephen Heighton
Career: Nightlife
Home: New York
Hails from originally: Chicago and London
Spotted on a typical New York Saturday night: Working at Elmo and Barracuda

We’re so excited about the opening of Industry Bar in Hells Kitchen.
Thank you! We love your site!

This love fest could go on for days. Tell us about Industry.
The space is the ground floor of an old parking garage, which attracted us immediately. We loved the raw concrete floors and pillars, and jumped at the challenge. The name ‘industry’ was obvious from day one. We travel a lot and have been looking thru Europe for inspiration for a new project. For the design we acquired reclaimed architectural artifacts from vendors all over the world. There’s vintage glass from a factory in former east Berlin, a 100 year old bar top from Canada, Chinese rugs from the 20’s and school auditorium lights from Spain. We’ve had a blast putting it together.

When do you open?
Officially the first week of December.

I know a lot of chorus boys and theater queens who are always looking the new “hotspot.” Will you be serving pre-theater snacks or just drinks?
Like Barraucda the emphasis is on drinks. Specialty cocktails will have an Elmo flair. We’ll try to bring the best of both.

You guys have been working together for twenty years and opened some of the hottest venues: Crowbar, Elmo, Barracuda and Leshko’s Restaurant. Your venues have a distinct style, from where do you draw your inspiration?
We always try to do something that is an alternative to what’s being done everywhere else. We really try to create places where we ourselves would actually like to hang out. Stephen and I have very different styles but we fight it out and hopefully end up with something that people find exciting.

How did you meet?
Ha! We actually met at The Bar on First Avenue. I think it’s gone now but it was the best dive bar ever.

Bob with Richie Rich and Johnny Weir at Barracuda

When you guys opened Barracuda Lounge in 1996 the market was crazy competitive. You’ve still got hot bartenders and hysterical drag queens. So many of your competitors have closed up shop and transitioned into other bars and restaurants. Why do you think Barracuda remains a draw?
All of us–everyone there–work really hard at keeping Barracuda fresh. It is a very tight knit group of pals and everyone feels very invested. We regularly change the decor, try to keep a sense of humor and I truly believe we have the best staff in New York.

There’s a crazy fun event at Barracuda every night of the week. What do you have in store for Industry?
We’re still working on specific programming but it will be pretty different from Barracuda. What the two bars WILL have in common is friendly staff, reasonable prices and sexy vibe. It will be unlike anything else in Hell’s Kitchen.

We love Elmo. Our GayCities team just had our first New York family dinner there. Your staff is so cute!
Ha! It takes forever to hire someone new. Really. We’re all very close. The staff is a big family and new people go thru quite a process, not the least of which is fitting in with the whole gang. It’s an incredible group.

BarracudaThe city has changed a lot since you opened Barracuda, and even since the opening of Elmo. How would you say the scene has changed?

There was a real creative vitality in nightlife that disappeared for a while. The good news is that it is that I feel it coming back. People often focus on technology and the changes that has made but I think it has infused nightlife with a new generation of energy.

You two are huge philanthropists. Stephen, we hear you raised an enormous amount of money at the ACRIA art auction. How did you become involved with ACRIA?
Aids Community Research Initiative of America is one if those rare charities doing stellar work on s shoestring budget. Their sole mission is to find a cure through testing and researching drugs, and I knew of them because my girlfriend Beth Rudin Dewoody is on the board of the Whitney Museum and had curated the Acria sale the year before mine. She suggested it was time to step up and do something important for my peeps, and after breaking my arm in several places I said yes. I teamed up with Jane Holzer, who’s a Warhol star, to dragoon artists into giving work for free, and together with Elle Decor raised close to a million bucks in two days of art auctions. It’s one of the things I’m proudest of in my life, and would jump at the chance to help out again. Please take the time to look at acria.org and learn of their mission, and do some art shopping!

Photos courtesy Bob Pontarelli and Stephen Heighton

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