• Matsuri

  369 West 16th Street, 212-243-6400

  Once you figure out the way into Matsuri (it’s the unmarked red door on the right), confusion turns to awe. Owners and designers Eric Goode and Sean MacPherson (in conjunction with Mikio Shinagawa) have transformed this vast, vaulted, problematic Quonset-hut-shaped space into a wonderfully trippy, comfortably slouchy, supper-club-in-space. The huge, looming lanterns not only bewitch, they distract from a ceiling that might otherwise dwarf the place. The acoustics create a sense of intimacy instead of sending conversations ricocheting around the room, and though you can see everyone, you never feel on display. It’s as if you’re sitting at the world’s most sophisticated high-school prom.

From the 2004 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine