Oddball has touched down in New York’s East Village, transforming a former jazz bar (most recently home to Hi-Note community radio station) into a retro-futurist cocktail destination.
Set within a compact 1,100-square-foot footprint, the bar blends 1970s sci-fi nostalgia—think nods to Star Trek and Logan’s Run—and Memphis Group playfulness with late-night American diner energy.
Designed by locally based House Under Magic, the space flaunts, what studio founder Danny Taylor describes as, a “refined playfulness” that balances bold geometry and soft primary colors.
Enter the world of Oddball
Guests enter through a seating zone lined with intimate banquettes and small tables before moving toward the bar—the room’s focal point—framed by hightops and a mirrored wall that expands the sense of space.
The palette is tactile and cinematic. Vivid yellow tiles draw the eye across the bar face; burl wood adds a swirling, organic warmth; and volcanic stone grounds the backbar with an elemental texture. Walls are rendered in a deep midnight blue that shifts into a moody glow after dark, while red-orange accents energize seating and lighting.
Even the soundtrack follows suit. Tuned by time of day and location—livelier near the bar, warmer at booth level—it aims for liveliness without loudness.
“The use of pops of bold solid color and geometric forms was taken from the philosophy of the Memphis Group movement to, in the words of collector David Bowie, be ‘viscerally jolted,’” Taylor explains. “The nostalgia for that period of design, where the exploration of imagination became luxury, serves the Oddball brand and spirit—retro forms with dreams of a hopeful future.”
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