Only Love Strangers, a bi-level cocktail lounge and restaurant with nightly live jazz performances, has landed on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
This is the debut project from Only Love Strangers Hospitality, a newly founded hospitality group helmed by the director team of MáLà Project.
Entering the futuristic world of Only Love Strangers
Brooklyn-based Studio Omar Aqeel designed the 6,300-square-foot space as a retro-futuristic oasis inspired by 1960s and ’70s surrealism. Guests are invited on a journey of discovery, where the bold simplicity of Alexander Calder meets the modern Mediterranean elegance of Eileen Gray’s iconic E-1027 villa, combined with the futurism of Stanley Kubrick’s Space Odyssey.
Given the sprawling space, “the challenge was making it feel intimate,” says Aqeel. “To address intimacy, we created various zones within the space, each with a distinct personality and vibe.”
The entryway is furnished with a cantilevered brushed aluminum host stand juxtaposed by a vintage articulating wall light, “immediately transporting you into another world,” says Aqeel. Further inside, the adjoining bar room features a wraparound aluminum bar, abstract banquettes, and floor-to-ceiling cobalt blue tiling.
Moving into the main dining space, a voyeuristic egress allows guests to peek into the subterranean lounge. “One of the most special moments happens over the opening between the two floors,” Aqeel says. A custom mobile designed by Max Simon suspends directly over a light fixture crafted in collaboration with Simon’s father, showcasing “a father and son’s work in conversation.”
The venue also houses a 10-person private dining room—with its own exclusive entrance—adorned wall-to-wall with a hand-painted mural inspired by the Bauhaus abstract grid.
Discovering Only Love Strangers’ jazz lounge
Downstairs, the 55-seat lower-level lounge is swathed in cobalt blue—from the floors and ceiling to the furnishings. Bold blue tables and chairs, including vintage-style fluted banquettes, provide ample seating around a mirrored jazz lounge gently lit by ’60s-era opaline glass sconces and layered plastic pendants from the ’70s.
Vintage and custom pieces from New York-based artists and designers—including jewelry designer Yuyu Shiratori and wood sculpture artist Nico Anon—are also found throughout the interiors.
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