Editorial Review

Ask the staff at The Standard about "Smoke & Mirrors," and there's a good chance they'll look at you with blank stares and sheer denial of its existence. Why? You only know of this place if you're in-the-know, and everyone wants to keep it that way. With a covert line forming to the left of the hotel lobby and a velvet rope as tough as rebar, you have to know someone involved with the place to even get in. Owned by Paul Sevigny (brother of Chloe and owner of shuttered club Paul & Andre), Smoke & Mirrors is about as small and dark as lawfully possible. Once you get past the stovetops and kitchen counters (literally), you'll enter a black-walled closet of a lounge, packed with a neon faux Hollywood sign, disco balls plastered to the ceilings, and a pen of sexy models. Of course, you'll have to see it for yourself. If you can get in.