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Tunnel (New York nightclub)

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Tunnel was a large New York City nightclub with multiple rooms on several levels. It received its name from the fact that the main dancefloor was a renovated train tunnel from the early 1900s. It was located at 220 West 27th Street (and 12th Avenue) [Correct address - 269 11th Ave (bet'w 27th & 28th Sts)] in the Chelsea section of Manhattan. It was one of the most distinctive danceclubs of its time, untraditionally rectangular and elongated. The dance floor was dotted with several dance cages throughout the floor, and had a notoriously loud sound system. One clever Tunnel bartender recommended improvised earplugs, made out of molten candle wax dripped into a glass of tap water. The decor throughout the club was ever-changing; one room was decorated by artist Kenny Scharf, called the Kenny Scharf Lava Lounge, others were decorated as Victorian libraries, S & M dungeons, and chill-out lounges. It was perhaps best known for hosting Junior Vasquez, Danny Tenaglia, Merritt and Eddie Baez after the close of the original Sound Factory (530 W. 27th St.) in the mid-1990s. It later hosted Kurfew, a trance-techno oriented Saturday night party catering to a younger gay crowd. While Tunnel frequently played to a mainly gay crowd (Vasquez spun for primarily gay parties, Tenaglia who is gay rarely branded his parties with a sexual preference, Kurfew was notoriously gay), it also attracted many members of the hip-hop community, often hosting parties in separate rooms throughout the course of the week. One distinct advantage to the multiple rooms of the club was the ability to host many different types of parties with several, sometimes five or more, different DJs spinning various styles of music, to quite varying crowds. The Tunnel also featured co-ed bathrooms (although the stalls did have partitions). It was said that the bathrooms were the partially-converted locker rooms of the old train workers from decades prior. The Tunnel was often packed way beyond its legal capacity, which resulted in dangerous overcrowding. This led to people literally pushing their way past each other to get to the bathrooms and bars. During large shows, it was not uncommon for someone standing on the main floor to be packed tight against the crowd around him; sometimes being lifted completely off the floor. Because it lacked an air conditioning system, it was often incredibly hot and humid. One concert hosted at The Tunnel was Cirrus, BeatMistress and the Thrill Kill Kult (as part of their "Inferno X-press Tour") on Sunday, July 24th, 1993. One of the nightclub's past bouncers was Vin Diesel. Tunnel closed its doors soon after the demise of nearby Twilo, the victim of the owner's debts and of Rudy Giuliani's quality-of-life campaign. Owner Peter Gatien was often connected to drug trafficking and fire code violations, and sometimes underage drinking violations. His clubs were frequently the targets of police raids. The Tunnel was mentioned in the Sex and the City episode, "Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda" (season four). In the scene where Miranda discusses her abortion with her, Carrie mentions a termination she had herself, 15 years earlier. She reveals that her unwanted pregnancy resulted from sleeping with a waiter "after a drunken night at The Tunnel." Miranda retorts, "The Tunnel?! No judgment!".

It is also discussed in the book American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.^[1], and is credited as a location for the Nicholas Cage movie Vampire's Kiss. It was also the club in the rave scene in the movie "Kids". Most recently it was mentioned in the show "Gossip Girl" (The Handmaiden's Tale, episode 6, aired 10/24/07). Nate tells Serena he's found cocaine that belongs to his father, and Serena suggests that it could be something "old, leftover from the 90s, from some night at Limelight or The Tunnel." DJ Jeff Karp was a Saturday night resident at Kerfew.