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CBGB trades punk for chic

By Marlene Naanes, amNewYork Staff Writer | MNaanes@am-ny.com

April 7, 2008

Fashion designer John Varvatos' newest location is set to open on Monday at 315 Bowery, in a space which formerly housed CBGB's, the underground club known as the birthplace of punk rock. (Ari Mintz, Newsday / April 6, 2008)

Much of the grime has been vacuumed off the walls of the former CBGB, the notoriously scummy bathrooms are gone and the stage that once supported underground rock and punk legends like The Ramones and Blondie is also history.

The former punk-rock palace is now home to designer John Varvatos' just opened store, which mixes a rock-and-roll vibe, vinyl records and pricey vintage ware with his own $1,600 leather jackets and $130 knit shirts.

Yet part of CBGB's soul lives on in the original pillars and black walls still covered in graffiti and flyers dating back to the 1970s.

"I think there are always people who are going to be mad that CBGBs is closed, but there could have been a lot of ugly, horrible things that could have gone into that space that wouldn't have treated it with respect and love," said Varvatos' friend and musician Jesse Malin, who played CBGB with punk band D Generation. "If you kind of squint your eyes you can have a time warp, and people might recognize some of the corners they were squashed into or mashed into at a show."

CBGB closed in October 2006 after Hilly Kristal, its owner and guiding spirit, lost a high-profile protracted rent battle with his landlord, a social-service agency for the homeless. Kristal, who died last year, had spoken of moving the club to Las Vegas, but the future remains uncertain as the family is locked in a legal battle over the trademark, Kristal's son, Dana Kristal, said.

Of Varvatos trying to preserve part of CBGB history, Kristal said the effort is nice, though much of the space was stripped.

"I don't know him personally so I don't know if he's doing it because he cares," Kristal said. "Maybe he thinks it would get him publicity. Maybe he thinks its neat and he cares."

Varvatos walked by the gutted and vacant space last November and decided he'd use the space to fuse his love of rock and roll and design, and now sells vintage collectible vinyl records by some of the bands that once graced the stage.

The shop's new bar, salvaged from another nightspot, serves as a sales counter, and Varvatos installed a smaller, slick black stage for rock shows he hopes to host and air on a radio station he plans to build in the store.

The designer plans to funnel most of the store's profits into the support of emerging young artists. Later this month he'll host a fundraiser for young musicians, where Joan Jet, D Generation, and former Sex Pistols and Blondie members will play.

While Varvatos preserved a part of the historic space -- he even placed glass over a large swath of wall to keep people from pulling off 2-inches' worth of fliers -- no reference to CBGB exists in the store except for one poster.

"And it's in the bathroom," Varvatos said. "I didn't want to put it out because I didn't want to feel like I was trading on CBGB. We weren't trying to play on that, but I do want people to enjoy the history."

Some of the first people to peruse the new store were two tourists from Stockholm who came straight from the airport to check out the former club and look at the relics on the partially cracked walls.

The store received its first opening gifts already -- Alice Cooper gave his platinum records to hang on a rear wall, and drunken early morning partiers gave a bottle of Jack Daniels that now sits on the stage.

But not everyone is happily christening the store. Robert Hollander, an East Village resident and activist, said that turning places like CBGB into high-end retail outlets is an example of a larger issue in the neighborhood, whose slick new banks and condo buildings make it more glittery than gritty.

"It's kind of ironic because they've made this gesture to preserve a little bit of history but the reason CBGBs is gone is because places like this has opened up in the neighborhood," Hollander said. But CBGB is gone. "What killed CBGB was not a lack of interest in performing there -- what killed it was a rent situation. The loss of CBGBs was just a symptom of a much more pervasive illness in the neighborhood."