Bowery Bliss is packed on a Saturday night. With multiple areas and a top floor called “the playroom,” the sex club in the Lower East Side’s art gallery district opened in May and is the latest venue for sexy swingers who want to get their freak on.
The 4,000-square-foot club is composed of the first-floor entry area, a BYOB lounge area (as it is an “on premise” sex club, Bowery Bliss has no liquor license), the third floor, for “playing,” and a top floor for “Couples Only,” where more hard-core “swapping” and swinging is permitted. Admission is $120 per couple by “membership only,” which requires online registration and an e-mailed confirmation complete with club rules and a dress code: “No baseball caps, bandanas, or do-rags; fedoras and dress hats are allowed.”
According to Joe, a 34-year-old accountant from Astoria, Queens, who came here with his wife, the third floor provides the best view.
There’s a definite “sex show” element to it all, with several couples sitting on adjoining beds watching as other couples engage in full-on intercourse on a mattress.
“We like to come and watch for a while and then hopefully meet another couple,” says Joe, who asked that his real name not be used. Joe and his wife have been “into the lifestyle” for five years and say it has “strengthened” their relationship because now they have no desire to cheat. “We just cheat in front of each other and get off on it,” says his wife. “Most people we know who are into this lifestyle,” he says, “are married.”
The couple found out about the place through various swinger Web sites; they are also members of the Scarlet Zone, a swingers’ club that has been in business for over a decade in Long Island City and is owned by the same people who run Bowery Bliss.
“This is so much better than watching porn,” says Bob (not his real name), an engineer who drove all the way from Philadelphia with his wife.
“We told the baby sitter we were going to a Broadway show,” he says.
It’s a show of a kind, for sure — but Bowery Bliss isn’t the only game in town.
There’s also Checkmates and the legendary Le Trapeze, which has been in the business since the golden age of swinging in the 1970s. There’s also One Leg Up NYC, which offers roaming sex parties that move from venue to venue.
“I’m not going to say that the people at my parties are better-looking,” says Palagia, the reigning NYC queen of what she calls “the sensual movement.” She throws parties at various city venues. “But I personally screen out and select members who come to my events with photos and a written essay.”
“I get a lot of Europeans at my parties,” adds Palagia.
“They are from France, Denmark, all over Scandinavia and Russia. Russians love my events.”
Meanwhile, back at Bowery Bliss, the night is winding down as the last two couples come off the mattress like wrestlers leaving the mat, and one of the men is clearly exhausted.
“My Facebook status says ‘In a relationship,’ ” he says.
“After tonight, I’m thinking of changing it to ‘It’s complicated.’ ”