Ella Cocktail Bar / Live Music Venue / Piano Bar

East Village, New York –

The decadent divas of Hollywood’s golden age would feel right at home at Ella, a bi-level art deco lounge attracting a fashionable mix of alternative creative types and music lovers.

An eye-catching red, black, and white color scheme featuring ornate chandeliers, theater-curtain wallpaper, zebra print carpeting, and checkered flooring greets patrons on the first floor, where hipsters in retro gear gather at the sleek black glass bar to drink cocktails with names like Dorothy Draper and Mommie Dearest beneath the glamorous gaze of Joan Crawford.

A smaller lounge in back offers a couple of vintage settees, while red horseshoe banquettes salvaged from the Academy Awards provide a luxurious perch for bottle service served up by dapper bartenders and flapper barmaids.

Generally filled with local hipsters and creatives on weeknights when the space features everything from comics to crooners, on weekends the main bar caters to a more dressed up but hard-partying outer-borough crowd that shows up for the DJ dance parties and some heavy mingling.

Those who prefer live music head down to the intimate basement piano bar, dubbed Studio A, with its vaulted black-and-white striped ceiling and small stage, where soulful jazz, reggae, funk, and hip-hop acts play to a hipper, more fashionable indie clientele content to bop along to the beat.

Although a slight music-snobbery vibe prevails downstairs and weekends often mean long lines and a tough door, Ella still maintains a cool and welcoming atmosphere perfect for patrons who like to dress up in their best vintage duds, listen to great music, and enjoy some classic cocktails.