Bunnies & beer
Feminist spot, Playboy Club will be neighbors
This could get awkward. A feminist-themed beer hall is opening next month on West 42nd Street — and it will be just two doors down from the new Playboy Club.
Treadwell Park, a popular craftbeer joint, is opening a 6,500-squarefoot location at 510 W. 42nd St. with a 200square-foot tasting room that will celebrate women’s contributions to the history of beer — from Ninkasi, the Sumerian goddess of beer, to Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th-century German mystic and brewmaster.
“The goal of this room is to highlight and share just how influential women have been to beer, starting from the beginning,” says beverage director Anne Becerra.
Meanwhile, as exclusively reported by The Post in June, a new, luxurious flagship of the Playboy Club — a 14,000square-foot mammary mecca that’s angling to introduce millennials to Hefner-style decadence — is slated to open in mid-Sep- tember at 508 W. 42nd St., just a few steps away.
What’s really bizarre is the fact that Abraham Merchant, the New York real estate developer and restaurateur behind the new Playboy Club, is also the guy behind Treadwell Park.
Merchant declined to comment on the odd juxtaposition, saying only that he “looks forward to expanding the brand” of Treadwell Park, which also has locations on the Upper East Side and downtown.
Insiders note that Treadwell Park and the Playboy Club will at least be buffered from each other by the Cachet Hotel, which also happens to be owned by Merchant.
Treadwell Park’s new space will have a total of 170 seats inside and around 16 seats outside. For entertainment, there will be games like pingpong, shuffleboard, Jenga, pinball machines, large-screen TVs and a giant projector screen, a spokeswoman said.
The entertainment at the Playboy Club, on the other hand, will be provided by women in skimpy bunny outfits, complete with ears and tails, designed by Roberto Cavalli. Jared Male, a veteran of Hill Country Barbecue and Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, has just opened Randall’s Barbecue at 359 Grand St.
Named after Male’s grandfather, Randall’s offers a menu that builds on the history of the Lower East Side like a food lover’s pastiche.
To start, there’s housecured and smoked pastrami — once a ubiquitous Lower East Side offering — along with a Chinese-style fivespice smoked duck, and classic Buffalo wings with pickles sourced next door from The Pickle Guys and neighborhood-sourced bialys for their sandwiches from legendary Kossar’s.