Nightlife bigs team up

NEW York hospitality gurus John McDonald and Nur Khan are teaming on a new intimate downtown venue for their stylish crowd. The former Soho nightlife rivals — McDonald ran MercBar and then Khan opened Wax down the block in 1995 — have been painstakingly planning and decorating the venue, called Butterfly, which will open next month at Sixty SoHo. McDonald, the creator of Mercer Street Hospitality and downtown restaurants such as Lure Fishbar, Bowery Meat Company and El Toro Blanco, told Page Six, “Nur and I started off as rivals, but we became friends and now everything has gone full-circle. We’ve been looking for the right bar or lounge to open together for a long time — a place that isn’t a club, but a small, intimate, seductive space.” They’ve tapped Jason Volenec, who decorated Alley Cat at the Beekman. Khan — famed for operating hip venues such as Rose Bar and the Electric Room — said the decor for Butterfly was inspired by legendary Italian designer and architect Carlo Mollino, known for his ability to create dreamy, sensuous spaces. Khan is drawing on his love of art and his friendships with artists including Damien Hirst — who has sent a host of his iconic butterflies to adorn a case in the new venue. Khan said, “Butterfly is a very eccentrically decorated living room combined with a seductive, playful bar, there’s lots of animalskin fabrics, and some art masterpieces — really the whole room is a piece of art.” He added, “There’s nothing like this downtown right now, where you can go after work, or after dinner. It’s a lounge room with good music, but not loud music. We hope to bring in musically literate, stylish, like-minded people that want to hang out in a place that we will curate and they will appreciate.”