David Schneider

Rush Street may have an identity crisis on its hands with the advent of Syn, the new lounge/discotheque that recently opened below Jilly's. Syn refuses the brashness of the Gold Coast--its true milieu is late seventies New York, the underground New York of cool seductiveness, of Helmut Newton and Halston and Yves Saint Laurent. Slick Designs & Manufacturing, the firm responsible for the sleek ambience of Y--nominated for "Best Interior Design" at the 2004 Club World Awards--has taken the former interior of the "Retro Club" to task and has created an environment of subtle sophistication.

Whereas Y announces itself as self-consciously hip and avant-garde, Syn crafts an ambience of confident maturity with walls of French oak veneer, chrome pillars and black, ribbed-leather loungers, glass divider panels and Milanese tile walls alongside pitch-perfect seventies orange barstools. It feels good to be a well-dressed adult here, sipping cocktails before dinner or eyeing about for intrigues after. The "Seven Deadly Syns" are the lounge's trademark concoctions--ingeniously creative martinis representing the septet of doom. "Lust," in particular, is the taste buds' equivalent of luxurious sex and if its aphrodisiac qualities fail to inspire the object of your desire, he or she really isn't worth your while anyway.

Dancing at Syn is an amusing, relaxing and rather laid-back experience in the low-ceilinged undercroft area toward the back of the lounge. The DJ, ensconced in an artfully rectangular, spacious booth, gradually picks up the pace over the course of the evening; during the opening party, he traversed from seventies funk classics and eighties soul-funk into nineties dance and 21st-century progressive house. This isn't, nor is it really meant to be, an audiophile's boom room--music falls from overhead speakers set into the ceiling fixtures, creating sound of a somewhat muffled quality when it intermingles with the conversation of a filled-out party. But that's to Syn's credit--there are ample places to sit, chat, and hear the person you're talking to--and look elegantly cool while being served by waitresses with unimpeachable aesthetics. Synful? The Devil does wear Prada after all.

Syn, 1009 North Rush, (312)664-0009.

(2004-01-13)

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