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There was a time when Williamsburg was what some people called “up-and-coming,” and if it was ever that, then these days it often feels like it's got up and left. But New York nightlife staples Eli Escobar and Rafael Ohayon have breathed much-needed life into the neighborhood with Gabriela, a bar and club that feels, first and foremost, like a space forged from love.
Escobar and Ohayon have known each other since 1989 and have bonded over their love of music for decades, but the seeds for Gabriela were first planted during the pandemic. “It was almost born out of desperation and just hoping and dreaming about what it would be like once things opened,” Ohayon, who also owns Café Mogador in the East Village says. “I think especially for people like us, you realize once something's taken away how much it means to you.”
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Part of their initial conversations included dreaming up a venue that would have a smaller dance floor, immersive lights, and most of all, be imbued with a sense of intimacy. House parties were a big inspiration: Specifically, the way a house can have different rooms that serve different purposes. In their dream venue, they knew that they wanted a place to dance where the ceilings were lower, but also a separate place where you could sit down and talk to your friends. “We really deeply care about the landscape of our city,” Escobar says. “You know, this was 100% purely to add something great to New York, because we care about the city that much.”
“You know, this was 100% purely to add something great to New York, because we care about the city that much.”
Now, when you walk into Gabriela, it feels like you’re entering someone’s (very expensive) home. Don’t expect a Brooklyn house, though—they settled on drawing inspiration from houses in Morocco, where Ohayon is from. After you walk through the main entrance, there’s an open space and a view of a winding staircase that leads to an upstairs area with plenty of seating. The main bar, which carries a good selection of cocktails, is to your right. The dance floor is straight ahead through a niche in the wall that resembles a mihrab, an architectural detail found in Islamic architecture.
The night that I was there, the DJ was playing disco-funk and, more notably, no one on the dance floor was on their phones. Although Gabriela opened its doors on December 15, it already feels like there were already plenty of regulars: Groups of friends, oldheads, a sprinkling of couples.
The attention to detail and love poured into the venue is evident throughout the space—everyone involved in creating the venue are people both Escobar and Ohayon have known for years. But nowhere is the love more obvious than in the name of the venue itself: Gabriela was a nightlife-friend-turned-real-friend who passed away during the pandemic. Escobar tells Time Out New York that he and Gabriela had discussed opening a place together before COVID and had even started looking for potential locations in the East Village. Naming this new venue after her, “was my way of bringing her along in the best way I could,” he says.
At a time when a lot of newer bars and clubs can feel like they were thrown together overnight, Gabriela stands out. It’s a place created by people who have stakes in the culture and survival of New York nightlife, and where you can feel intention poured into each corner—there's a sense that an entire community stands behind the project. In a city that changes so rapidly, capturing a sense of what New York once was and what it could be again is, honestly, pretty exciting. “I don’t want this space to be driven by who is DJing, but more so by the quality of the sound, the music, the lights and nice, welcoming people,” Escobar says. “There’s people coming to Gabriela who are 22 years old and this could be their first experience going out, and it could turn going out into something that changes their life.”