Step Off the No. 1 Train and Into La Noxe

Harried New Yorkers might easily miss the brown door on the platform separating the street from the subway at the station on 28th Street at Seventh Avenue — home to the No. 1 train. Half a flight of stairs up, and you have the street. Half a flight down, the turnstiles.

This intriguing experience is brought to you by Jey Perie, 41, who grew up in France and moved to New York in 2012. Eight years later, he opened La Noxe, a 600-square-foot hidden bar in between the street and the uptown train.

The bar holds 30 people and is reminiscent of a speakeasy, “because it’s so hard to find, which was never my intention,” said Mr. Perie, who started looking for commercial rentals online in January 2019.

“I wanted something unique and intimate that would emulate the late ’70s and early ’80s in New York,” he continued. “I stumbled upon an abstract drawing of a subterranean staircase with hardly any description, just a location and that they were asking $10,000 a month. But I was interested. When I saw the space I fell in love with it.”

He negotiated a reduced rate of $7,000 per month, gutted everything and planned to open March 2020. Covid hit on the day he was to pick up his liquor permit, and the world shut down. The bar’s opening was delayed. Mr. Perie started to worry. More setbacks occurred as the world reopened at 25 percent, then closed again, only to reopen a few months later.