Refuge

An analog temple behind the brick

Behind a labyrinth of 19th-century warehouses, between East Williamsburg and Bushwick, the Refuge patio cuts the noise of Brooklyn before the dance floor starts. John Dimatteo and Craig Shorty Bernabeu took almost a decade—since 2017, with more than fifty spaces seen—to find an exempt building, without residential neighbors, where the night could turn into morning. The general contractor is the son of the man who built the original Studio 54. The venue, about 1,500 m² of mid-19th-century industrial complex, opened in September 2025 with a room of about 300 m² and capacity for 500 people: 10.7-meter ceilings, original walls, and acoustic treatment by Al Fierstein (Acoustilog), linked to Paradise Garage and Sound Factory.

The venue was designed around the REX

Shorty, with previous work at Nowadays, Analog BKNY, and the redesign of Stereo Montreal, built REX: analog 4-point system, three-meter towers in the corners, central bass horn, and aerial fills, without digital processing. Each speaker, stage, and filter is self-manufactured. The equipment has not stood still: custom analog equalizers, vintage JBL tweeters, and a modular booth with rotary mixers, handmade filters, and redone monitoring. The floor is not concrete. It is a floating maple floor of almost ten centimeters, designed to absorb the impact and return energy in twelve-hour sets.

No VIP and with the camera covered

The programming is curated in-house. There is no VIP area or bottle service: the club wants to be the headliner, not a container for other people's parties. Phones are discouraged; at the entrance, cameras are covered, and photos or videos are not allowed on the dance floor. Gregory Homs, a veteran of Sound Factory and The Tunnel, signs the creative direction. The calendar mixes classic house, techno, after-hours marathons, and day parties. In the first year, Floorplan, DJ Seinfeld, Sasha on New Year's Eve, No Way Back, David Morales, Victor Calderone, or The Martinez Brothers passed through.

A year tuning the house

In September 2026, the venue celebrates its first anniversary with the system still in live work: Shorty retouches it almost every week. There is a bar, professional lighting, accessible entrance with ramps, free water, and a stage that also serves as a dance platform. The own SoundCloud channel documents those long sets—starting with seven hours of Seth Troxler and Victor Calderone—while the venue remains, above all, a high-fidelity refuge for those who go to dance.