“This is where the magic happens.” A neon sign reads this colloquialism the second one enters the reception of the Lower East Side’s Moxy Hotel. While plants hanging overhead pull you off the streets and into the arms of a pleasure garden, the saying rings true. Magic at the Moxy is brewing before one’s very eyes.

On the corner of Bowery and Broome, the Moxy Hotel functions as both a lodging and an all-encompassing entertainment venue. Enamored by the rebellious folklore of the Lower East Side as a historic crossroads for entertainment and punk artistry, the hotel’s devotion to “cool” purports a certain obsession—to magnetize creatives, to memorialize the dreamers of the past, to embolden adventurers of the future. 

Designed by Michaelis Boyd and the Rockwell Group, a plugged-in, cosmopolitan hedonism ornaments the hotel’s interior. Drawing inspiration from nearby Lower East Side destinations and heros—Andy Warhol, the Vauxhall Gardens, the burlesque houses—art, bars, and amenities at the Moxy transform accommodation into a sort of enigmatic, chic funhouse of cultural references. 

303 rooms are distinctively designed. Plank wood floors, metalwork bed frames, and walls painted in expressive color pair with tech-savvy in-room amenities, like Smart TV streaming access. Bathrooms include rain showers and lava stone sinks.

The Fix sits in the lobby as both a café and bar. Floor games and photo opportunities compliment an Instagrammable social scene, ornamented in Art Deco stylings reminiscent of vaudeville theaters and graffiti floral murals.

Silver Lining Lounge is the Moxy’s piano bar. A mysteriously nocturnal ambiance is imparted by the space’s direct reference to Andy Warhol’s “Silver Factory,” which was a downtown loft that Warhol transformed into a sculpture using silver paint, aluminum foil, and a broken mirror. 

Loosie’s is where nights out never end. Commemorating the Lower East Side’s “backhouses” and gritty art scene of the 1980s, guests enter the subterranean nightclub through a graffitied alleyway behind the hotel. Descending into a sea of bouncing music and color, the magic of a great stay brews, simply because the human body is begged to dance it out and have fun.