The first clue that Remote Lounge is not your average juke joint is the sign at the door.
It reads: "By entering these premises you hereby waive the following rights: To privacy, To publicity."
Another giveaway is the 24 "cocktail consoles" around the bar.
Each has a joystick that controls the bar's 60 video cameras, which can be rotated 360 degrees to monitor patrons across the room, or just walking in the door, from every angle.
See someone attractive at another console? Press a button to shoot him or her a text message. Or pick up a telephone handset and have a conversation.
Of course, if you're feeling nostalgic, you can always mosey over and strike up an old-fashioned chat with the object of your affection.
But that's not the concept at this high-tech club, which partners Leo Fernekes, Kevin Centanni and Robert Stratton worked on for nearly 18 months before opening it in mid-October at the site of a former electrical supply store at 327 Bowery.
"People traditionally go to a bar to be looked at," said Fernekes. "We're taking a natural feature and amplifying it."
Previously, Fernekes owned Controlled Entropy Ventures, an interactive teleconferencing company. All three have worked with multimedia technology for most of their careers.
The electronic innovations at Remote Lounge go beyond the remote-control cameras.
Press one button on the console to order a drink. Press another to view yourself on the screen as others view you. Press still another to post a photo on the bar's Web site for your viewing pleasure later.
On a good night, some 2,000 pictures are posted at www.remotelounge.com, according to the owners.
While some may find the bar's voyeurism unsettling, others apparently find it intriguing.
"When people go to a concert and find out it's being broadcast they get all excited. They think they might be famous," Fernekes said. "It's the same thing with this bar. People get a thrill from being filmed."
Centanni said that, if nothing else, the technology makes for a great icebreaker. Fernekes agrees, adding that he and his partners are revolutionizing the art of flirting.
But high-tech innovations are cropping up at bars all across the country.
For example, many bars are now installing video cameras that send live images over the Web, letting you know who's bellying up to the bar before you leave home.
Ryan Butcher, a twenty-something college dropout, has launched www.thebarspies.com, a business that's installing barcams in watering holes in Greenville, North Carolina, a college town of about 60,000 people.
"We believe barcams are a tool for the general public to see what's happening in real time," he said, adding that they also provide great advertising for bar owners.
Click on his Web site to check out what's happening at any given moment in bars around the world. You can see the insides of Al's Bar in Houston, Bash Bar Club in Miami, and Walnut Hills Bar in Dayton, Ohio.
Privacy advocates have expressed concern over a bar owner's ability to broadcast images over the Internet without a customer's knowledge or consent.
"What if a creepy person sees someone that looks attractive and decides to hang around outside the bar that night to wait for that person?" asked Lauren Weinstein, moderator of Privacy Forum, an online discussion list on privacy issues. "Who's liable if someone gets hurt?"
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