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David Barton Astor Place Sexier than The Box and Cheaper

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Last night, pre-martinis at Temple Bar with Lululemon (herself), we stopped in for overdue tour of the new David Barton Gym at Astor Place. Everone must go take a look, if only to see the next step in the evolution of gym to nightclub: DJ booth in the shape of giant mirrored ball, thumping music, outsized Phillipe Starck-style mirrors leaning against exposed steel and brick. Purple backlighting everywhere. Lovely juxtaposition of candle-lit wooden floors and futuristic cardio machinery (each unit with its own TV). All the energy does make you want to work out -- the way a hopping club makes you want to dance. Everyone beautiful in that lighting: The ripped man of color with dreds and tattoos; the Nicole Kidman knock-off doing pelvic lifts with pesonal trainer. And that's the further surprise: It's not all gay. The mix of men and women, in fact, roughly balanced. "David has a wife and a kid and lives on the Upper East Side," said our tour guide. "The Chelsea thing just sort of took off." My thought: It could easily have been Equinox Greenwich Avenue or any other Hot New Club, just re-themed, like a Windows desktop, to something between The Standard and the Delano. So, other than mandatory tourist visit, should you join?

Maybe. Price is $125 a month, and only $5 more to get access to the Chelsea location. If you join TODAY, they'll waive the grim $400 initiation fee. (Really: Today is the last day of the grand opening sale. "And those prices aren't changing," our guide assured us. We've heard that before.) Members of Crunch Lafayette, who don't use other locations, might well consider it. Red alerts must be sounding at Crunch high command. Emerging from Chapter 11, presumably somewhat cash-constrained, and their flagship locale down the street is suddenly looking a little dog-eared. Oh Crunch, fight back honey!

But David Barton is missing a few things: Surprisingly, there's no luxe smoothie bar, though plenty of food and drink options just out the door. Also, from what we could tell, no massage/spa facilities. On the flip side, we suspect the personal training to be above average. David Barton, please know, began his career as a personal trainer.

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• David Barton's New Haunted Mansion

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