Nowadays — Restaurant in New York

A story of decline. When they first opened a few years ago, it was a legit chill and laidback spot with actual good food provided by actual third-party food trucks who cared about their product. It seemed like a cool backyard party with good music.

Time passes.. owners become greedy. Chill vibes are gone. No longer are there legit food trucks, but rather food prepared by venue staff themselves in a very lackluster manner. The food quality is now squarely hospital-grade.

Similarly, the once chill party vibes are now akin to a prison yard. The DJs / owners themselves literally monitor you and, god forbid, deem you are not having enough fun, have the audacity to come out from behind the DJ booth, onto the dance floor, to scold you and your crew, in clear view of everyone. Said DJs then hail security who proceed to stand within inches of female patrons, arms crossed, in a legitimately threatening fashion. Think fight-or-flight feelings.

This strong reaction from the owners / DJs is not in response to you or your crew doing anything obscene, obnoxious, or wrong. Rather, it's a reaction to you not adequately "appreciating" the party and not dancing in the way they want you to dance. Sorry I wasn't dancing my face off. In reality, it's hard to enjoy the tired repetitive music played by the resident DJs. Seriously, their track selections can be heard on Tiesto's Clublife podcast from 5 years ago. There's nothing unique or special about their sound or taste in music. It's tired old radio content. Zero artistry or passion.

Want lousy, overpriced food, resentful staff who hate being there (probably because they are treated poorly by management), cruel DJs / owners, a sense of constantly being watched / judged, and threatening vibes, come here. Why would you though? It...

My friends and I showed up on 7/25 to see Wata Igarashi--tickets in hand, good vibes ready. We chose Nowadays specifically because it's supposed to be an inclusive, welcoming venue. Turns out that inclusivity ends at the door.

We were a big group, excited for the night. Enter: the "manager" (quotation marks doing a lot of work here, because actual management requires basic competence and professionalism). They ask who we're there to see. One friend answers--cool, right? Apparently not. That answer was treated like some kind of secret password, and suddenly only she is "allowed" in while the rest of us get told to leave. No explanation. Just a smug, dismissive wave like we were trying to sneak into a VIP party we paid to attend.

I speak up and ask why our friend couldn't answer on our behalf. The manager replies, "Well, I would never allow someone else to speak for me." I respond "Well I have absolutely no problem with that." They have no comeback, of course. Just silence... followed by the now-predictable, dramatic "you can leave now," like we were uninvited extras on their personal power trip.

Let's connect the painfully obvious dots here: packed house, pre-paid tickets, and a "manager" mysteriously filtering out groups at the door. Couldn't possibly be because they wanted to resell those spots at surge pricing, right? No, definitely not that. Just your classic, scummy, dishonest, and probably illegal move disguised as "door policy."

Also--since when is knowing the DJ a requirement for entry? God forbid people discover new music without passing a pop quiz on Wata Igarashi's discography.

This isn't some exclusive Midtown nightclub with a velvet rope and bottle service. It's just a venue with a fragile ego standing...

Had a horrible experience at Nowadays on Pride (6/29/25) for their Mx Sunday event. Myself and three queer friends arrived around 6PM with our pre-paid tickets in hand ($40 each). After lining up & passing through extensive bag checks, we pulled up to the “door person”.

We did not notice that there was a painted blue line on the ground to indicate where we wait. After stepping a foot on the line, we were yelled at for touching it. We all immediately stepped behind the line, now understanding the protocol, but we made some offhanded comments to each other about how intense the security was (nothing at all disrespectful to staff). Immediately afterwards, the person manning the door approached us yelling that “we needed to go to the back of the line and try again”. Allegedly we were “disrespecting their line” (grossly exaggerated).

Despite extensive apologies, we were aggressively DENIED entry–other staff members claimed they had to listen to the “door person’s” call.

When regrouping many feet away from the entrance, we were shooed down the block by security.

They claimed we would get refunds but we have yet to see any movement on this.

I am looking forward to spending my time & money supporting the many other NYC clubs that are inclusive, Queer centered, and more fun.

Will not be coming back to Nowadays. Hope the organizers fix this & stop treating people poorly (clearly this is a common occurrence given the many...