Adélaïde's Salon is in the basement of LouLou, a French bistro on 8th Avenue in Chelsea, accessed through an old-fashioned soda machine that opens onto a staircase. The concept upstairs is a neighborhood bistro. The concept downstairs is a speakeasy built around jazz and burlesque performances, operating Thursday through Saturday with seatings at six and eight-thirty.

The cocktails use experiential techniques, and the bar's stated inspiration is the explorer Isabella Bird, whose own adventurous sensibility is meant to animate the menu of health-conscious, botanically-forward drinks. The dress code is enforced: no casual attire, no boots, no beanies. Reservations are approved by the Perfumer and the High Priestess, which is either delightfully theatrical or an inconvenience depending on your tolerance for institutional personality.

For the prix fixe experience with cocktails, food, and live burlesque in a room you enter through a soda machine in a Chelsea bistro, there isn't really a comparison bar in the city.