Opening Spring 2027

R&L: A HOME FOR MUSIC CULTURE AND COMMUNITY IN NEW YORK CITY

A record store, café, and event space in the Meatpacking District — at 69 Gansevoort Street, the former home of Florent.

Opening
Spring 2027
Giving program
$10M / 10 years
Two floors
Shop + venue
On the block
Whitney, High Line
69 Gansevoort Street at night during the Florent years: the R&L Restaurant marquee above the storefront and pink Florent neon in the window
69 GANSEVOORT STREET DURING THE FLORENT YEARS — THE 1949 R&L MARQUEE IS LANDMARK-PROTECTED AND STILL HANGS TODAY

The project

R&L is a record store, café, and event space opening in Spring 2027 at 69 Gansevoort Street, in the former home of Florent. The ground floor holds the record store, the café, a vinyl DJ station, and three custom listening stations with twenty-four records curated by R&L. The entire second floor is a community event space built for gatherings: in-store performances, listening parties, panels, album playbacks, artist conversations, and matching fundraisers. A rooftop deck extension overlooks the High Line.

The mission is straightforward: build a place where music is discovered, where the community around it gathers, and where the money gives back to the artists and organizations it depends on.

That last part is not a gesture. It runs through a ten-year giving program that the artists help direct.

Rendering of the R&L ground floor: record bins, chalkboard, and café under original wood joists Rendering of the R&L lounge with vintage seating and a community bulletin board Rendering of the second-floor event space with stage, backline, and Charles Peterson photo mural R&L Lunch at 69 Gansevoort Street in 1938, with Ladies Invited lettering on the window Amy Winehouse in a booth at Florent, 2006
R&L merch tee: a hand-drawn 69 Gansevoort storefront with an Everyone Invited sign in the window
Merch

The promise goes on the shirt: Everyone Invited, in the window of the storefront that has carried it since 1938.

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The building

The original R&L Luncheonette opened in 1938 to feed the meatpacking workforce, and put “Ladies Invited” in the window at a time when many New York restaurants turned unescorted women away. The same building became Florent, the 24-hour diner that anchored LGBTQ+ and counterculture life downtown from 1985 to 2008. R&L is the next chapter, and takes the building’s name as both a permission and a charge.

The site sits steps from the Whitney Museum, the High Line, and Little Island.

The giving model

$10M
Over ten years

Much of it is directed by the artists who play here, so the money follows the community.

Artists choose the nonprofits.
Every performer at R&L names where their donations go.
The board gives too.
Each advisory board member has a gift of their own to direct.
R&L matches the room.
Anything artists raise at in-store fundraisers, R&L matches.

The people

Founding advisory board
Bob Mould Hüsker Dü, Sugar
Taja Cheek L’Rain; guest curator, 2024 Whitney Biennial
Josh Madell Co-founder, Other Music
Jenny Toomey Tsunami; Future of Music Coalition; Ford Foundation
Emily White Founder, Collective Entertainment

The board will grow to roughly twelve members across artists, journalists, photographers, philanthropists, label and venue operators, and digital platforms.

Consulting to the project

Chris Vanderloo (co-founder, Other Music) on retail and curation, Jason Narducy (Bob Mould, Superchunk, Split Single) on artist experience, and Danny Taylor of House Under Magic — the Brooklyn studio behind Eavesdrop in Greenpoint — on audio, acoustics, and the custom listening stations.

Programs

Live at R&L

A weekly live-music series shot in the second-floor event space: one new band a week, a short set, produced for streaming and built to travel as clips. The model is proven — Live at KEXP, NPR’s Tiny Desk. The room is built for capture from day one. Terms are artist-friendly — artists own the footage shot at R&L and can use it for anything. We are in conversation with streaming and network partners about the series.

Event space takeovers

A no-commission takeover program in the second-floor event space, built for cultural producers who almost never get a Manhattan address: used record stores, music photographers showing prints, labels running retrospectives, vintage audio dealers. R&L provides the room, the foot traffic, and the audience.

Where partners fit

We are building the partner network now, ahead of opening.

01
Programming and artists
Performances, listening sessions, album playbacks, and recorded content for digital release.
02
Labels and retail
Exclusive pressings, catalog partnerships, and in-store activations.
03
Brand and cultural collaborations
Work that fits the room rather than borrowing it.
04
Media and content
Distribution partners for performance capture and original editorial.
05
Philanthropic partners
Organizations aligned with the giving program.

Music and community programming set the calendar and take precedence. Commercial partnerships are built to complement that, never to crowd it out.