Tonic

Tonic was a music club in a former kosher winery building on Norfolk Street in the Lower East Side, with two interconnected spaces that brought musicians and audience members very close together. The proximity between performers and listeners enabled intense and immediate shows in tight quarters.

The club opened in 1998 and quickly became a home for musical experimentation and innovation. Its closure came in 2007 when rising rents and the transformation of the neighborhood by new high-rise buildings made continuing operations impossible.

The space became a gathering point for experimental music forms and drew artists exploring unconventional sounds. People from across the city came here to see performances that were hard to find elsewhere.

Although the venue closed long ago, visitors can still visit the historic address on Norfolk Street and see the remains of the building. Online resources document performances and artists who appeared here for anyone interested in exploring its history.

Artists hoping for a performance left demo tapes that sat untouched in archives for over a decade after the closure. Years later these recordings were digitized and made accessible to the public, offering a window into unheard musicians from that era.

Location: Manhattan

Official opening: 1998

GPS coordinates: 40.71890,-73.98730

Latest update: December 11, 2025 18:04