A Leg Up
The Return of the Forty Deuce Girls

There was a time before you were endlessly assaulted by words like "too big to fail," "public option" and "Gosselin." A time when Kanye wasn't a punch line.

There was a time…of burlesque.

And that time is back in a big way—welcome to Forty Deuce Fridays at Ivan Kane's Café Wa s.

We don't need to remind you about the impressively limber girls who took to the stage (and the bar, and the rafters), backed by a rollicking jazz band, at the late, great Forty Deuce on Melrose. But we're going to anyway, just to let you enjoy the visual for a moment.

There. Now transplant that image to Kane's latest spot—bigger, crazier and more confounding, with hidden rooms, balconies, a sweeping staircase leading nowhere. Now, every Friday, the girls will use the whole place as their new stage. Again. For the first time.

There'll be two shows a night, so you can do a three-course prix-fixe dinner for, yes, $42 before the 10pm show—or just come in for some flask service before the midnight follow-up. And there's no cover, no velvet rope, so if you just want to hit the bar for a drink and watch it all go down, that's cool.

Burlesque is nothing if not flexible.