The Tunnel was a nightclub built inside a tunnel formed by abandoned railroad tracks at Twelfth Avenue and 28th Street. Andy Warhol’s diary links its physical setting to its identity: he had told the Bonjour jeans representative to keep the name The Tunnel, a suggestion that made the railroad structure part of the club’s public character. The location appears not as a neutral backdrop but as an attraction in its own right; Warhol called it a great building.

The First Party

Warhol went to the club’s first party after a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, riding downtown with Steven Greenberg. He found good music and food from Glorious Food. Serge, a headwaiter associated with Glorious Food, came over to greet him, while Haoui worked as the doorman and Rudolf was also there. The diary’s brisk inventory of music, food, staff, and guests gives the new venue an immediate social life as well as a striking architectural setting.

The party also placed The Tunnel within Warhol’s circle of nightlife and image-making. Ian Schrager was present but walked out of one of Warhol’s pictures; Warhol guessed that Schrager did not want to be photographed at someone else’s club. Warhol noted Schrager’s blue suit and tie and described his stocky, prosperous appearance. Steve Rubell, meanwhile, was still in his business clothes and said he had just closed a deal. These small details connect the club’s opening to the business and social identities of its prominent guests.

A New Year’s Eve Stop

The Tunnel reappeared in Warhol’s account of New Year’s Eve. After leaving Steven Greenberg’s black-tie party at the River Café and stopping at Scott Asen’s house and Nell’s, Warhol’s group dropped Paige and Tama Janowitz at The Tunnel. Warhol and the others then went home at about four in the morning, walked the dogs, and he regretted staying out late simply because it was New Year’s. The brief return establishes the club as one stop among several in a long night out, while also contrasting the party circuit with the fatigue and disruption that followed.

Place in the Diary

Across these visits, The Tunnel is defined by the combination of its unusual railway-tunnel setting and its role in a network of parties, hosts, staff, and familiar nightlife figures. Warhol’s recollection of helping name it sits alongside concrete observations of its first party and its later place in the New Year’s Eve itinerary. The result is a portrait of a venue taking shape through both its architecture and the people who pass through it.