Spanking New Restaurant

In Manhattan, the latest thing is La Nouvelle Justine, a little spot in the Chelsea neighborhood that bills itself as an “S&M; and fetish restaurant,” complete with dominant waitresses and waiters and submissive busboy slaves.

“It’s like Disney meets S&M;,” comedian Joan Rivers, a customer, told the Associated Press. “Our busboy didn’t bring the bread fast enough, so the maitre d’ spanked him.”

La Nouvelle Justine is the newest creation from Robert and Hayne Jason, the couple who struck gold a couple of years ago with Lucky Cheng’s, a transvestite Chinese restaurant (there are now branches in Miami Beach and New Orleans).

But actually it seems it’s a lot more Disney than S&M.; When we called on Thursday evening asking for--no, demanding--a table for eight at 8 the next night, the maitre d’ said no but was downright apologetic. “What do you mean, no?” we raged. “We want a table.”

“I’m really sorry, sir, but we don’t take reservations on the weekends anymore,” he said. “We’d really like to, but we’re so crowded we have to go first-come, first-served. Can you come back another night?”

It looks like if you really want to get abused in a New York restaurant, you’re going to have to rely on the old stand-by: the French. Or, you could try NYNEX, the phone company. Trying to get the number for La Nouvelle Justine, directory assistance hung up on us twice.