Cooptation: Complete; Form Of: Harlem Theme Bar

Funny, because it sure sounds like a theme restaurant:

Coming this week to Chelsea: Harlem! Or at least a blaxploitation-flavored, seventies-fantasy version by Lesly Bernard, who, with Keith McNally, opened the Cold War–themed bar Pravda soon after the end of the Cold War and followed that with the celebrity-studded Clementine. Tillman’s, Bernard’s super-fly new lounge on West 26th Street, comes complete with beaded curtains, tufted leather booths lined with speakers, and sepia-toned photos of old men blowing smoke from their nostrils or playing brass instruments on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard. . . . “Nothing is more American than 1970s Harlem,” explains Bernard, who quickly adds, “It’s not a theme restaurant.”