'LIFE' VINTAGE NEW YORK NIGHT CLUBS PLATINUM MEMBERSHIP CARD

Description

The techno beat thumped in the background as Yonah Ward Grossman, a 33-year-old antiques dealer, stood drinking Poland Spring water at the bar of Life, the new dance club where the Village Gate used to offer jazz and folk.
''This looks a bit like Mr. Rogers's Neighborhood compared to the days of Studio 54, Xenon and Area, but there's nothing else out there,'' he said.
New dance clubs in Manhattan are few and far between, since cabaret licenses are so difficult to obtain under the Giuliani administration. But Life -- at 158 Bleecker Street, at Thompson Street -- inherited its license from the Gate. At 3 A.M. on Friday, that's where Mr. Grossman and about 500 other people in various stages of undress were hanging out.
The new nightclub was opened last month by Roy Stillman, 33, whose father, Irwin Stillman, runs the Stillman Organization, a national real-estate development company. Mr. Stillman, a lawyer, said he knew nothing about night clubs but knew he wanted to open one. So he got a little help from his family company ( million worth), and hired the top publicists in the city and the cream of the party-promoting crop.