A Novella
In a hidden Manhattan speakeasy where lost treasures and impossible books await, a successful yet empty man encounters four legendary guides who reveal that true freedom comes not from escaping his humanity but from fully embracing it.
Knock to learn the secret password
In the uneasy months after 9/11, successful businessman Phoenix Adams lands in New York having closed the deal of his career. But as Manhattan’s skyline comes into view, a profound emptiness engulfs him—the hollow victory of getting exactly what he thought he wanted. When a cryptic invitation leads him to an unmarked door in the Meatpacking District, Phoenix discovers an extraordinary speakeasy where the enigmatic proprietor Mircea remembers meeting him years before in an Italian garden. Beyond this threshold lies the Purging Room—a perfect circle where lost treasures and impossible books await, and where four legendary figures appear to guide his transformation: a sensual French novelist, a curious English storyteller, a brilliant psychologist, and a Celtic poet. In this liminal space outside of time, Phoenix must confront the fragmentation of his life—his stifling marriage, his career success devoid of meaning, and the questions he’s never dared to ask. As each encounter strips away another layer of pretense, he discovers that true freedom isn’t found in escape but in integration—the courage to embrace every aspect of himself he’s been taught to deny.
Fun Interactive Elements
Atmospheric Music Playlists
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The Four Legendary Guides
Beatrix Potter (Mind & Curiosity)
Not the prim Victorian illustrator you remember from childhood, this Beatrix Potter radiates intellectual mischief beneath her proper exterior. Her slate-blue dress and cameo brooch conceal a woman who once defied her entire social class to explore forbidden questions. With eyes that sparkle like they’ve witnessed centuries of wonder and laugh lines that betray a lifetime of genuine amusement, she moves through the Purging Room with the measured grace of someone who escaped society’s cage. When she fixes you with her penetrating gaze and asks, “When did you stop asking questions?”—you’ll remember what it felt like to see the world through a child’s endless curiosity. Her cocktail, The Potter Inquiry, awakens the mind with bright notes of cassis and gin, crowned with a single perfect mint leaf.
Pauline Réage (Body & Sensuality)
She enters like a whisper of silk against skin, her Mediterranean beauty a study in sensual honesty. This is Pauline Réage as you’ve never imagined—the mysterious author whose exploration of desire created a literary scandal throughout Europe. Her dark waves frame a face of classic beauty, but it’s her eyes that hold you—knowing, empathic, and utterly unashamed of the body’s wisdom. Her French-accented voice caresses each word as she dismantles decades of physical repression with the simple truth: “Pleasure is sacred.” The amber cocktail she offers—The Réage Revelation—unfolds on the palate like desire itself, warm cognac deepened with honey notes and the faintest hint of smoke. In her presence, the body remembers what the mind has forgotten.
Silvan Tomkins (Soul & Emotions)
You’ll hear his energetic movements before you see him—the tap of fingers, the bounce of leg, the scholarly enthusiasm impossible to contain. With his tweed jacket, leather-patched elbows, and wire-rimmed glasses catching the starlight, Silvan Tomkins embodies intellectual vigor paired with emotional wisdom. He barely stays seated, leaping up to demonstrate with theatrical precision how emotions reveal themselves in the face and body. One moment professorial, the next disarmingly vulnerable, he shares the revelation that changed psychology forever: emotions aren’t weaknesses but messengers delivering vital information. His lime-green cocktail rimmed with spice—The Tomkins Emotion—seems simple at first sip, then reveals surprising complexity, much like the emotional landscape he illuminates.
John O’Donohue (Spirit & Freedom)
The weathered mud on his boots grounds him in the physical world even as his lilting Irish brogue carries you beyond it. John O’Donohue appears not as a clerical figure but as a philosopher who has witnessed both mountain mists and theological depths. His eyes crinkle with Celtic wisdom when he speaks of “thin places” where spiritual and physical worlds touch. With every story—of old farmers walking boundary lands at dawn, of mountain lakes mirroring the sky, of ancient ways of belonging—he weaves a spiritual understanding that doesn’t require denying your humanity but fully inhabiting it. His whiskey-based cocktail, The O’Donohue Spirit, warms like a blessing, connecting you to traditions far older than any doctrine. In his presence, freedom becomes not an absence of connection but its ultimate expression.
THE PROPRIETOR of The Speakeasy
Mircea Vasilescu
Across centuries, Mircea Vasilescu materializes like a threshold incarnate, his silver eyes reflecting timelessness rather than age. With elegant hands adorned by amber cufflinks and a cologne blending aged sandalwood, rare oud, and Moroccan saffron, he moves through worlds as comfortably as through the rooms of his impossible collection. His knowledge—spanning Renaissance Florence, Vienna’s psychological awakening, and Hemingway’s Paris—is worn with the casual dignity of one who has witnessed empires rise and fall. Picasso’s portrait of him, created in a single sitting in the artist’s Montmartre studio, remains the only work the master never photographed for catalogs or displayed publicly, claiming, “I painted the man who exists outside time.” This enigmatic canvas now hangs above the bar in the Purging Room, simultaneously revealing Mircea’s serene presence and ancient knowledge in a duality that defies conventional portraiture. Neither teacher nor guru but something more elemental, Mircea creates spaces where transformation becomes inevitable for those ready to encounter their fractured selves.
Cocktails Inspired by The Purging Room
The First Threshold
(Speakeasy welcome drink. Inspired by Dion’s initial absinthe preparation)
Ingredients:
– 1½ oz traditional Absinthe
– ½ oz elderflower liqueur (i.e., St. Germaine)
– 4-5 oz ice-cold filtered water
– 1 sugar cube
– Lemon peel
Preparation:
1. Place sugar cube on traditional slotted absinthe spoon over glass
2. Pour absinthe and elderflower liqueur into a crystal glass
3. Slowly drip ice-cold water over sugar cube until it dissolves
4. Watch as the louche effect creates a milky opalescence
5. Express lemon peel over the surface and discard
Tasting notes: The traditional ritual creates a drink that’s simultaneously bitter and sweet, with herbal complexity that opens up as it’s consumed – much like Phoenix’s initial crossing into the speakeasy.
The Potter Inquiry
(Inspired by the ruby integration drink)
Ingredients:
– 1 oz London Dry Gin
– 1 oz Creme de Cassis
– 1 oz Lillet Blanc
– 1 oz fresh lemon juice
– Mint leaf as garnish
Preparation:
1. Add ingredients to shaker with ice
3. Shake vigorously
4. Double strain into a small crystal glass
5. Garnish with a single mint leaf
Tasting notes: Bright, vibrant, and slightly tart with complex notes that continue to develop – symbolizing the awakening curiosity Beatrix Potter nurtures.
The Réage Revelation
(Inspired by the amber integration drink)
Ingredients:
– 2 oz Cognac (XO preferred) or Brandy
– ½ oz Drambuie
-½ oz Tio Pepe Fino Sherry
– 3 dashes orange bitters
– 4 dashes Laphroaig Whisky or wood smoke (optional: use a smoke cloche)
Preparation:
1. Combine ingredients in a mixing glass with ice
2. Stir until perfectly chilled
3. Strain into a small crystal glass
4. If available, capture wood smoke in cloche over drink before serving
Tasting notes: Warm, complex, and slightly sweet with an earthiness that lingers – embodying the physical integration Phoenix experiences with Pauline Réage.
The Tomkins Emotion
(Inspired by the clear integration drink)
Ingredients:
– 2 oz white rum
– ½ oz Elderflower Syrup or St. Germain
– ½ oz clear crème de violette
– 1 oz fresh lime juice
– Salt and Tajin on rim
Preparation:
1. Rub rim and top side of small crystal glass with lime, roll in salt and tajin
2. Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice
3. Stir gently until chilled
3. Strain into a small crystal glass
4. No garnish – the drink’s subtle iridescence speaks for itself
Tasting notes: Initially seems simple but reveals surprising complexity as you sip –
perfect for representing the emotional integration Phoenix experiences with Silvan
Tomkins.
The O’Donohue Spirit
(Inspired by the Celtic wisdom of the final encounter)
Ingredients:
– 1 ½ oz Irish Whiskey
– 1 oz Brandy
– ½ oz honey
– ½ oz Benedictine
– 1 oz. lemon juice
– 5 dashes Absinthe
– Star anise
Preparation:
1. Shake all ingredients except star anise with ice
2. Shake until properly chilled
3. Strain into a crystal glass
4. Float star anise on top
Tasting notes: Spirituous yet grounding, with subtle sweetness and an aromatic quality that enhances the experience beyond mere taste – embodying the spiritual freedom
The Full Integration
(A final celebration cocktail representing complete transformation)
Ingredients:
– ½ oz Absinthe (rinse)
– 1 oz Brandy or Cognac
– 1 oz Black Tea infused Vodka (substitute: ½ black tea and ½ oz. Vodka)
– ½ oz Calavados Brandy
– ½ oz Yellow Chartreuse
– 1 oz elderflower syrup or St. Germaine
– ½ oz blueberry syrup
Preparation:
1. Rinse a chilled glass with Absinthe, discarding excess
2. Combine remaining ingredients in mixing glass with ice
3. Stir until perfectly chilled
4. Strain into the absinthe-rinsed glass
5. Express lemon peel over surface and discard
6. Garnish with edible flowers and Sichuan peppers
Tasting notes: A harmonious blend that incorporates elements from all previous drinks
– representing Phoenix’s complete integration of body, mind, emotions, and spirit.