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THE '70s revival has endured for so long now that it's become more a fact of life than a fading fad. Just ask 26-year-old Gretchen Kijak of Manhattan, who thinks the music of that decade has hustled its way into her collective unconscious.
"This isn't the music I grew up loving - I was more of an Eighties kid," explained Kijak, adjusting her choker as "Disco Inferno" pulsated in the background at Polly Esther's, a new '70s-themed bar on the Upper East Side. "But somehow I know all the words - I just can't figure out how."
Kijak's Jungian theorizing aside, the decade that spawned "The Partridge Family" and the Bay City Rollers is staying alive. Tonight's WPLJ-sponsored "Disco Dance Party" at the Paramount - which strives to recapture the spirit of 1976 or thereabouts with performances by the Village People, Evelyn (Champagne) King and others - sold out in four days; to satisfy the demand, a second concert, scheduled for last night, was added.
And about one month ago, Polly Esther's (1487 First Ave. between 77th and 78th Streets, {212} 628-4477) opened its doors on the Upper East Side's scattered bar strip. On weekends, this narrow watering hole gets so packed that the waiting time on the line outside can easily exceed an hour - if management determines you have a chance to get in at all.
In terms of decor, Polly Esther's doesn't just acknowledge the '70s - it glorifies them. Beyond the bar's wall-high Sasson logo, which can be seen from the street, Farrah Fawcett (who, trapped in time, is referred to here with her hyphenated Majors) smiles toothily from a poster, flanked by Erik Estrada and Olivia Newton-John. Behind the bar, a life-size Darth Vader occasionally - if anachronistically - spews smoke, and in the jukebox, the CD options include Boz Scaggs, K.C. & the Sunshine Band and Abba.
In the middle of Polly Esther's, patrons pass through the mouth of a 15-foot-high replica of Gene Simmons' head - with linoleum-tiled tongue and beer-mug-induced chips on his papier-mache gums. From there, the room widens to incorporate a seating area lit from beneath with a "Saturday Night Fever"-issue dance floor. Just beyond it is a room carpeted with Twister instructions.
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