To the accompaniment of a torrential downpour, downtown Harrisburg last night welcomed back everyone’s favorite “temporarily misplaced” martini bar - Noma.  Still gone are the white couches and blue backlit panels.  Also gone are the thatched roof and wicker seating.  What’s there now is best described as a “refreshed” Mars.  It’s red.  So very, very red.

On approach I almost drove past it, thinking it was closed.  The windows are tinted over and there’s no exterior signage (though I think this is by accident rather than design).  I scored a spot in front of Molly’s and made my way through the typhoon to Noma’s front door.

We arrived around 8 to a nearly-empty lounge (6 patrons + 2 of us + 9 servers).  I figured they’d just opened for the night, so I didn’t think much of it.  What struck me right off the bat was the subdued nature.  While the old Noma (hereafter referred to as “Blue Noma”) was very chill and welcoming, the new Noma (hereafter “Red Noma”) seemed more sophisticated and modern.  The overall layout can best be described as Blue Noma with a dancefloor.  A raised seating area is to your right as soon as you walk in, with pub tables lining the left wall (Cabana’s “deck” is gone).  The bar has been slightly altered; it’s now bi-level and lacks the original bar’s curve.  In the far corner where Blue Noma’s white leather loveseats one stood lies the infamous elevated granite dancefloor.  On the left-hand side near the stairs is the DJ booth.

The granite dancefloor really has me concerned.  What happens when drinks start spilling?  You can ban drinks from the dancefloor (good luck), but people will still set them on the edge.  I’m assuming that the dancefloor isn’t *really* granite, but some sort of granite-looking composite that’s been textured or treated to add traction.  Whatever the material, it’s lit by a surprisingly good-looking super-cheap lighting rig above it.  4 moving-mirror fixtures are surrounded by an array of less-expensive fixtures like Avengers, blacklight washes, and water luminaries.  You wouldn’t want a fleet of high-end lighting fixtures in there, given that the dancefloor is smaller than Dragonfly’s DJ booth.  What *is* there works “well enough”.

The rest of the club was dressed up as well.  The ceiling has been repainted red with pink trim, red sheets of fabric hang down the center of each window, and black candles abound.  The bar even has a pink marble section and a black marble section, which is … strange.  It’s definitely a very different look than Blue Noma.

The only complaint I can make about Red Noma (isn’t that a better name than Noma Remixed?) was the LCD monitors above the bar.  There are six of them, and they’re insanely bright.  They effectively wipe out the chilled ambience of the place, making Red Noma look like a sports bar.  They’re running a loop of “noma” with different-colored tunnel backgrounds (if you’ve ever watched the LCD at Hardware Bar, you’ve seen the effect).  When the background cycles through white or blue, the entire club is washed in sunlight and any subtlety is lost.

The music is another story.  Someone mentioned that the lounge would feature a 80s/90s dance/club soundtrack, which is slightly different than anything anyone else around here is offering.  Over on harrisburgnightlife.com, I posted a message saying that if I walked in and heard CJ Bolland, Red Noma would get the floor-9 seal of approval (a highly coveted award which every venue owner desperately tries to attain).  Sure enough, within 15 minutes of arriving, I heard CJ Bolland’s “Sugar is Sweeter”.

I think Red Noma is going to do all right.  It won’t ever get shoulder-to-shoulder packed like Dragonfly or Eclipse, but it’s a lounge.  It shouldn’t be packed.  If they can hold 20-30 people on a given night, it’ll look all right.