The trend of "secret," no-name, no-sign lounges has finally come to this: a West Village restaurant is operating with papered-over windows to affect a still-under-construction aesthetic and confuse the rubes. When gossip about the place, called Charles, started trickling in last year, many assumed consulting chef John DeLucie (Waverly Inn) was just letting "friends and family" try the menu while permit issues were resolved. Noting the crowd of smokers perpetually yapping outside, Village Voice critic Robert Sietsema believed "the place was being operated semi-legally as a sort of speakeasy." But now he's rightfully sick of it all, having learned that it's actually "been operating as a fully licensed restaurant all along...This is presumably done to discourage the likes of you and me from trying to eat there. Fine with me, assholes! I promise never to eat in your restaurant. Meanwhile, the boarded up place is a neighborhood eyesore." It's a righteous attitude, but there's really no stopping the whole "clandestine" lounge fad, is there? It's only a matter of time before you pass a line Escalades idling outside an exclusive construction site where diners pay big bucks to huddle under a tarp.