Community Board 3 is out with its May agenda. That means we now know which restaurants and bars will go before the liquor licensing committee with applications. Here's the rundown- we'll followup with more details in the days ahead:
Spitzer's Corner, 101 Rivington (new unenclosed)
Tpoutine, 168 Ludlow (wine)
Sorella, 95 Allen (upgrade to full liquor license)
There are petitions in a few of the businesses on Grand Street seeking the community's support for a new restaurant called "Grand Park." You guessed it: this is where "Isabella's Oven" used to be, 365 Grand Street. You'll recall, Isabella's was evicted by the building's owners, the Seward Park Co-op board — and then someone smashed the place to smithereens (review the whole saga here and here.)
The petition from Jesse Hartman (of Two Boots?) says he plans an "elegant eating counter/bar" and a "beautiful patio and garden." "Grand Park" plans to serve Italian tapas (cicchetti), salads, sandwiches and grilled items. Hartman wants to serve wine, beer and cocktails. The restaurant hopes to replicate European style dining – serving food late.
According to the State Liquor Authority's web site, 365 Grand's current liquor license expires in 2010. Isabella's was only permitted to serve wine and beer – no cocktails. Hartman will go before Community Board 3's licencing committee next month. In the petition he points out that he is a longtime Lower East Side resident and pledges to be "the best neighbor I can be."
There are petitions in a few of the businesses on Grand Street seeking the community's support for a new restaurant called "Grand Park." You guessed it: this is where "Isabella's Oven" used to be, 365 Grand Street. You'll recall, Isabella's was evicted by the building's owners, the Seward Park Co-op board — and then someone smashed the place to smithereens (review the whole saga here and here.)
The petition from Jesse Hartman (of Two Boots?) says he plans an "elegant eating counter/bar" and a "beautiful patio and garden." "Grand Park" plans to serve Italian tapas (cicchetti), salads, sandwiches and grilled items. Hartman wants to serve wine, beer and cocktails. The restaurant hopes to replicate European style dining – serving food late.
According to the State Liquor Authority's web site, 365 Grand's current liquor license expires in 2010. Isabella's was only permitted to serve wine and beer – no cocktails. Hartman will go before Community Board 3's licencing committee next month. In the petition he points out that he is a longtime Lower East Side resident and pledges to be "the best neighbor I can be."
Calls for more transparency, as New York begins to distribute $24 billion in federal stimulus money (NY Post)
Beyond doomsday: MTA official says curtailing nighttime service couldn't be ruled out if Albany fails to come to its rescue (NYT)
A few more details on the facelift coming to the Hotel on Rivington's restaurant (Eater)
Tonight at the Tenement Museum, "Give Us Bread," a short play about the food riots of 1917, in which Lower East Side women made their stand against rising food prices (Tenement Museum).
A group of residents fed up with idling buses and gathering crowds of passengers outside their apartments appealed to Community Board 3 last night for relief. The residents of the apartment building at 1 Pike Street and other buildings submitted a petition to the board calling on the NYPD and the city’s Department of Transportation to remove the commercial bus stop from their street.
In the past five years the community boards and the city have struggled with a solution to the problem caused by the buses. It’s been estimated there are at least 20 bus companies operating low cost routes between New York and cities such as Boston and Washington, D.C. Albert Chan, one of the group’s representatives, told us Eastern Travel and Coach USA, the companies operating on Pike between East Broadway and Division Streets, block public buses from pulling up to the curb, allow their buses to idle for extended periods of time and are unable to keep their passengers from littering and even loitering in private lobbies.
The group has also contacted the office of State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to see if he can help. We’ll have more on the Chinatown bus issue in the next few days.
Note: Albert Chan provided The Lo-Down with these photos.
Last week we told you about a new restaurant planned for the corner of Essex and Canal. A Community Board 3 committee signaled its support for a liquor license for the still unnamed establishment at 1 Essex. But last night local residents appeared before the full Community Board to protest the decision. They did not come to the committee meeting because they said the application had been removed from the published agenda. During the committee meeting, even some board members seemed surprised the “1 Essex” application was, in fact, going to be heard. Chair Alexandra Militano said she had not read the application in advance because she believed it was not on the agenda.
The people who spoke last night said there are already 11 liquor licenses within 500 feet of “1 Essex.” If there are already three restaurants/bars with liquor licenses within 500 feet of a business seeking permission to serve alcohol, the committee requires that business to prove the “public benefit” of awarding a new license. The residents said they do not want to see the area below Delancey become another Rivington Street, over-saturated with late night bars and clubs. The group asked CB3 to send the issue back to the committee, so that they’ll be able to voice their opposition.
During last week’s meeting, committee members did not seem to view the application as particularly controversial, and not only because no one was present to oppose it. The board members appeared to agree that the proposed restaurant is not in an area over-saturated with liquor licenses.
At last night’s session there was a more general debate about the awarding of liquor licenses. Most members expressed the sentiment that the infestation of bars on the Lower East Side has seriously harmed the quality of life in the neighborhood. There was a dissenting point of view. Board member Meghan Joye voiced the concern that restaurants, small businesses that fuel local economies, should not be run out of town.
Repeated efforts to reach the owners of “1 Essex” have been unsuccessful. We’ll be following this one closely. Stay tuned.
Today the New York Times got around to discussing the wonders of inexpensive cuts of meat, just two weeks after The Lo-Down brought you Essex Market butcher Jeffrey Ruhalter's cheap meat primer.
Another day… still no resolution to the MTA bailout standoff in Albany. Now no vote is expected until next week. See the story in Newsday. Meanwhile, the Daily News reports the MTA has given the union a list of 600 employees who could lose their jobs due to the agency's financial crisis.
Starting Friday, the New York City Housing Authority will ban pit bulls, rottweilers, doberman pinschers and any dog over 25 pounds at its apartment buildings. Any residents who already have dogs in these categories can keep them as long as they register with the city. The Daily News talked with two pit bull owners at the Lillian Wald Houses on Avenue D.
Rooftop Film's new season kicks off May 15 on the Open Road Rooftop above the New Design High Schhool on Essex Street. See the complete schedule here.
The Village Voice checks out some of the LES's more intertesting art galleries and investigates whether gentrification has "hopelessly degraded" the neighborhood.
The Theater for the New City has released its schedule for the 14th Annual LES Festival of the Arts. Among the featured performers are jazz composer and musician David Amram, Judith Malina of the Living Theater, Broadway actress Vinie Burrows and composer Phoebe Legere. There will also be a film festival a block party and special events for kids. The festival is May 22-23. All events are free. Broadway World has all the details. You can also check out the complete schedule at the Theater for the New City's web site.
Incidentally, we did an extensive interview with the Living Theater's Judith Malina, a living legend. We'll have a video report on her efforts to reshape the Living Theater for a new generation in the next couple of weeks.
It's come to this: State Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith says "it's not about merit… it's just about what gets us there with the votes that we need to get it passed." Yes, they're still arguing over an MTA bailout bill in Albany. It's still a city vs. suburban tug of war. The New York Times has the full saga here. Meanwhile, as predicted, the MTA says its budget woes have only gotten worse.
Banh Mi Beat: An Choi on Orchard Street, one of the darlings of the Banh Mi Vietnamese sandwich craze sweeping the city, is stepping up its quest for a liquor license. Grub Street explains.
As part of Mayor Bloomberg's "Million Trees" program, 20 thousand trees were planted in 77 parks and public spaces, including East River Park, this past weekend. See the press release here.
We've been bringing you the stories of the recession's impact on small businesses on the Lower East Side. The other day, I visited Pedro Vargas, the owner of the Clinton Restaurant, a fixture at the corner of Clinton and Houston for many years. Recently, his family was forced to put it up for sale. Pedro has lived on the Lower East Side for 27 years and has owned his restaurant for twelve.
Pedro fought back tears as he told me he felt like selling was his only option after his profits dropped more than 50 percent in the last six months. Around the same time, the economy started tanking, and as we all know, food costs skyrocketed. He just didn't think passing along those higher prices to his customers was something he could do. Pedro told me he's dipped into his own pocket to keep the restaurant open, but if he does that much longer he'll lose everything. The Clinton Restaurant has a lot of loyal customers — some eat his delicious Dominican food every day. It's a breath of fresh air on a stretch of Clinton Street that's dotted with trendy new restaurants and shops.
The restaurant is truly a family business. They all help manage the place, cook and wait tables. Pedro says he will look for another location because running a restaurant is all he knows but he is not optimistic that the economy will get any better in the next couple of years.
Owner Pedro Vargas at the Clinton Restaurant.
You can call 212.982.3222 for information about the sale of Clinton Restaurant.
If you or someone you know has a recession story, and would like to share it, please email us at: lodownny@gmail.com.
Although the spring blossoms are still in full force around the neighborhood, this weekend's high temps brought out the Tompkins Square Park sunbathers a little early. Let's hope all that pasty-white skin didn't burn!
The wait outside Clinton St. Baking Co. for Sunday morning brunch. Is it really worth all that?
Tulips and Daffodils line the busy handball courts on Houston and Allen.
State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has asked New York City's Department of Transportation to install stop signs on Delancey and Lewis Streets, near P.S. 110 – The Florence Nightingale Elementary School. In a letter to DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan Silver said, in the absense of traffic signs along Delancey, "drivers frequently speed down these streets without any regard for the safety of school children, parents and other pedestrians." The issue was on the agenda at last week's Community Board 3 transportation sub-committee meeting, but no parents showed up to speak on behalf of the proposal. The committee will take up the issue again at next month's meeting.
The intersection of Delancey and Lewis Streets, near P.S. 110
Brace for more bad news from the MTA - they're "re-forecasting" the agency's budget today, and the cuts are sure to be even more draconian than they feared just a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, state lawmakers meet again today in search of a compromise bailout plan (NY1)
He doesn't make house calls on his harley but Lower East Side doctor David Ores is making headlines for his non-profit health care cooperative for New York's restaurant workers (NYT)
Russ & Daughters owner Niki Russ Federman speaks Friday as State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, DOE Fund Founder George McDonald and Tara DePorte of the LES Ecology Center look on.
State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer came to Russ & Daughters, the legendary Lower East Side appetizing store, today to announce a program to make it easier for restaurants to recycle their used cooking oil. The Doe Fund will pick up the cooking oil for free and sell it to producers who will convert it to biodiesel fuel.
When first approached about the program, Silver said he immediately wanted to get Russ & Daughters involved. He said it made a strong statement to other restaurants and food stores that an “institution” in the neighborhood was getting behind the recycling initiative.
Tara DePorte of the Lower East Side Ecology Center said her organization has been training students and quite a few New Yorkers who have lost their jobs to help restaurants reduce their impact on the environment. The program will soon expand to East Harlem and Washington Heights. Restaurants who take part in the program are eligible for special tax credits from the state.
