In spite of the rather uninviting drop-down gate and ever present scaffolding, there are some new signs of life at the former home of Two Boots Tavern. In May, Two Boots owner Phil Hartman called it quits but announced a restaurant featuring “reasonably priced food from New Mexico” would be taking over the space.
Sure enough, there’s now a petition affixed to the door at 384 Grand, seeking support from the neighborhood in advance of an appearance before Community Board 3’s SLA Committee.
The unnamed establishment wants a full liquor license and hopes to be open from 11am to 4am. In the interim, the Free Arts Society has been using the space. As you’ll be able to tell from the following recap in the NY Press, their grand opening last month was, as they say, really something:
The Free Art Society celebrated its new space at 384 Grand Street with the “Universal Heart” visual arts show that included performance art, body painting, hippies walking on construction beams, a mini-carousel, fire spinning, hula-hooping and various other granola activities. And of course, there were the naughty nurses, who stretched Moramarco and other attendees out on an examination table and gave them physicals. “We’re trying to bring more free art to people and make new friends through what we are doing,” Hillary Livingston one of the artists featured in the show said.
I hope the Lo-Down can get in contact with the proprietors of this new establishment and learn more about their intentions. Their idea of 4 am closing seems a bit odd for that space. Not much happening around here at that hour.