Last night’s meeting of Community Board 3’s SLA Committee was mercifully short and uneventful. But a few liquor license applications did catch our eye. For example, Rob Shamlian (Fat Baby, Mason Dixon, Los Feliz) and Frank Vivolo (Bruschetteria) got the go-ahead for their oyster bar at 87 Stanton. As Bowery Boogie reported recently, they’re taking the ground floor of the Slipper Room’s new building.
The place will be open from noon until 4am. There will be an “open facade” but the windows will be closed at 10pm each night. The restaurant will have about 70 seats and a 25 foot bar. Shamlian said his group held three information sessions with neighbors and collected 85 signatures in support. He said the menu will be very-seafood centric, focused on an extensive raw bar. He mentioned soft shell crab.
There was also a proposal from a group hoping to open a Vietnamese restaurant at 185 Orchard, the ground floor of the Thompson LES Hotel. They would be transferring the license from “On the C Pub,” at 129 Avenue C. Both locations are in “resolution areas,” in which the community board restricts new liquor licenses. But at least two CB3 members noted the high vacancy rate on Orchard Street and its negative effect on the neighborhood. The landlord, Serge Hoyda, also owns the stalled “hell building” across the street, 180 Orchard. The committee voted to approve the license request.
During the discussion about Orchard Street, board members made reference to a proposal from Ron Castellano (Forward Building, Hester Street Fair) to bring an outdoor market to this stretch of Orchard Street. We should be hearing more about this sometime soon.
Also, the operators of Mamjuana, the popular/controversial Inwood restaurant, trying to open a second location in the old Tonic space (107 Norfolk) withdrew their application. As DNA Info reported last month, the night spot has drawn noise and crowd complaints uptown. Owner Victor Osorio said he didn’t think he’d have “any problems with the (LES) community.” But after informal questioning from CB3 members before last night’s meeting even began, the Mamajuana team apparently decided to regroup.
I don’t have a big opinion about bars on Ave C or Orchard Street, but honestly, the idea that a liquor license would “move” from one place to another is a crock of shit. One minute after they close the place on Avenue C (if they do) there will be another “transfer” license application that will get the green light because memories are short and promises are empty.
They may have short memories but we don’t! The applicant made the “moving licenses from one location to another” argument. The committee seemed to be more fixated on the plight of Orchard Street. In effect- they said the “public benefit” would be opening a restaurant on a street with many vacancies. I didn’t catch the exact wording of the resolution. We’ll get a look at it during the full board meeting at the end of the month.