The Burger Shop, sans burgers, now open on St. Mark's Place

Well, we were a little surprised to walk by 115 St. Mark's Place on Friday and find something called The Burger Shop up and running... Most recently, Michael "Bao" Huynh ran DOB 111 and then BarBao here. A tipster had said that Bao was opening another corny-sounding eatery here... (Turns out a father-son team from Queens is running the place.)

We stopped by and learned that they opened Halloween weekend... and that they weren't serving any food yet — likely have the kitchen in operation this week ... for now, just $10 pitchers of PBR all day/night... as well as a 2-for-1 beer happy hour... and organic wines...

So far, they are keeping the Beau art on the gate that went up in January for Barbao...

Then!

Now!

Anyway, trying to recall a little liquor license history here... In April 2010, the CB3/SLA committee rejected Huynh's request for a beer/wine license for DOB 111.

The six-foot bar at DOB had six seats, and was mainly used for people waiting for tables. However, several Board members looked through the pile of signatures that Huynh brought, noting there were only 29 signatures from residents who lived on that block from Avenue A to First Avenue. Board chair Alexandra Militano scolded an increasingly incredulous-looking Huynh for not doing better community outreach, something that a well-known restaurateur should know.

Plus, this permit request was within the so-called resolution area... because there are 18 liquor licenses or so along here on St. Mark's Place...

Anyway, we don't recall seeing this item on the CB3 agenda... There was something called "The Saint Mark's Red House (TTD& G LLC), 115 St Marks Pl (wb)" on the agenda in June, but that was a scratch. There's now an active liquor license here ... and one more place for a 2-for-1 happy hour.