Here's more information about the new Vietnamese restaurant in the works for 171 Avenue A between East 10th Street and East 11th Street.
The principals, siblings Stephan and Kimxuan Brezinsky who grew up in Stuy Town, will appear before CB3's SLA committee on Monday evening.
According to public information (PDF!) posted at CB3's website, the restaurant will be called Soothsayer, with proposed hours of 5:30 p.m.-midnight, Monday-Thursday; until 1 a.m. on Friday. They will also open at noon on Saturday and Sunday.
Stephan Brezinsky currently serves as bar manager at The Third Man on Avenue C, and previously served as general manager of Rue B on Avenue B, per the paperwork.
There's more information, including the food and drinks menu, on the PDF at the CB3 website.
Soothsayer is requesting a full liquor license with use of the backyard garden. There are signs up at 171 Avenue A asking residents to "join us as we rally for our liquor license and for the approval to open a cozy back patio."
The sign also notes that they will offer "friendly and affordable dining experiences."
The previous tenant here, B.A.D. Burger, closed earlier this year. B.A.D. Burger was never able to secure a beer-wine license for the space. After CB3 denied his beer-wine request in 2012, B.A.D. Burger owner Keith Masco reportedly called the board "fascist."
The July SLA committee meeting is Monday at the CB3 office, 59 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery.
Updated 7-14:
BoweryBoogie reports from the CB3/SLA meeting…
Soothsayer withdrew its bid for 171 Avenue. It was much ado about the rear yard space, and the applicants’ inability to negotiate with the nearby block associations. Full liquor was sought, yet CB3 advised the team to return next month with a revamped application for beer-wine.
43 comments:
I am sure their neighbors will be lining up to ululate for the joy of adding yet more backyard garden noise (until 1 AM Fri-Sat according to their application) to the already unholy clamor that pervades the EV on weekends.
...or everyone could just stop by my apartment, where the irksome neighbors were holding a noisy cigarette séance in the courtyard last night. It started at 1:45 a.m. and went until three.
Fun!
Are they trolling us?! Rally for another liquor license in the neighborhood? There's no much liquor in the EV I'm surprised it doesn't spray from the fire hydrants. How about we rally to start getting them REVOKED! I'd March for that! First up, 13th Step.
fresh and unconventional ingredients
is this a code?
i know what fresh is
what's unconventional?
perhaps unconventional spirits in the back yard (ghosts?)
sounds like a place i need not at all
Fresh and unconventional. Uh oh. Might be dog.
I looked at the menu and the food looks good. The drinks are reasonably priced — at least compared to Mother of Pearl's $20 concoctions down the street. But these guys have to understand that we're just overrun by bars and booze around here. And we've been burned before in the past by people promising to be good neighbors. And what happens if this place doesn't make it in a few years? Then there's a full liquor license up for grabs with backyard garden use. Sorry guys — I'm sure you are cool and have the best of intentions, but your flyer (I live above) strikes me as selfish.
parents have lived in this neighborhood for EVER....
i'm puzzled they would not counsel their children to do something else
i'm double puzzled the prospective owners did not complete their due diligence (problems encountered by the previous owner)....
seems doomed (rent expense just does not work)
Can we please get a ban on all future liquor licenses for the East Village, this would improve the quality of life for residents and keep party goers away from moving here and visiting. This is not Vegas, we the residents never benefit from these businesses on suffer their customer's bullshit.
If you want a liquor license, Soothsayer, "rally" for it yourselves. Jesus christ. The cuteness of this appeal is pathetic. *beautiful smiles!!* Grow the fuck up.
If he served as a general manager at Rue B then he knows the area. It's just arrogance.
If a restaurant wants to stay in busines, they need a liquor license and frankly I don't see what the big deal is. Maybe have the patio close at 10pm if noise is an issue, but if the community board bans liquor licenses because of nimby issues, this neighborhood will become dead at night with no restaurants or nightlife though I'm sure many if you would be fine with that.
I was going to say something but everyone beat me to it.
Just a few stories down from this is a story about another restaurant closing, which everyone is upset about. Yet, here, everyone is acting as if it's the worst thing that can happen. And it's not just about the back garden. Can someone explain this? Or is it just schizophrenia? Or is it just simply that old is good and new is bad (unless it's a hawk)?
Well 11:05. I diagrammed your sentence and I still don't know what you mean.
"Just a few stories down from this is a story about another restaurant closing, which everyone is upset about. Yet, here, everyone is acting as if it's the worst thing that can happen."
What is acting as if it's the worst thing that can happen?
Also, La Lucha had only been here for 6 years. We're not talking about McSorley's for crying out loud. La Lucha is NOT considered "old" by any definition. And the "old is good and new is bad" line is as cliched as "if you don't like _____ then move to __________" That is an obvious troll line.
La Lucha had a very small space. They did not have a backyard garden or a full liquor license. They were not pretending to run a bar disguised as a restaurant serving "small plates."
And please look up the definition of schizophrenia before you clumsily use it as some kind of insult.
Do they actually have a C of O for backyard use? or are they just saying that? Bar owners have checked marked yes, when actually no and the application were approved so not sure what due diligence CB 3 does in looking over applications. So patio use may not even be legal.
Our community board is run by appointed bar owners so you know how this is gonna turn out.
For residents concerned about this, and there are a bunch of us - please attend the Community Board Meeting on Monday July 13th at 6:30 pm at 59 East 4th Street. Sign in by 6:30, sign up to speak and when the item is called tell the Board your concerns. If you can't attend you can send a letter by noon to Susan Stetzer at CB 3. The applicants claim they want to be good neighbors yet after hearing the concerns of residents directly impacted by this, their response is to go forward anyway. How is that being a good neighbor?
"This is not Vegas, we the residents never benefit from these businesses on suffer their customer's bullshit. "
huh? we the residents benefit by having lots of great bars and restaurants.
the East Village has changed drastically in the last 20 years, yes the rent hikes suck, but there's so many fantastic bars and restaurants here now. 20-25 years ago all of the bodegas has inch and a half thick glass when you went in, and you could eat at Benny's, Sidewalk, or East European food.
In terms of use of the backyard - this is not a backyard like in someone's private home, but instead a courtyard in the back of a tenement. These courtyards were designed as a means of getting light and air into the rear apartments and as a point of refuge and means of egress in case of a fire. The drop ladders in the back of the buildings we live in are supposed to drop freely into the courtyard and then allow us to climb safely down and move to the back of the courtyard and away from the building. This is impossible when these courtyards are blocked with tables and chairs and other outdoor furniture. The fact that landlords, bar owners and restaurant owners continue their quest to use them for dining and drinking is wrong and frankly irresponsibly dangerous. They get away with it because the FDNY and DOB don't work together, residents don't know these issues and the systems that are supposed to prohibit this never respond. If you have ever lived above a courtyard that is now being used by a bar or a restaurant you know what I mean. This is not just about noise, which is a huge problem, but about health and safety.
I can understand long-term residents (I myself have only been here for six years) not wanting another loud bar in East Village. But for a restaurant in an enclosed space, whose primary function is serving food, why does it matter for residents whether it can serve alcohol or not? Like Anonymous July 9, 2015 at 9:51 AM said, if the patio is an issue, have them shut down at 10pm, and really a restaurant needs to sell alcohol to really survive.
That takes the cake---asking for neighborly help for something that does NOT benefit the people who would have to live above that "cosy back patio".
I show up a lot. For Kristen, and Chris and Kristoff. Because even as "newer" EV residents they made the physical effort. Please go home, I amwilling to purchase the plane ticket.
Rue B has been a nightmare neighbor for years. If this owner is was the general manager at Rue B, this place's neighbors had better get ready to hear music so loud it reverberates through the building's structure and plumbing, drunks yelling outside constantly, bar windows open to the street with noise blaring all night every night... you get the picture.
And when they call to complain they can look forward to getting told "we can do what we want," "we're not making any noise" (yelled into the phone because the live band is so loud in the background), "you can't do anything about it" etc.
Good luck, neighbors.
New people: We didn't have this problem until Giuliani raged a war on NYC's nightlife which existed mostly on the West Side and in areas that were not residential. For the most part. Once the nightlife scene was squeezed out, the proliferation of bars and restaurants servicing alcohol rose in residential areas like the East Village. It was NEVER this bad. The majority of the businesses in the East Village serve alcohol and attract QOL problems. It was never this bad. It's out of balance. How many places do people need to drink? Really?!
What, no beggy Kickstarter?
Around 8:15pm at the corner of 13th street and first avenue, outside the sushi place, I was approached by one of two little old Asian ladies asking people to sign a document at this small corner. I thought it was some form of protest or petition. When I asked, the petition was to ask the community board to allow this restaurant to have a liquor license. I refused. This is overboard.
I'll sign their petition. Where do I sign?
@Anon. 5:38 - Plenty of people who read this blog and who are opposed to yet another liquor license "made the effort" to live here when the EV was not the booze-fueled playground for idiotic yobs that it is today, who came here when the place was dirty and dangerous, the buildings abandoned, collapsed, filthy, graffiti-covered and rickety, traversing streets filled with garbage, stolen, stripped and burned cars, drug dealers and gangs, all of it presided over by a hostile or indifferent 9th Precinct. We put up with - and some of us even enjoyed - all of it because we could see what a special neighborhood it was even without a bar every 1.5 feet, and we didn't feel the apparently incessant need to indulge in the non-stop noise, fights, public expulsion of bodily fluids, screams and woos our new neighbors fill their pathetic existences - and our nights - with. This crap of you supporting "Kristen, and Chris and Kristoff because even as "newer" EV residents they made the physical effort" is just that, crap - they are not altruists or philanthropists, they are not opening this restaurant because it will benefit the neighborhood or their neighbors, they are doing it to make money, pure and simple. So please take your tiresome "I'll purchase the plane ticket" attitude and shove it way up your ass where it belongs. And just FYI, I was born in New York; I AM home.
And oh yeah - 11 bucks for summer rolls? Not what I would call "affordable".
it's a shame that the majority of people who comment on this blog never had to go into business for themselves.
Hey, no one put a gun to their heads and demanded they open a restaurant.
Yes close all the bars and restaurants. Then complain about empty storefronts. Of course you wont complain about taxes going up to offset the lost revenue as taxes are paid by others. Sit in your RS apt- spend your govt check and complain about everything.
"who came here when the place was dirty and dangerous, the buildings abandoned, collapsed, filthy, graffiti-covered and rickety, traversing streets filled with garbage, stolen, stripped and burned cars, drug dealers and gangs"
hooray for you. sorry we still dont live in the shithole 80s EV, welcome to the present where we have an actual liveable neighborhood. sorry you've gotten old, if you can't deal with people anymore there's always grubhub.
re: anon 10:09 Bars are not the only businesses that pay taxes. Clothing stores, butchers, laundromats...they all pay taxes and are not disruptive to the neighborhood.
"if the community board bans liquor licenses because of nimby issues, this neighborhood will become dead at night" -- yeah, cuz that's an imminent concern.
Opposed Bad Burger getting their liquor license - successful.
Now oppose this place getting their liquor license - again we'll be successful.
We have enough bars on Avenue A.
Thank you!
I remember when Brownies was on this block and was loud and noisy in the 90s Back then it was cool - now it's not? Sounds like a bunch of whiners here
Besides,this is liquor license for a Vietnamese rwataurant - not a bar anyway so enough with the straw arguments.
DrGecko, how about leaving racism out of the discussion?
restaurants don't stay open until 1:00 AM
Open the restaurant, skip the back yard. Seriously, is eating in a tenement back yard so fabulous, such a draw? Skip the back yard, and the neighbors will not only appreciate it, but very likely come downstairs for dinner. To everyone else, unless you've lived in an apt facing a backyard bar, restaurant garden or frat boy garden apt (as I do on E. 7th), you really can't objectively comment.
Oh boy
so, how did this meeting go?
According to BoweryBoogie:
They "withdrew its bid for 171 Avenue. It was much ado about the rear yard space, and the applicants’ inability to negotiate with the nearby block associations. Full liquor was sought, yet CB3 advised the team to return next month with a revamped application for beer-wine."
Their windows are papered over but there are official documents on the window about some sort of petition for a patio. Oh hell no. They trying to sneak this in during the cool months? People in the nearby buildings do not want this. Get the word out. Food is crap, by the way...
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