On Monday day, the CB3/SLA committee approved this transfer. According to Eater: "They didn't say much about the food but spoke eloquently about their project: they want to be really good and active neighbors."
The good news here is that this means an end to the GIANT photos of the sushi rolls and ties that Avalon Bowery Place has subjected us to for the last few years.
It's just embarrassing.
Previously on EV Grieve:
August Cardona buying Bowery Wine Company, expanding next door
Call the Cooper Square Committee and complain. This is their fault.
ReplyDeleteYou know what would be amazing? It would be amazing if August Cardona decided to serve sushi rolls exactly the size of the ones in the window in his exciting new eatery! The salivating scenesters would be goggle-eyed!
ReplyDeleteFYI! The past two CB3 SLA meetings have been videotaped. When confronted the photographer said that the company he works for was hired by a real estate consortium but he didn't know who they were and that he was just the camera guy.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting because later on in the evening the brew pub people for 14 Avenue B said that the principals were a group of silent investors and that the general manager of the proposed operation who was present said that he had been approached by the landlord of the building to secure a potential tenant.
ReplyDelete@Grieve and Anon 1:44 - The President of Avalon Bay flew in for the evening to very specifically lobby the committee for Cardona's new space. The committee offered little resistance except to raise concerns about the committment made to the community not to lease all their space to restaurants and bars and instead to real daytime retail, but they did the usual isn't a restaurant better than an empty storefront dance and that was that. The most offensive acts of the evening though were when Ariel Palitz and David McWater pushed through the transfer of Mason Dixon, to Matt Levine the dude who used to run the Eldridge, over the objections of about 5 people, including a very pregnant woman who live in the building. Palitz seemed to know more about Levine's application than he did and McWater said the fact that Mason Dixon was closed by the NYPD and SLA was somehow not relevant and the guy should be able to sell his business no questions asked. So as long as the interests of real estate developers, landlords and nightlife operators are put above the concerns of residents the LES will continue to slip further and further towards Bourbon Street.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt that the real estate people are watching everything and no doubt that they are in bed with CB3/SLA NY Nightlife Assn. committee members who are running the show by setting new standards in hours of operation for restaurants and lobbying for nightlife establishments. The cost of the neighborhood and the residents is a nonissue for them.
ReplyDeleteCB3/SLA committee member and NY Nightlife Association board member Ariel Palitz is the owner of Sutra Lounge on First Street and First Avenue. I'm assuming that the name of the venue comes from the Kama Sutra, an ancient Indian Hindu text on human sexual behavior.
From what I understand it's a spiritual philosophy rooted in love and integrity. It's a beautiful thing and a beautiful name, Sutra Lounge.
There's only one problem. I thought you had to have a soul if you followed these teachings.
This woman, Ariel Palitz will vote for any applicant that comes before the SLA committee. She's doesn't adhere to CB3/SLA policies. They aren't an issue for her because she doesn't believe that they exist. CB3 Chair Dom Pisciotta never attends these meetings to make sure that the policies are being followed.