The partners behind Long Island City hotspot Ditch Kills will not pursue opening a cocktail bar in the former Mercadito Cantina space, DNAinfo reported this morning. This decision follows Monday night's contentious CB3/SLA meeting in which the committee denied the request for the lounge to be called The Asphalt Jungle at 172 Avenue B.
After Jean-Paul Buthier, owner of vintage shop Rue St Denis at 170 Avenue B, spoke out against the applicant, Dutch Kills partner Richard Boccato replied that he and his partner Ian Present were "not carpetbaggers," adding, "with all due respect, sir, your accent doesn't sound like a Native New Yorker," as Grub Street first reported.
According to DNAinfo, the committee's denial "shocked Present, who grew up on Avenue B near East 10th Street, just a block from where the proposed bar was slated."
“It would have been a dream of mine to open a bar on the block I grew up on,” said Present, who added his mother still lives on the street and that his family has roots in the neighborhood dating back more than 110 years.
Present and Boccato were applying for for a full liquor license, with a 1 a.m. closing time Sunday to Tuesday and 2 a.m. on Wednesday through Saturday.
“We respect the neighborhood,” Present told DNAinfo.com New York. “We know that it’s residential, and we weren’t looking to stay open till 3 or 4 am.
“I didn’t feel the decision was actually a reflection of the desires of the community," he added.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Dutch Kills crew aiming to take over former Mercadito Cantina space on Avenue B
[Updated] Report: CB3 says yes to Golden Cadillac, denies the Asphalt Jungle (17 comments)
About Mercadito Cantina closing:'Open letter to EV Grieve and CB3' (58 comments)
Given Mr. Present's longtime history, he should know that the last thing the neighborhood needs is yet another bar, whether it closes at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m.
ReplyDeleteThe desires of the community? How about some retail diversity, Mr. Present? How about the kind of retail store that would serve the needs of its residents, such as your mother?
I agree with the previous poster. How about these guys show some respect to the neighborhood? I don't care if they grew up here or have family ties. If anything, that's all the more reason for them not to contribute to the drunken idiocy that now plagues the streets and makes life hell for the long-time residents. Contribute to the community instead of going for the easy dollar.
ReplyDeleteYeah! We need more Euro-run vintage shops! Stop every bar from opening on principle! Your mother!
ReplyDeleteOnly someone who runs a bar could possibly think this neighborhood needs more bars. There will be five places that serve beer/wine and/or liquor on this side of the block on B b/t 10th and 11th once that Life Cafe replacement opens.
ReplyDelete@ Brian Van - what exactly are you saying? Are you saying we need bars? Are you saying you would prefer a bar to a clothing store, because the owner has an accent?
ReplyDeleteHow about a small animal rescue joint on the order of Social Tees? A little hardware store? A shoe repair place to replace the sweet old Russian man who used to ply his trade on Avenue B and 13th Street? Hell, even a mini bakery or something. Why the paucity of imagination that can look at that space and only see a bar? Does that lack spring from the same part of Mr. Present's brain that takes umbrage at a foreign accent? Wonder where HIS ancestors emigrated to NY from?
ReplyDeleteI'm getting kind of bored with this "I came over on the LES Mayflower" defense for too many bars in too little space. I moved here in 1970, does that make me better than someone who came in 1980? Doubt it.
ReplyDeleteWe are all neighbors who deserve to live in peace, and get enough sleep.
Haha:
ReplyDeleteI'm getting kind of bored with this "I came over on the LES Mayflower" defense
Yes. And that applies to a lot of the commentary around here, and over at Jeremiah's, etc. The whole NYC nativism thing is really kind of creepy. People come here from elsewhere and become New Yorkers. It's what makes NYC NYC. Otherwise we'd be a vertical Boise and Boiseans would probably stay in Boise. Which would make a few commenters happy and the rest of us miserable.
Everyone deserves a restful quiet living space, everyone also deserves to make a living if they work hard. I see the call from the residents for diverse businesses, but the residents do not spend the money at those businesses for them to survive. (blame internet, blame artisnal b.s. blame landlords, whatever). As someone in the bar business, I agree that the EV is out of control, but not solely from saturation, but from mismanagement and bad landlords forcing profitabilaty only from badly run nightlife. I have a new business in Brooklyn and it is so much worse, less safe, less profitable; and the city is paying me to stay open, just to keep the neighborhood viable. Maybe these guys shouldn't be in business, fine, but the bar business isn't automatically bad because the woo croud is prevalent right now
ReplyDeleteI'm getting kind of bored with this "I came over on the LES Mayflower" defense "
ReplyDeleteI came over via Icelandic Airlines. Totally agree with the rest of your post.
The phrase "vertical Boise" is one of the most brilliant things ever posted on this site. And I will steal it shamelessly. Just sayin'
ReplyDeleteYou got some of the most erudite viewers, EVG.
heed my words: you keep rejecting small business (even bars) and you're just going to end up with ATMs and chain stores. pick your battles wisely.
ReplyDeleteI'll take the atms over the bars any and everyday, because atms don't emit a mind-numbing baseline til 4am or drunken, loud groups of people tumbling out onto the sidewalks at all hours, keeping the kids nearby from sleeping.
ReplyDeletePlus, ATMs don't pee or vomit in your building entrances, and I have never, ever seen one kick over a trash can in a fit of drunken frattiness.
ReplyDeleteIf a Euro-person were to open a Euro-run bar, Mr. Van would have no problem with it.
ReplyDelete“The whole NYC nativism thing is really kind of creepy. People come here from elsewhere and become New Yorkers. It's what makes NYC NYC” Yes, but that is not what’s happening now or since post 9/11. The transient crowd wants to turn New York into their former town, a little Madison, a little Portland, a little_________(add any college town). Like an invasive species, they are changing the ecology to fit their biomass, they are not evolving and becoming “New Yorkers”. Jeremiah lays this out quite eloquently in his blog tread “Why does NYC feel like the burbs?”
ReplyDeleteThe bigger issue here is that the small businesses that the neighborhood needs cannot pay those sorts of rents. A shoemaker is not going to be able to pay $15,000 or more a month in rent. Or a knitting store. Or an animal rescue place. Then we end up with boarded up storefronts. Hopefully, that doesn't mean that we end up back in 1985 with drug dealers and gun shots making the noise at night as opposed to some rich kids who had too many miller high lifes. It's a toss up as to what is preferable (I suppose the former since at least they keep the rents down, but the danger element is heightened). It will be interesting to see what happens.
ReplyDeleteDanger element created by one vacant storefront on one block on Avenue B? Do you have any clue about where this space is? The only danger might be from 5 am - 9 am because all the bars are closed and the 3 daytime businesses don't open until around 9. Not exactly the time criminals ply their trade. Eventually landlords cant leave spaces vacant and will lower the rent so that a viable business moves in. Take the old Superdive space, which is now an animal hospital as one of several examples.
ReplyDelete“Richard Boccato replied that he and his partner Ian Present were "not carpetbaggers," adding, "with all due respect, sir, your accent doesn't sound like a Native New Yorker," For the record, as a lifer here, I have a HEAVY NY accent. And this is a major scumbag statement by Richard Boccato.
ReplyDeleteWhy must every block be overrun with bars?
ReplyDeleteOh, and p.s.:
What a remarkably bigoted thing to say!