[Image via Buchbinder & Warren]
On Monday night, CB3's SLA committee gave the OK to mixologist Albert Trummer to open a cocktail lounge/tapas bar at 16 Avenue C (aka 262 E. Second St.).
Despite the committee's thumbs up for Trummer — who made headlines for his flaming concoctions at the Prohibition-era styled Apothéke in Chinatown — members of the tenants association at 262 E. Second St. are circulating a petition to oppose part of the unnamed bar's plans, such as the DJ and hours of operation, approved at 5 p.m. to 2 a.m.
According to the petition:
The Community Board approved because the SLA (State Liquor Association) would approve the license and that if the board actually denied it (which they were inclined to do) it would have meant that the SLA would grant the license and the establishment could stay open until 4am. A motion was passed and the establishment can be open 7-days a week from 5pm-2am. Apparently this falls under the 500-foot rule. Since there are only 2 other establishments within 500 feet of 14 Avenue C holding full liquor licenses it makes it very easy for 14 Avenue C to secure a new license.
Albert Trummer, the new owner, is proposing to serve $1,600 bottles of champagne and there was bottle service listed on the menu that he submitted to the board – including $375 bottles of vodka and a single cocktail priced at $300. Mr. Trummer wants to have a DJ for “background music” and serve "tapas" style food, though there is no kitchen (except a "prep kitchen" which consists of a countertop).
We support the #SAVENYC mission and understand that this is a small business that wants to open. However, this particular business is completely incongruous to the neighborhood and we fear the collateral damage it could inflict on the other small businesses on the block...
Neighbors include Barrier Free Living, a shelter for homeless men and women with mobility impairments and/or severe medical problems.
The petition mentions that Trummer was arrested when he ran Apothéke. According to published reports, FDNY investigators arrested Trummer in 2010 after setting alcohol aflame on the bartop at Apothéke on Doyers Street. He was charged with reckless endangerment and criminal nuisance, both misdemeanors. After the arrest, he told the Times: "My intention was not to hurt anybody. I'm an artist. I'm a mixologoist. I'm a cook. But I'm not a pyrotechnic maniac."
Anyone interested in signing the petition can contact the tenants association via email here
14 Avenue C was previously home to Adinah's Farm, the market that closed for good last June.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Mixologoist Albert Trummer looking to bring a cocktail bar to Avenue C
I think a bar would be a great addition there, although I do miss the store that was there. Their price on De Cecco pasta was about half the price anywhere else. I always suspected that they didn't know what to charge -- nothing else was half the price.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry but only fools pay that much for liquor pour into a glass by some egotists bar keep that considers himself and "artist". Screw the residents of the East Village and Lower East Side, the rich want a hip place to destroy with just an Uber ride back home to where it's quiet and clean.
ReplyDeleteOf course the community board approved another drug dealer. That's what they do.
ReplyDeleteFinally! Now I won't have to schlep uptown when I feel like hanging with amoral Russian and Chinese oligarchs.
ReplyDeleteNever heard of him
ReplyDeleteFlaming drinks are a long American tradition, the Blue Blazer was famous in the 1800s. Much ado about nothing.
ReplyDeleteI am tortured living across the street from a bar. I don't know how residents who live in the same buildings cope.
ReplyDeleteOpposologists
ReplyDeleteFull liquor licenses are not a given even if there are only two other licenses within 200 feet. CB3 shoudl have denied and if people should up at the SLA meeting in Harlem they could have stopped this. Regardless, they shoudl have a massive outpouring to the SLA meeting. The community boards input is given great value but it's not impossible to stop without their support.
ReplyDeleteHello Anonymous who likes to write about me/Tower. Are you the one who was taking notes and sat near me by the aisle? Some of what you say above is accurate but given that you will likely continue to blog about Tower let me point out a few corrections. Alex Picken and I are no longer working together so the DBA Tower Picken is no longer in use. DBA on 1st Ave is doing great and many long time costumers and new friends greatly appreciate the place. I have been managing real estate here since 1988 and almost all of my long time tenants will be happy to meet you so you can accurately describe how they are treated by their landlord and not spew whatever BS pops into your head. If you think the commercial rent I charge is affecting other commercial spaces you simply have no data or coherent thought process that supports your statement. Do you have the courage to reveal your name? I bet not! Bob Perl
ReplyDeleteEchoing the first commenter, I actually don't think a bar here is the worst outcome. It's a very bleak, desolate area right now and could use some commercial activity. But as I am hearing these plans develop, it just doesn't feel right for the neighborhood. Many nicer cocktail bars (thinking of some further up Avenue C like Evelyn or Louis/Mace) are not loud nor do they spew out drunks at all hours. I am sad to see that is not what is planned for this corner after all but something more club-like that can only cause problems for area residents.
ReplyDeleteThank you Bob Perl. Some of problems we are facing in the area are the proliferations of nightlife, destabilization, buyouts, upscaling, commercial leasing to chain stores/high end restaurants/cocktail lounges, bulk asset sales, Icon Realty, jakobson Properties, Croman, etc.... You seem to be involved with all of these ones. No big whoop.
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous 1:11pm
ReplyDeleteSounds like the tenants at this building aren't too happy about the likely issues this commercial tenant is going to cause them and the rest of the businesses on the block as they are the ones who launched the petition.
Uh uh. Bars, clubs, lounges, liquor licenses don't make for an active vibrant neighborhood. There may only be two licenses around this corner but the East Village is swamped with an over abundance of these elements and sorely lacking in a truly vibrant mix of businesses that make for a strong healthy neighborhood. Liquor licenses aren't what made/make NYC great- diversity and quality of life for a broad range of people are.
ReplyDeleteGeez how original - saw that coming. Vibrant for who?
ReplyDelete@ 12:05 pm - you are correct that the SLA does not have to take the recommendation of the CB, but they often do so it might be better for the residents to attend the Full Board Meeting and ask the Full Board to weigh in on the matter. The Full Board might come to a different conclusion. I guess technically the SLA would have to approve a license that isn't subject to the 500 foot rule because there are only two licenses within 500 feet, but they might have some standing to deny based on the applicant. Remember this guy was charged with setting fire to the bar at the last place he ran. He even plead guilty to a lesser charge. It would be better to get the CB to deny and then go to the SLA, then to just go to the SLA, but that certainly is an option.
ReplyDelete@4:50 STFU. No one likes stupid amounts of noise all the time. Stop trying to fake it to fit in..
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see some commercial activity on this dark and empty corner typically occupied only by the homeless from the Barrier Free Shelter. This lounge appears to be low key, not some late night dancing club. I look forward to feeling safer walking home at night.
ReplyDelete"If you don't want to live in an active, vibrant neighborhood with bars and restaurants, move to the fucking suburbs."
ReplyDeleteAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Mommy make it stop!
This is an interesting piece from The Villager.
ReplyDeletehttp://thevillager.com/2015/03/12/forum-on-small-businesses-offers-a-solution-within-reach/
"Rounding out the panel and providing a landlord’s perspective was Robert Perl, president of Tower Realty, whose business is centered in the East Village. Perl warned the other panel members that any solution could have unintended consequences.
He also said that rent is often only 10 percent of a restaurant’s costs, for example.
“We have to ask ourselves what we are trying to preserve,” Perl added, noting that mom-and-pop businesses keep changing hands, making it impractical to lock in leases for 10 years.
But the other panelists were eager to rebut his statements, all of them arguing forcefully that lease renewals are unquestionably the deciding factor on whether small businesses survive or go under.
Yet, Perl said he couldn’t see any easy answers.
“New York is a magnet for money from all over the world and I don’t see that anything will stop it,” he said, implying that rising commercial rents are inevitable.
The only solution he could offer was that people should patronize and support the small businesses that they value."