All reader-submitted photos
In the past week, at least a dozen readers have reached out about the temporary closures of the two East Village outposts of Kavasutra Kava bar.
The above photo shows the storefront on First Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue, where there are eight posted notices from the Department of Health...
According to public records, in a notice dated July 13, the following violations were logged against the Florida-based chain that serves drinks made with kava, a root that contains sedative and anesthetic properties:
1) Duties of an officer of the Department interfered with or obstructed.
2) Food containing a prohibited substance held, kept, offered, prepared, processed, packaged, or served.
Kavasutra's first NYC outpost on 10th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue is also temporarily closed.
The DOH notice, dated July 12, lists the following:
1) Failure to comply with an order of the Board of Health, Commissioner or Department.
The DOH also cited this "failure to comply" in a visit on Jan. 4.
We reached out to the DOH for more details about the closures.
On 10th Street, there are also eight DOH notices on the front window ... along with various signs with messages ranging from "Enjoy Life Sober" to "Fight for Fiji" to "Defund the D.O.H." to some hand-drawn penises and breasts ...
There are also signs promising "Back soon" and "We will be back."
Previously on EV Grieve:
• Report: Kavasutra ownership blasts educators who teach remotely, 'pussy leftists' for wearing masks (March 14, 2021)
52 comments:
I was stopped by the people who were making the post it collage, asking for my opinion. I told them I was glad the place was shut down, and their comeback was: I hope your mother is proud of you... Go figure.
This doesn't surprise me.
"It has come to our attention that we may have upset some people with our last post. We've been reading your comments and we understand how we may have effected [sic] some of you, so we want to be very clear: masks are for leftist losers. Teachers unions are trash. Women are born with ovaries. And we are doing slams at midnight tonight."
hope it closes
signed leftist loser
Wow for DOH to put so many notices of closure on the door of the establishment means they really had a problem with the place. Usually, DOH only puts one notice on the front door. The owners or staff of the place must have really caused problems for the DOH inspection staff while they were conducting their health code inspection for that to happen.
Finally the tenants upstairs can finally get some much needed rest !
Good.
Are those places primarily frequented by incels? I've always wondered.
It was a 90 degree day and was told by cute friendly barista they didn't have any kava iced but they had kratom maybe i wanna try it. I was trying to get a drink to go cuz I was literally thirsty and have had kava a few times and enjoyed it. She said kratom was similar to kava and mild. I had no idea what kratom was and made that abundantly clear to her. I had a young child with me in a stroller and was very specific that I didn't want anything strong or psychoactive. In my prior experiences kava is a very mild uplifting experience. NOT KRATOM- little did I know.
I left there sucking the vile stuff down mainly cuz I had spent $13 on it and felt like I couldn't justify throwing it away cuz it tasted disgusting.
For the first hour I felt loopy, like the beginning of a mushroom high. It had me worried as I was caring for a kid and started fearing that something worse was coming. Then after about an hour I started sweating profusely and itching, losing focus. Then I was vomiting the entire contents of my stomach violently. This lasted for hours. I think I got the kratom at 7pm and was vomiting till midnight. Every time I drank water I would vomit again. I started to freak out that I had been dosed with something gnarly or ODed. I was so upset and felt really misled. I will absolutely never be coming here again. I've been trying to contact their manager for days now.
They had multiple “Elect Lee Zelden” signs on their storefront which told me to never set foot inside or give them money. The patrons sitting outside all appeared to be extremely well-dressed real estate executives on their lunchtime, but they also looked straight out of the Albanian mafia.
Did DOH ban kava? I hope so.
Meanwhile, Kavasutra seems to have sued the city over it in recent days:
https://www.law.com/radar/card/kavasutra-6th-street-inc-et-al-v-eric-adams-as-mayor-of-the-city-of-new-york-et-al-49674973-0/
Despite public opinion, Kavasutra is a great place for like-minded individuals to hang out and stay sober. Kava provides a safe space for the community to have fun and hang out while staying sober. Everyone wants to complain about the volume and such…YOURE IN THE EAST VILLAGE?!? What do you expect? If it was an alcohol bar I can almost guarantee thered be no problems. Which makes no sense! Would you rather have jack and John outside chatting about the stock market or jack and John outside screaming about some irrelevant bs at 1 AM? Like seriously people pick your battles, ever hear of earplugs? Literally one of the most densely populated cities and you’re complaining about noise…
This place supports sober living and has a created a HUGE community and refuge for people who don’t wanna drink themselves to death or do drugs!! Kava sutra is a safe space for the people of east village
Kind of crazy how many people are on here commenting about how great it is that the city shut down a sober environment. A place that gives recovering addicts, and people with religions and cultures that don’t allow alcohol a place to go and have a social life. After being a long time supporter of Kava, and after visiting and talking to their staff and their manager, they are all genuinely great people, and it really sucks that they now don’t get to make money, and make rent, because the city shut them down for not doing or serving anything illegal. Really really sad to see people having this hateful attitude towards honestly a really great and safe environment. Sad.
The tenants that chose to live above a bar in NYC? Crazy
Why should kava be banned??
Good! They should sue the city! Looking for the laws that make Kava illegal in nyc, or in the US for that matter, can’t find them. I think that means that it’s not illegal, and I think that’s terms to be sued for harassment
Oh no!!!!!! Where are all the kids of Diplomats going to go now to hang out!? Where are they going to go to show off their new BMW's and Audis with modified exhausts!?
The people that hung out at this spot were just straight up losers and disrespectful to the entire block. We really loved it when you lit off fireworks every year and then just left all the trash on the street for someone else to pick up.
"It has come to our attention that we may have upset some people with our last post. We've been reading your comments and we understand how we may have effected [sic] some of you, so we want to be very clear: masks are for leftist losers. Teachers unions are trash. Women are born with ovaries. And we are doing slams at midnight tonight."
I noticed that all the pro Kavasutra posts on this thread have conveniently ignored this rather MAGA announcement. And several are close to the "move to suburbia if you don't like noise" mode. "Women are born with ovaries". Transgender hate right out of the DeSantis playbook? And the “Elect Lee Zelden” signs (FD, no big fan of Kathy Hochul but anyone was better than that LI MAGA POS) well, no matter what their intentions for a safe alcohol free zone, which I can dig, to hell with them. ,
Glad this place is shut down, hopefully permanently. The location on 10th was awful.
I don't remember if I've ever tried Kava; my deceased partner [sober from the 80s until his death a few years ago] and I [sober 34 years] never got into it.
Many people don't need it either way; chai, on the other hand, is a game-changer—although that also isn't what's keeping me sober.
Kavasutra is a pillar of the ev and is a great place to make friends. They have craft w/ their kava and ethical sourcing. Going to the bar is... fun, but sometimes an unavoidable "to do". Young people and seniors are friends, diversely talented ev locals from all over the world, and regulars who travel over an hour from across the city. If you enjoyed meeting someone there, you will see them again later that week.
Come to the bar and try kava when it reopens! The staff are great, they get to know you, everyone knows each other, and there's an inclusive environment. You're able to play backgammon or other games outside. You can stay awhile, it's relaxed, and it's affordable.
They have craft w/ their kava and ethical sourcing. It is legal to serve kava in nyc as far as it seems in court online and there are handful of other kava bars and it's openly sold at delis across the city...
Skip to 2:30 to learn about Kava from Kavasutra:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZtE3EzjWfA
I'm surprised to see the negative light and comments...
Some Rebuttles:
~ Is all the bad framing because of its' political views? That's disappointing. People aren't necessarily Trump flauters, and especially not the majority. but there are free thinkers... which is okay. Everyone can have their own views within reason always. It's healthy to consider another person's thoughts that are different.
~ Any type of hostility is of course unacceptable but i haven't had any bad experiences in 3 years of being a regular.
~ The bar closes at 2 and most of the time people turn in around 1. So i don't get what this is about.
Some people have achieved and maintained sobriety for years here. I hope this smooths over soon and I hope the framing of this article doesn't turn your nose to this place.
Why does a place that called out remote teaching, vaccines and mask-wearing still use a Covid-era street shed?
Im living across street from them and so glad this happened! They 100% deserve it as a consequence of many terrible things that they have done, from being loud in the late hours (this is a residential block) to casually lighting up firework at midnight. I lost on count how many times I have seen cops coming to stop their parties or breaking up fights. I hope it will never reopen!
To further understand why there is so much negativity towards Kavasutra, please open Google Maps and read their one-star reviews.
Assuming this is a true quote from the business, as commented earlier:
“masks are for leftist losers. Teachers unions are trash. Women are born with ovaries."
Big turn-off and a definite nose turner…away. There are businesses that sell things I like that I avoid in our neighborhood. And I would never spend anything in a place with statements like that.
The NYC sheriffs (two cars) had to come back several times. With a sticker on the window and one on the door - the place opened again. Continued to operate. Came back again, they opened again. Defiance. Impunity. A blight on the block. More unwelcome and unpleasant that cld be imagined.
I've seen and heard from others on the block they regularly harass others:
https://www.tiktok.com/@rosetteharmony/video/7137074606778715438
Tenants were there first. They didn’t “choose” to live above a bar.
Well said, thank you! Beth
Good. I truly hope both places continue to be shut down by the DOH. Hell, I wouldn't be mad if they shut down and Blank Street Coffee took over their spaces.
Sober bars without hateful views exist in the neighborhood. Hekate is a great spot with awesome cocktail’s especially the CBD Infused “spirits”
The places are gross, full of conspiracy theorist, "intellectual" bums but I couldn't care less about their political views, just because you are "liberal" or have an opinion on issues doesn't mean everyone needs to align with you, and it doesn't make them a bigot or whatever. Such obnoxious new way of thinking.
I couldn't care less about their political views, just because you are "liberal" or have an opinion on issues doesn't mean everyone needs to align with you, and it doesn't make them a bigot or whatever. You dont have to spend money there but they deserve to be there as long as there's a good flow of customers. Such obnoxious new way of thinking.
Pretty sure all of the pro-Kava comments above were written by either the bar manager himself aka Richard or his buddies.
Don't spend your hard-earned money at Kavasutra!!! They are seriously the worst place to be in the East Village.
Hostile manager, and rude customers that made fun of your looks & genders. Not surprised to see it's being shut down, should have been 2 years ago when they were mocking everyone walking by their bar with masks on.
The number of people who are upset about the teacher and mask comment is comical. The media has got you gassed up, like you can't even think.
What he was saying is if you refuse to teach in person b/c you are allegedly scared of covid, thus denying the children of NYC (majority poor and unlikely to be resourced any other way) an education by refusing to do your job, then please don't come chill in my crowded bar space where there is an equal threat of covid because I don't like hypocrites.
That's not right wing or political. It is just common sense.
Used to live on the same block 2-3 years ago, whenever I walked by their tuff the only two things I saw were a Lets Go Brandon flag & unwelcoming stares from their patrons. Glad that the city shut them down *clapping*
Sober bar + entitled brats + hateful views = No, thank you.
Hope they will be closed for good
This bar (including owner, manager, patrons) has been clearly demonstrating that it has no respect for the community, neighborhood and now they ask for help from the very community?
Hell no!!! Pack up and leave!
Live across from this place and it is truly awful. Such disrespect for others.
If anyone is curious, this past weekend, they were still allowing random customers inside and serving ‘to go kava’ to patrons. An employee sitting on a bench outside keeping watch and/or taking orders. Heck, when I asked
said employee if it was closed down, I was told they were taking “to go orders.”
How does one report that to the DOH? Surely if they were shut down, they shouldn’t be serving.
It’s a very niche spot that has some amazing people who go there - it’s a nice alternative to those downtown in nyc who want something fun to do and congregate without alcohol. It’s sad if they are going to be gone because it’s been a great spot downtown for many years now. They are HUGE in Florida- some great people in the network. Great location next to the park - was what downtown needed. Sad in many ways - but unfortunately that’s the city and state of NY. Be an obedient little lemming or suffer the consequences. I feel for the employees and regulars. great community.
These are the last kind of people you'd want as the face of the Kava community. I was surprised any business could get away with terrible things like what they have done, but then I saw it was from Florida and it all made sense. Please shut them down!
Kavasutra is literally the exact OPPOSITE of mahalo vibes. I will never ever give these douchebags my business.
“ The tenants that chose to live above a bar in NYC? Crazy”
Ahh, transplant mentality. Everyone’s just moved here from Ohio, just like them.
How about neither. This neighborhood was quieter before all you transplants moved in
Dylan Harrison, owner of Kavasutra: https://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/the-fake-pot-industry-is-coming-down-from-a-three-year-high-6349102
Read this article and you know what to expect from this dump.
Kava has a long-standing cultural significance in Hawaii, The American Samoa, and the Pacific Islands. Despite the majority of the crowd being liberals, Kavasutra has successfully sold noble trusted kava with lab reports for over 13 years. As a satisfied customer, I can attest that the place and community are great. Kava, also known as 'awa' in Hawaii, holds a significant cultural history and has been consumed by Native Hawaiians for centuries in ceremonial and social settings. Notably, there has been a resurgence of interest in kava consumption among various communities in Hawaii, making it a meaningful aspect of their culture.
Kavasutra is a great place for so many
Kavasutra has changed my life, I feel the camaraderie here just like my drinking of alcohol days. This place literally saved my life. I appreciate the social aspect and how comfortable I feel there. It’s truly a home away from home.
This establishment lacks class, and zero respect for its patrons, the bathroom is filthy. Their staff is rude, and the arrogance of the manager is completely offensive.
This place was great for a lot of reasons. I will miss it. I can't think of a bar space that I can go to, chill late night and enjoy non alcoholic beverages that had a good feel to it. I will legit miss it. It was a great vibe
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