Monday, September 11, 2023

On the CB3-SLA docket: Schmuck on 1st Avenue

There's a pretty light agenda for Community Board 3's SLA & DCA Licensing Committee meeting this month. Just a handful of applicants are on tonight's agenda, and most of them are below Houston. (See below for info on watching online — or in person.) 

Here's one applicant of potential interest:

Schmuck, 97 1st Ave (op) 

There's a new bar-restaurant in the works for the long-vacant SW corner of First Avenue at Sixth Street. 

According to the application on file at the CB3 website (PDF here), Miami-based bar owner Dan Binkiewicz is behind a new concept called Schmuck.
The restaurant, with proposed daily hours of 4 p.m. to 2 a.m., will offer Middle Eastern-style cuisine. The sample menu includes items such as pan bagnat sliders, hummus, pomme dauphine and a burrata stick ("a playful Mediterranean take on the corndog.") 

The application shows that Schmuck is also seeking curbside dining for both the First Avenue and Sixth Street sides — 22 tables for 44 guests ... as well as five tables (10 seats total) for sidewalk seating on First Avenue. 

Binkiewicz's résumé includes the Miami Beach cocktail bar Sweet Liberty Drinks & Supply Company.

In the 10 years since Banjara moved out in late 2013, the restaurants at 97 First Ave. have gone through through multiple name changes/concepts... including, but not limited to, Figaro Villaggio, an Italian bar-restaurant that later changed its name to Figaro Cafe Bistro Bar & Grill.

They eventually gave up part of the space to Apna Masala. In March 2015, Figaro Cafe Bistro Bar & Grill changed its names/concepts to La Esquina Bar & Grill ... then the name evolved to La Esquina Burritos and Bar ... and eventually East Village Burritos & Bar. Then Spicewala Bar Indian Cuisine. And then Mancora moved here from across the street. And...

Tonight's meeting starts at 6:30. Find the Zoom link here. This is a hybrid meeting, and there is limited seating available for the public — the first 15 people who show up at the Community Board 3 Office, 59 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery.

15 comments:

  1. '... also seeking curbside dining for both the First Avenue and Sixth Street sides - 22 tables for 44 guests ... as well as five tables (10 seats total) for sidewalk seating on First Avenue."

    WTF? Schmuck?
    Why don't they just find a larger restaurant? This is such an absurdity.
    Do you think anyone living on the Upper East side would even consider such stupidity?

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  2. As a resident of this stretch, I've been dreading what would eventually go in this space. The corner is already awful as far as crowds and visibility (bike lane, dining shed, delivery trucks), and it will only get worse. Unfortunately, nothing but businesses serving alcohol can afford these corner spaces.

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  3. CB3 will probably let it happen. such lame group...

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  4. Is there much precedent for that level of outdoor seating and on two streets? Seems like such an outlandish ask relative to anything else that I can think of in the neighborhood.

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  5. My guess is they ask for more seating initially and when offered/approved for less they take it
    Simple negotiations perhaps?

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  6. Did anyone here ever thought of joining CB3, or the predictable complaining is satisfying enough?

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  7. "joining CB3" That's funny.
    Good luck.

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  8. Yes, at 6:57 but my understanding is that it’s actually a lot of hours and it is all unpaid neighbors with what, 1 exception for the lead and office assistant kind of set up?

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  9. I'm a member of CB3. I used to attend alot as a resident and speak out alot, mostly at the SLA Committee so they asked me to join which I did. Put your money where your mouth is. I'm on the Economic Development Committee and we have been trying for years to get City Hall to approve zoning to restrict chains, promote small businesses and strike a balance between licensed eating and drinking establishments and other businesses. As we have too many of the the 3rd and not enough of the second.

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    Replies
    1. Agreed. Can CB3 refuse permits for places like this? Shouldn’t they/you?

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  10. Curbside dining GTFO, just leave the street the street. Even the sidewalks have gotten out of control cause there is no enforcement. Landlord are doubling the revenue of tenants and the public just gets annoyance.

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  11. @Neighbor 10:52 one egregious example is Rosie's, they take over most of the sidewalk on two streets, and have huge shacks on both streets, it's out of control.

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  12. Sorry, with that name the place is doomed anyway.
    Just ask the guy who closed the Ugly Duckling on Third Avenue recently.

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  13. That corner and stretch of First Avenue is already single or impassable without tables. There is no room for even one table there. They will live up to the name if they have seating there.

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