Here then, the Lower East Side Quality of Life Improvement Plan

[The Mayor at Max Fish via @NYCMayorsOffice]

The city yesterday unveiled a new etiquette campaign aimed to douse the flames of the hellish nightlife inferno that engulfs the Lower East Side on weekends.

Here's the release on the pilot program via the city:

The Lower East Side Quality of Life Improvement Plan is a multiagency plan to improve quality of life for New Yorkers living in one of the city’s densest nightlife districts. The plan is focused on 6 blocks of Orchard and Ludlow Streets between Houston and Delancey on the Lower East Side.

Improvements will reduce traffic and pedestrian congestion on the street and make garbage sweeping routes more effective. Nightlife patrons will also see a new etiquette campaign encouraging them to be more respectful aware of their surroundings.

Residents and businesses often complain of late-night horn honking and loud voices as traffic stops due to double-parked cars dropping off and collecting passengers on narrow streets.

The plan addresses residents' and businesses’ concerns and make their neighborhood more livable, and was designed with the support and input of the community and businesses and has the buy-in of residents, business owners, workers, and local officials.

The components of this plan include:

New parking regulations to ease traffic congestion, reduce noise

• DOT implementing “No Standing” rules overnight: from midnight to 6am on the west sides of Ludlow and Orchard streets, and 7 pm to 7 am on the east sides, seven days a week.
• Removing parked cars overnight eases congestion, honking and other noise.

Sanitation sweeper schedule coordinated with bar closing times for greater effectiveness

• Street sweepers will now operate between 3 am and 6 am, to better capture all the litter dropped by late-night patrons of bars and restaurants.
• The old schedule from midnight to 3 am was less efficient, because many streets were swept before closing time, leaving hours for patrons to drop litter.

Increased enforcement of for-hire vehicles

• TLC will increase enforcement patrols to clamp down on unlicensed for-hire vehicles double parking and making unauthorized pickups.
• A 10-person squad of TLC officers and supervisors will conduct random patrols between 11pm and 3am at least once every Friday and Saturday night.

"Night Owl" etiquette campaign urging patrons to be more considerate

• Office of Nightlife [Night Mayor!] and NYPD creating and distributing signs to bars and clubs with tips for theft prevention and other helpful tips.

Here are two of the "Night Owl" signs that will appear on LinkNYC kiosks ...





"The world loves New York nightlife, but we also have to take care of the New Yorkers who live where others play," Mayor de Blasio said in a statement. "We are creating cleaner, quieter streets to improve quality of life while ensuring bars, restaurants and clubs can thrive."

You can watch a recap of the press conference here...

The city that never sleeps has to look out for the New Yorkers who live where others play. Join me on the Lower East Side. https://t.co/UYvFf1vUak

— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) October 22, 2019

So that is the plan... now the reaction...

Updated 9 a.m.

Speaking of reaction...

Office is a waste of taxpayer money, & was created by lobbyist & propped up by bogus EIS report touting all the $ nightlife brings (after lumped in w/ MSG, getting icecream at 6pm w/ your kid, & Broadway). We have a homeless epidemic, not enough good schools, trains suck! Focus! https://t.co/8aORWPKeCy

— LES Dwellers (@LESdwellers) October 23, 2019

The former Café Charbon will now be known as Hair of the Dog — or The Dog

I was at the CB3/SLA meeting in January where the committee gave the OK for the transfer of Epicerie Café Charbon on the corner of Orchard and Stanton Streets to the team behind The Stumble Inn, Off the Wagon, Gin Mill, Down the Hatch, The 13th Step, etc.

The rep from the bar made a low-key yet professional presentation, and the transfer sailed right through without any objections.

In June, Michael Asch, one of the two senior co-owners of the 13th Step and its sibling bars, told me that the new space would be "a sports bar, pub and grill, serving burgers, salads, sandwiches, etc., with an emphasis on value — both on the food as well as liquor."

Café Charbon closed in June, as BoweryBoogie first reported.

Yesterday, BoweryBoogie did some nice detective work, reporting that the new space could be a second location of the Upper West Side-based Gin Mill.

Asch sent me an email yesterday saying that the Café Charbon space will actually be renamed Hair of the Dog, "and probably quickly to be referred to as 'The Dog.'" Projected opening: Dec. 1. (For the record, Grub Street had this news from Asch first late yesterday afternoon.)

[Photo by Shanna Ravindra for New York magazine]

Previously on EV Grieve:
13th Step owner discusses frat rap, telephone booths and bar names

LES nightlife game-changer: Team behind 13th Step, Down the Hatch OK'd to take over Café Charbon space

The former Café Charbon will become a sports bar 'with an emphasis on value'

As we reported from the CB3/SLA meeting back in January, the team behind The Stumble Inn, Off the Wagon, Gin Mill, Jake's Dilemma, Down the Hatch and The 13th Step are taking over Café Charbon on the corner of Orchard and Stanton Streets. The CB3/SLA committee unanimously approved the transfer.

Yesterday, BoweryBoogie noted that Café Charbon is now closed.

The new owners provided a few details about their plans for the space during the January CB3/SLA meeting: It will be a full-service tavern open from 11:30 a.m. to 4 a.m. The French doors will close at 10 p.m. There will be $1 drafts at happy hour, a private party room and DJs on occasion (no dancing, though).

Yesterday, we asked Michael Asch, one of the two senior co-owners of the 13th Step and its sibling bars, for more about their plans for the former Café Charbon.

They hope to be open in September or October after "a face lift."

"We will be a sports bar, pub and grill, serving burgers, salads, sandwiches, etc., with an emphasis on value — both on the food as well as liquor," he said.

And how about a name, given the ruckus about the 13th Step?

"We are also planning to be sensitive to to the community as far as a name is concerned," he said.

LES nightlife game-changer: Team behind 13th Step, Down the Hatch OK'd to take over Café Charbon space

[Photo by Shanna Ravindra for New York magazine]

This one seemingly took a lot of people by surprise at tonight's CB3/SLA meeting:

Alterations/Transfers/Upgrades:
To Be Determined, 168-170 Orchard St (trans/op) (L'Epicerie Cafe Charbon)

This is one helluva transfer. Epicerie Café Charbon, with its pâté maison and moules marinières, on the corner of Orchard and Stanton Streets, will be closing... and the team behind The Stumble Inn, Off the Wagon, Gin Mill, Jake's Dilemma, Down the Hatch and The 13th Step are taking over the space.

The CB3/SLA committee unanimously approved the transfer. A few details: The space will be a full-service tavern open from 11:30 a.m. to 4 a.m. The French doors will close at 10 p.m. There will be $1 drafts at happy hour, a private party room and DJs on occasion (no dancing, though).

No word yet on the name of the new bar.

Previously on EV Grieve:
13th Step owner discusses frat rap, telephone booths and bar names

Breaking: Lower East Side is NYC's "hottest nightlife neighborhood"

Cityfile has a report on Zagat's new nightlife survey. Some 6,000 New Yorkers were allegedly surveyed. And what did they say?:

The Lower East Side is NYC's "hottest nightlife neighborhood," while the meatpacking district was named "most over-rated/or over-hyped." As for "the growing trend of bars with master mixologists," more than half of the people surveyed said it was "an excuse to charge more for drinks."

Bars/retail spots that have been sold/are for sale: Ludlow Guitars, 210 Rivington

While continuing to poke around the Tower Brokerage site...Not sure how long these have been listed.

There's quite a list, though...Such as:

As for rentals: The Ludlow Guitars space is available for $16,000 a month...



For sale: (and in contract) The old Silver Revolver at 210 Rivington.



Plus plenty more storefronts that you've seen around with the big yellow Tower Brokerage signs...and an unnamed bar on Avenue C:

Bar For Sale - Avenue C!
Approx. 1,100 sq. ft. with Backyard, Full Kitchen & Full Liquor License!
Price: $100,000...Rent: $7,500/mo...10-year lease.

For further reading:
East Village portfolio (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Dunzo Journalism

Via Guest of a Guest...:

The Bowery may be the hottest street in the city, but is it too hot for its own good? We have already gotten more than one email from very “in the know” New Yorkers that insist that the LES (Lower East Side), including the Bowery and her hip hotel and bars are OVER. As in DUNZO. At least for the “cool kids” of the city that refuse to follow trends.

Down by the Hipster's take:

What happens when someone asks a question that has already been answered years ago? ...
So yes - the LES is Dunzo, and has been for quite a long time. It certainly doesn't take an "in the know" New Yorker to tell you that. Or maybe it does, and that makes us weep.

Noted

At St. Jerome's on Rivington between Clinton and Suffolk. Via BC at NYC.com.

The Bowery is nightlife

Down by the Hipster on the new powerhouse destination that is the Bowery:

There are at least 15 bars in a 3 block radius that are packed every weekend, and we are sure that we missed a few. Add in the new hotels, high rise condos, New Museum, pending Keith McNally restaurant, Daniel Boloud's new spot, Matt and Paul's pending space in the Puck Building etc., it will hit you too. The Bowery is nightlife. It's where operators want to open, and where New Yorkers can sip expensive drinks and still step over the homeless who are sleeping outside the Mission. It's feaux authenticity that the youth crave. The Bowery. Shudder.

[Image via Art Knowledge News]