At Cafe 81, you'd better be quiet or someone will throw a shamwow at you

We've been really curious about what has been going on with Krystal's Cafe 81, the former Verchovyna Tavern aka George's Bar aka Bar 81, on Seventh Street near First Avenue.

As we reported last fall, the bar closed in September for a "vacation," with a reopening on Oct. 1 sign. Well, the place was shuttered until the middle of January. Then, without any fanfare, it quietly reopened with a happy hour.



Things apparently haven't been so quiet of late. An EV Grieve reader noted that the bar recently started a "rockaoke" night every Friday. According to the reader, "It's a live band — amped — with mic'd DJ, doing karaoke ... doors open, screams, etc. The place is packed, with a bouncer, and kids spilling into the street."

Perhaps some folks have complained about the noise... which may explain this new sign that went up on the door... one of the oddest noise signs that we have ever seen...



"Noise detector installed. Once limit is reached, a person would come down from his/her apartment and throw a shamwow at you."

Hmm. Is the sign funny or condescending?

And will you say "Wow" every time you're hit? (And does a shamwow really hold 12 times it weight in liquid?)



Meanwhile, a recent article in Philippine News offers a look at the new bar and chef:

Executive Chef Aris Tuazon hobnobbed from crowd to crowd during opening night of Krystal’s Café 81, the newest Filipino bar-restaurant in the ever-changing landscape of East Village eateries.

Café 81 is the recent reincarnation of Krystal’s Café in Manhattan, which once was a Filipino Karaoke oasis on First Avenue before a Japanese noodle bar took over the location.

Café 81’s vision, Tuazon said, is to balance popular appeal and authentic Filipino cuisine, which is a tricky challenge given the fast-paced food trends and shifting Filipino population of New York City.

When the acclaimed mainstay Elvie’s Turo-Turo closed in Fall 2009 after almost two decades on 13th Street, it pointed as much to the pressures of the economy as it did to an evolving community.

The space inhabited by Café 81 is a testament to the East Village’s ethnic and immigrant communities.

The bar has stood in the same location for over 100 years and was once home to an Italian restaurant, and before that, an Ukranian dive bar.

In the East Village, Filipinos created something of a Little Manila in Manhattan with a revolving door of Filipino businesses and residents. Their visibility was boosted in the 1980s by professional recruitment to the area’s many hospitals, combined with offers of subsidized housing in the midst of ongoing rent strikes in the neighborhood. Many longtime residents and businesses, including Elvie’s, watched the gentrification of the East Village and arrival of new condos and NYU-owned properties.

Life above Cabin Down Below

Last November, the Pizza Shop, which was next to Niagara on Avenue A and Seventh Street, closed due to high rents. Thereafter, people going to Cabin Down Below, the not-so-secret speakeasy accessed through the Pizza Shop, had to enter instead on East Seventh Street, descend the metal staircase in the alley and walk through the smoking patio into the bar. If you're new to all this, Cabin Down Below is big with the bold-faced name set (Drew Barrymore!) and has become a post-Standard Hotel destination...



Which brings us to our current story. This switch in entrances has made one East Village family's life miserable. The resident, who asked to remain anonymous, told me his story... on how he has lived in this location for 13-plus years with his wife...and hasn't really slept the last four of those months.

"We love our neighborhood. We love the park ... the restaurants ... our bodegas ... and all of the other things that we enjoy ... It is our home.

"But we have encountered a problem that has seriously affected our happiness and enjoyment of living where we do. It is a place called Cabin Down Below. We haven’t had a good night’s sleep in months.



"We live directly to the east of Niagara ... our bedroom/bathroom wall is adjacent to the 'secret' stairs that lead to Cabin Down Below. This steel egress stairs are bolted directly to our building's wall. Basically, our headboard (and my kid's bed) is directly opposite this stair. So from 11:30 p.m. until 5 a.m. (and even 6:30 a.m. on Saturdays) all that we hear every 30 seconds are people trudging up and down these stairs. Imagine high heels drunkenly plodding up and down these stairs, about 6 to 8 inches away from your head. Trust me -- turning on our two white noise makers, our fans, our AC ... ear plugs, iPods... NOTHING can drown out the sound of footsteps on steel stairs."

"We can't sleep at night. Simple as that."



"And Niagara/Cabin Down Below didn’t use these stairs (except on rare occasions) until the Pizza Shop closed. After 13 years, we have grown accustomed to the live bands, people yelling outside our windows, cigarette smoke pouring in our windows. We used to go out and make noise too, so we have shrugged all that off.

"But these stairs? It's a nightmare."

The resident has done the usual things in these situations...call 311, call the bar to complain, etc. Nothing has worked to date.

"If the owner would simply re-open the Avenue A 'secret' entrance to the Cabin, that would solve our problems. I don't want to kill their business. I am all for people having a good time. Smoke, drink, hook up -- do what you want. But when it keeps up me, my wife and my kid every night of the week, that is where I draw the line.

"We don't want to move to the suburbs. We want to raise our kid [in this neighborhood].

Since our initial exchange, the resident heard back from an owner of Niagara.

"I hope I wasn't being naive, but she sounded very concerned about the situation and promised to do something about it 'very soon.' ... she plans to replace the current steel stair treads with concrete treads. The stairs will be still be rigidly connected to our building's wall, but it should help. And if it doesn't....then we will go from there. In the meantime ... we will suffer until she makes the fix..."

We're No. 3! The noisiest neighborhoods in NYC

BrickUnderground (via Gothamist) has the story on the noisiest neighborhoods in the city... based on 311 records for 2009 (sorted by Community Boards). And the losers winners are!

1) Washington Heights/Inwood -- where 6,439 such grievances were filed last year.

2) Harlem, with 4,152 complaints.

3) Community Board 3, which includes the East Village, the Lower East Side and Chinatown, came in third with 3,637 complaints in 2009.

One EV resident told BrickUnderground that bars are to blame.

"It's not loud because of the residents but because of the bar crowd," she says. "The summertime is especially bad if you have to keep the windows open. It seems like an ongoing party in the streets."

New bar slated for 12th Street and Avenue A

In March 2006, the building housing the Raven on the northeast corner of Avenue A at 12th Street was shuttered by a devastating fire... The building has been renovated, and the storefront (pictured below last fall) has been on the market for quite some time ...



On March 15, the Raven appears on the CB3 SLA docket (No. 15 and No. 16 on the agenda) in the Alterations/Transfers/Upgrades category. The docket reads:

El Camion (El Camion III Inc), 194 Ave A (trans/op) (The Raven)

Meanwhile, according to the real-estate listing...

Approx. 1500 sq ft vanilla box with liquor license, large wraparound storefront, basement (with dedicated internal staircase), and possible sidewalk cafe.

Price: $90,000
Rent: $10,500
10-year lease

I'm curious to see how this one plays out... there have already been numerous complaints about the bar scene on the upper stretch of Avenue A... Jill has noted this... and she took this shot in front of Drop Off Service last summer, for an idea of what life is usually like here on the weekends...



Previously on EV Grieve:
CB3 to explore bar-related noise issues on Avenue A?

Observations from last night's noisy bars meeting

Is Le Souk still doing business on Avenue B?

Last fall, troubled hookah hotspot Le Souk closed after losing its liquor license in a long, contentious battle.

And this rather final sign greeted potential Le Soukers....



But, in recent weeks, that sign has disappeared. Meanwhile, all the usual Zagat/Time Out/accolades stuff remains in the front windows...along with a menu. (The photo below was taken on Sunday.) If you didn't know any better walking by, then you'd think the place might still be open. And maybe it is.



A trusted EV Grieve reader reported that Le Souk was open for business this past New Year's Eve. Said the reader:

"[I]t must have been hired out for a private party, because I understand they can't sell alcohol, but perhaps they can give it away? There were black-tie Secret-Service-looking bouncers out front too. It was just as loud as usual at 2 am ... but with fewer people, and all in much fancier dress. Not too surprising seeing as how it was NYE."

So far, we've been unsuccessful in tracking down anyone who may have been at this alleged soiree... Is this the first in a line of other private parties to use the Le Souk space?

Here comes Santa Claus...right in front of the Ninth Precinct....

A very nice event for the kids today on Fifth Street. They all seemed thrilled. I appreciate the community spirit.

Meanwhile, I did not have my sound monitoring equipment with me. At this hour around 10 a.m. or so, it seemed as if the sound was above the nominal 70 dB at 100 feet, the level the Ninth Precinct makes the bands in Tompkins Square Park adhere to...

Le Souk has really closed

On Friday, we heard that troubled hookah hotspot Le Souk had, indeed, closed after losing its liquor license.

I was curious if that was permanent. This sign now greets potential Le Soukers.



I asked Stacie, a resident who has lived nearby for a lot longer than the eight years that Le Souk has been around, for her take:

Yep -- it's closed. No dining, no drinking, no dancing, no parties. No bouncers, no crowds, no fights. No honking, no puking, no throbbing (music), no nothing.

With Le Souk's departure and the closure of Layaly, only one Hookah bar, the Horus Cafe, remains along the Avenue B corridor...

Absinthe absent on First Avenue (and Elvie's now for lease)

Jeremiah has written about the ongoing noise problems at Absinthe wine bar at 111 First Ave. near Seventh Street. It opened last December.

Anyway, I'm not certain when the place closed or changed concepts or names or whatever, but a new canopy is up at the address...



Meanwhile, up First Avenue near 12th Street...We noted a few weeks ago that Elvie's Turo-Turo, the Philippine eatery, was seized by the marshals...the "for lease" signs went up last week.

Report: No action taken yet on Le Souk (Update: "Two nights ago it finally closed down.")

In his "Mixed Use" column at The Villager, Patrick Hedlund follows up on the news last week that Le Souk is losing its liquor license. Residents who live near the hookah hotspot on Avenue B near Fourth Street shouldn't celebrate just yet.

Susan Stetzer, Board 3's district manager, said that despite the recent action, the club was up and running this past weekend.

"People that live in the area were celebrating the news, and by Sunday night they were complaining to the community board," she said.

The S.L.A. only has the power to confiscate liquor licenses and can't actually close the location. According to Stetzer, police at the East Village's Ninth Precinct had not been contacted about the ruling or asked to take any action.

"I must say, I'm a little frustrated," she added, recalling that after Le Souk's first cancellation, the club continued to operate for eight months. "It is really difficult to get any information on what the S.L.A. is doing about this."

UPDATE! Per the comments:

"I live across the street from Le Souk and couldn't wait for it to close! Two nights ago it finally closed down. No restaurant, no club, no bouncers, traffic, or underage squealers or fighters."

Previously.

Noted

Over at the Examiner, Sabrina Brody, the LA Celebrity Headlines Examiner, writes about Madonna's sue-happy neighbors upset about the noise coming from the star's NYC apartment. And then! the story goes here:

[I]t could be the general irritating whiny new fad that's started since New York City's gentrification rate skyrocketed. All these people moving to Alphabet City and the Lower East Side who proceed to complain that the notoriously grungy, loud neighborhood is grungy and loud. Hey, it's a city! A pretty tight city. The noise is part of the rush. YOU LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY.

"LE SOUK IS BACK!!"

Concerned residents forwarded me the copy of this message...

Residents of E 4th Street and Avenue B area,
PLEASE, WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!

Have your sleepless nights returned? Have you noticed that the noise and mayhem on Avenue B and the adjacent streets has returned?

LE SOUK IS BACK!!
Unfortunately, sad but true, the case against them was dismissed on a technicality and they are open under temporary license and coming up for a license renewal hearing in the next week or so. If you want to maintain your sanity and get some sleep at night, here are somethings you must do for yourself and the good of the community;

(FYI - Le Souk's Address is 47 Avenue B btwn 3 & 4 Streets)

1. PLEASE phone the SLA right now Complaint Hotline
(212) 961-8378. EVERY day counts. EVERY complaint/voice counts.
SEND your complaints and comments to the SLA.

2. If you'd prefer not to call, here's an easy link to file a complaint to the SLA.

3. As per Susan Stetzer, our CB3 District Manager, everyone must call 311 when the noise is crazy so that the complaints will be logged into the system. They will give you a complaint number which you should then send via email to Community Board 3.

4. If you prefer to send a snail mail letter to the SLA, you may do so at the below address.

PLEASE send a letter protesting this to

Attention: Dennis Rosen
New York State Liquor Authority, Zone One
317 Lenox Avenue, 5th floor
New York NY10027
Please CC: Susan Stetzer who is monitoring the situation. sstetzer@cb3manhattan.org

5. Please come to the CB3 meeting on October 19th at 6:30p to voice your opinions. Le Souk is on the calendar for that meeting.

SLA/DCA Licensing Committee
JASA/Green Residence
200 East 5th Street at Bowery

PLEASE TAKE ACTION ASAP!!!! It will only take a few moments, and the relative peace we had when Le Souk was closed - is at stake !
Thank you for your support.

contact us at: E4StBlockAssoc@yahoo.com

Photo by Yun Cee Ng via.

Observations from last night's noisy bars meeting

A few quick observations from last night's noisy bars meeting on 13th Street:

-- CB3 district manager Susan Stetzer distributed and read from the interview that she did at Jeremiah's Vanishing NY on How to Complain.

-- Looked like anywhere from 40-50 people were there.

-- The people are not happy with the quality of life near the glut of newish bars.

-- Someone asked what benefits residents get from having these bars in the neighborhood. A resident said that no one from the neighborhood goes to these bars.

-- Keith Okada, the manager of Superdive was there.

-- Mason Reese, an owner of Destination, was there.

-- Both seemed a little defensive. Okada seemed more defensive, though he didn't speak until 3/4 through the meeting.

-- Both seemed willing to do what it took to be better neighbors.

-- One resident complained about the open windows at Destination. Closing them would eliminate half the noise problems.

-- Mason said the windows are closed around 10:30 on weeknights and midnight on weekends.

-- One resident said that this was not true.

-- In response to a resident complaining about the trash that bargoers leave behind on the streets, Okada said that he takes great care to clean up in front his bar as well as the buildings on either side.

-- Okada said that he has called police twice because of loud people who wouldn't be quiet outside the bar.

-- Okada said some people just don't listen, and ignore requests to keep their voices down.

-- Upon hearing this, a resident said, Don't you sell kegs? Aren't you encouraging this type of behavior?

-- Okada said that everyone in his bar is 21 and of legal age to drink.

-- He offered to give out his phone number to anyone who wanted to talk about the bar.

-- One longtime resident said that this isn't a neighborhood that "sits on its ass" and looked at the Destination and Superdive reps and said that they are officially "put on notice."

-- A Sixth Street resident talked about the ongoing saga of Death & Company and wondered how they got a liquor license.

-- One of the organizers said that Superdive has agreed to a meeting with neighbors, and that CB3 and 9th Precinct officials may attend as well. No date was mentioned.

This is just a snapshot of the 90--plus minutes. If you were at the meeting, please feel free to add to the conversation in the comments. If you weren't at the meeting, please feel free to add to the conversation in the comments.

For further reading:
Stop the SuperNoise - Community Meeting (Blah Blog Blah)

Reminder: Noisy bar meeting tonight

As mentioned...



And is the person who wrote on the flier pro or con regarding noisy bars?

Here comes the fear again: “THEY’RE BAAAACCCCKKKK”

Eater and Grub Street have the news on the rebirth of LeSouk on Avenue B ... And here Grub Street's take:

We just received an e-mail with the subject line “THEY’RE BAAAACCCCKKKK,” and the content is indeed enough to strike fear into the hearts of East Villagers. On Monday, Le Souk will reopen its doors after six months on hiatus following the loss of its liquor license and a successful lawsuit against the SLA. But residents of Avenue B, take solace: A spokesperson tells us that while the operation will be more or less the same at first, it may become more of a restaurant once its second, clubbier location in the Horus space at 510 Laguardia, Le Souk Harem (which will serve French-Moroccan cuisine but with more of an emphasis on the French), opens around Fashion Week. Details are still up in the air (we’ll keep you posted), but this much is certain: The beast has arisen.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: LeSouk to continue haunting the East Village

Ninth Precinct meets with residents to discuss quality-of-life issues surrounding the Cooper Square Hotel

Deputy Inspector Dennis Dequatro, commanding officer of the Ninth Precinct, met last night with local residents who are concerned about the ongoing quality-of-life issues surrounding the Cooper Square Hotel.

According to Dequatro, Cooper Square Hotel officials have called for a meeting with the Ninth Precinct. The call occurred after the NYPD, State Liquor Authority, Health Department and other agencies visited the hotel on July 2, Dequatro said. Several violations were found, though he couldn't recall the specifics at that moment. (According to public records, the Department of Health issued the hotel 45 violations during a visit on July 16.)

Before hooking up with the hotel, police officials wanted to hear complaints about the hotel firsthand from residents.

Dequatro quickly discussed the nearly four pages of stipulations (they begin on Page 7 here) that the hotel agreed to in order to get CB3 to approve the liquor license. And Dequatro explained the difference between laws and stipulations, which are really just a civil agreement. Or something. If there's a violation of the stipulations, then the only recourse is to notify the State Liquor Authority (SLA), who will take it under advisement.

"Other agencies have allowed [the hotel] to open a business next to your windows," Dequatro said. "It's not going to be an easy thing to enforce...to correct. We can't work magic."

The residents, nearly 20 total (also in attendance -- Stuart Zamsky, head of the East Fifth Street Block Association, and Susan Stetzer, CB3 district manager) then chimed in with their stories.

One resident talked about the blowout this past Saturday afternoon on the hotel's increasingly notorious 21st-floor penthouse, apparently available for private events. The thump-thump-thump was deafening down on Fifth Street, the resident said. "No one could stand out there there without getting their eardrums blown out." When she went to complain, a hotel hostess dismissed her with the wave of a hand, she said.



Regarding the Saturday bash, another resident said he went to the hotel to complain, but no one would summon the manager for him. Anyway, the employee told the resident that he couldn't do anything because the hotel was paid $20,000 for use of the penthouse.

Another party raged Sunday night until 11, a resident said. A Sixth Street occupant said, "You get girls screaming off the penthouse. I can hear what the DJ is saying." And she lives on the first floor.

While Dequatro is aware of noise issues from the balcony and back garden, he was surprised to hear about the 21st-floor penthouse. "I wasn't aware this space existed until 10 minutes ago," he said. Some residents said that they were never told about plans for a penthouse during community meetings with hotel officials before the Cooper Square opened.



Meanwhile, down below: One Sixth Street garden-level resident said hotel guests throw cigarette butts and trash over the fence and into her yard.

Dequatro took the names of any residents willing to let the NYPD into their homes with sound meters during a hotel penthouse party (or elsewhere). However, the NYPD sound meters can't measure the bass coming from the speakers on the penthouse -- a source of many of the residents' complaints. The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has the sound meters for this, though that agency, with a smaller staff, takes longer to respond, Dequatro said.

No date has been set for a meeting between the Ninth Precinct and the hotel.

In the end, Dequatro said he knew what residents were going through. "I understand that there are frustrations...I understand that there are tensions."

For further reading:
Residents discuss the problems created by the Cooper Square Hotel: Meanwhile, across the street, a party for a sports car (EV Grieve)

Notes from the Backside (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Party at Cooper Square Hotel (EV Grieve)

Meeting set to discuss bars and noise on Avenue A

Specifically on Avenue A between 12th Street and 14th Street, where two new bars have opened this summer to enthusiastic crowds.

According to the information that I received:

The meeting will be Wednesday, Aug. 12 at 6:30 p.m.

It will be at the Dias Y Flores Garden at 520-522 E. 13th St. (between A and B).

District 2 City Council member Rosie Mendez will run the meeting along with Susan Stetzer, district manager of Community Board 3. They will address the overabundance of bars and the noise they cause, what can be done by residents and what is being done and will be done by Mendez's office and CB3.

The Dias Y Flores Garden.



Related:
Noise complaints? What you can do about via CB3 (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

CB3 to explore bar-related noise issues on Avenue A?

As you may know, two new bars opened this summer on Avenue A between 12th Street and 13th Street. We haven't talked much about Destination, now at the corner of 13th and A in the former Boysroom space. Mostly because we don't know much about it. So we looked it up. Here's a description from Grub Sreet:

Destination has what one of the operators (they include owners of Paladar and Iggy’s Karaoke Bar) has already deemed a “make-out corner,” and there are Jell-O shots with gummy tequila worms and whiskey-infused Rice Krispie treats.

The double whammy of Destination and Superdive (both taking over spaces that have been empty for more than a year, if not longer in the case of the Boysroom) are apparently creating quality-of-life issues for residents. Based on these fliers someone distributed on Avenue A, it looks as if the CB3 is ready to listen.



There is a phone number on the flier. I'll pass it along if you'd like it.

Updated:

Jeremiah has the following photo today... "NO MORE LIQUOR LICENSES."

The motorcycle diaries

There was a rather mysterious beeping noise on Fifth Street near Avenue A. Neighbors first started hearing it Thursday night. The source was traced to a covered motorcycle parked by the Con Ed Avenue A substation. As of yesterday, the motorcycle's alarm continued to make the beeps at intervals of 10 seconds or so.

Fewer noise complaints to 311 -- except for that increase in complaints about loud music and parties

As the Post notes today: "Noise complaints phoned into the city's 311 hot line between January and March plummeted 16.5 percent compared to the first quarter last year -- from 9,292 to 7,755 -- and city officials cited fewer construction projects and slowing commerce for the newfound tranquility."

However!

"Economic misery might be prompting New Yorkers to seek company at raucous parties. Complaints of loud music and parties surged 18 percent in the first three months of this year."

Metal plates on Houston and Pitt driving some people crazy

These fliers were spotted on Second Street between Avenue B and Avenue C -- on the buildings that face Houston. The plates in question do make an awful ka-chunk! when a car/truck drives over them. Which is about every four seconds. It's annoying... On the bright side, you likely won't be able to hear the plates, at least during the day, once the Eastern stretch of Houston gets ripped up...

And what's happening at Pitt and Houston?