Bowery Wine Company will be closed on Sundays during April

What the sign says here on East First Street anyway...

Speculating about Veselka Bowery's sidewalk cafe

We recently pointed out the Veselka Bowery signage on East First Street... Fork in the Road reported that the Bowery location will open in late May/early June... Fork in the Road also noted that this location will sport a sidewalk cafe for 30 to 40 diners. But where will this outdoor cafe live? Perhaps on First Street... thought that seems a little cramped...

More likely though... at the entryway into Avalon Bowery Place...

...across from the Bowery Wine Company outdoor space.

How bad was the Bowery Wine Company?

"it was so bad I didn't even foursquare it"

-- Part of a paragraph-long e-mail from a reader who had to meet friends at the Bowery Wine Company. The ultimate insult for 2010?

The CB3/SLA agenda looks to be a doozy in February

After a few ho-hum meetings the past several months, there's plenty here on the agenda to chew over...

SLA & DCA Licensing Committee
Monday, February 8 at 6:30 pm -- JASA/Green Residence - 200 East 5th Street at Bowery
Meeting agenda is here.

Let's take a look! (And my comments are in bold...)

Renewal with Complaint History
Banjo Jim's (Banjo Family LLC), 700 E 9th St (op)
[We need more places like Banjo Jim's...]

Sidewalk Cafe Application
Cafe Mocha, 116 2nd Ave

188 Ave A Take Out Food Corp, 188 Ave A
[This is Kool Bloo at 12th Street... they want a sidewalk bar...? Can't wait to hear what Jill has to say about this!]

Applications within Resolution Areas
Sigmund Pretzel Shop Inc, 29 Ave B (rw)

SPOT (ACO Bakery Inc), 13 St Marks Pl (rw)

St Marks PHO Corp, 13 St Marks Pl (rw)

Moon Pie Pizzeria, 31 Ave C (up/op)

Eat Pisode (Eat Pisode Inc), 123 Ludlow St (rw)

Cafe Allumette, 182 Ave B (rw)

Casa de Chabela Corp, 40 Ave B (op)

T Poutine LLC, 168 Ludlow St (rw)

Alterations/Transfers/Upgrades
Corp to be Formed, 14 Ave B (trans/op) (Butterfly)
[We reported on this bar coming here back in December...at Second Street]

88 Orchard (Robusto NYC Inc), 88 Orchard St (alt/rw/extend license to sidewalk cafe)

A&D Wine Corp, 65 2nd Ave (trans/op) (Crem Caffe)

93 Art LLC, 93 3rd Ave (trans/op) (Lit)

The Horse Box (Corp to be Formed), 218 Ave A (trans/op) (Cricket & Eddie)
[This was one of the five bars for sale in the neighborhood...rent was going for $5,200 a month]

Matsu Kado (Gaira Food Inc), 104 2nd Ave (trans/rw) (Spice)

Freemans (Freeman Holdings LLC), 191 Chrystie St (alt/op/expansion to 2nd floor, 2nd floor service bar, kitchen prep in basement)

Blvd Crash Mansion (199 Bowery Rest Group LLC), 199 Bowery (alt/op)

Corp to be Formed, 103 2nd Ave (trans/op) (Bounce Deuce)
[This is the Pita Pan place... the signage has been up...]

AR Restaurant (40 Mulberry Restaurant Inc), 40 Mulberry St (trans/op) (Antica Roma Restaurant)

Nomad (Sandwich Shop Inc), 78 2nd Ave (alt/rw/new bar, new handicap bathroom, install air conditioning, install gas oven)
[Ah! This is why the former Indian Curry Mahal was gutted...]

Barramundi (Torquay NY LLC), 67 Clinton St (alt/add/op)

New Liquor License Applications
Rivington Wine & Cheese Inc, 95 Delancey St (op)

Max (Luigi Iasilli), 36 E 2nd St (rw)

Zaitzeff (Ziatzeff 3 Corp), 194 E 2nd St (op)

Porchetta (Porchetta LLC), 110 E 7th St (eb)
[Have a beer now with your salty pork!]

New Lang Qi Zhong Hing Seafood Inc, 30 Market St (eb)

Chickpea (Chickpea at Houston Inc), 147 E Houston St (rw)

Cafe Amore Pizza (Cafe Amore of NY Restaurant Inc), 104 E 14th St (rw)

Corp to be Formed, 77 E 4th St (rw)

Kumo Restaurant (JRH Restaurant Group Inc), 214 1st Ave (rw)

Tallgrass Burger (Tallgrass Burger Company Inc), 214B 1st Ave (eb)
[214 First Avenue is the former Elvie's Turo-Turo]

So this guy walks into the Mars Bar in a green shirt with a pink sweater around his shoulders...

When he walked in, I thought he was lost. I expected him to say, "Excuse me, where's the Bowery Wine Company?"

But he didn't. He ordered a drink.

Did he lose a bet? People don't usually walk into the Mars Bar wearing yellow sneakers, green shirts, and pink sweaters draped over their shoulders.

A few people stared.



Trying to get my head around it, I've told this story to several people this past week. Their first reaction has usually been, "Seriously?" Someone asked me if the guy got his ass kicked. No. We're not in high school, though I often think I'm living in one on weekends. The thing is, we're so used to seeing entitled young professionals in the neighborhood, we hardly give it a second thought. It has been happening for years. Usually it's much more intrusive than someone simply having one drink and leaving. Somewhere last Friday, Bloomberg was likely smiling. It's still the city of his dreams, built in his likeness.



Everything is so watered down that even someone dressed like a dish of sherbet can walk into the Mars Bar. Nothing is sacred. Bloomy and the gold-mining developers have beaten the city into submission. They're vampires and they've drained the remaining drops of lifeblood from what was once the most vibrant, potent city anywhere.

But is it too late?

[Bloomy photo via]

Posts that I never got around to posting: This passage from someone's blog from a long time ago

After dinner, my girls took me to Bowery Wine Company. Bowery Wine Company is a really cute, smallish bar. A group of guys bought us all tequila shots as soon as we walked in the bar. We spent the rest of the night there talking, laughing and drinking lots of lots of shots. We stayed until about 3am and then decided to head home.

Claim: Bruce Willis doesn't own any part of the Bowery Wine Co.

According to the Observer, in a piece posted last night:

“Basically, he’s not really a partner,” confessed Bowery Wine Company co-owner Chris Sileo, one of two people whose names actually appear on the controversial wine bar’s liquor license (Mr. Willis not included).
“We’re old friends,” Mr. Sileo said of the famous action-film hero. “He lets me attach his name to the place to do me a favor because he knew it would help me. We just say he’s involved in the project.”
Given all the fuss stirred up by Mr. Willis’ supposed involvement in the place, however, Mr. Sileo might want to rethink his celebrity endorsement deal.
“I could do without it,” he said of all the recent hubbub. “I think most of it was because Bruce’s name was attached, and they saw an opportunity to get in the paper.
“I have no problem with activists,” he added. “But it is totally misdirected.”
Echoing the sentiments of fellow Bowery retailer John Varvatos—whose splashy opening of a trendy clothing store on the site of the hallowed CBGB rock club sparked similar demonstrations this past spring—Mr. Sileo said his small business is not responsible for the overall upscaling of the neighborhood.
Blame the landlords, he said; not the tenants: “If you want to direct it at Avalon, fine. But don’t direct it at some New York guy who happens to open a place in the Avalon. We could’ve easily opened down the block; we just opened there because it was a decent location and we got a decent rent.”

Bonus: Bruce Willis from his wine cooler days!

At the Bowery Wine Co. protest Friday night

Here are a few videos from the Bowery Wine Company protest tonight. (Apologies if they look as shaky and grainy as Cloverfield. Still learning the ways of the camera.) Not sure how much narrative you need, though I'll likely add some later...The fellow in the first and third video was the lone dissenter. He kept yelling "pussies go home." He also repeated, "We're republicans, and we're here to stay!" No word yet whether he was an official representative of the New York Young Republican Club.













As I note in the post above this, I was only able to stay for the first leg of the protest, which, as Jeremiah reports, continued on to CBGB/Varvatos, the Bowery Hotel, 47 E. 3rd St., then down to Avenue A, through Tompkins Square Park, and finished at the Christodora House. His Flickr pool is here. Bob Arihood was also with the group the entire time. He took many compelling photos, as usual.

Bring it on (aka GOP Hard)

The Battle of the Bowery continues...On Page Six. Yesterday, we learned the New York Young Republican Club held a monthly social event at the Bowery Wine Company, which Bruce Willis has something to do with. In response to comments made by John Penley in April, one young GOPper told Page Six, "Needless to say, we're going to fill his neighborhood whether he likes it or not. We're coming with briefcases and BlackBerrys in hand to stake our claim."

And today?

The Bowery turf war between yuppie Republicans and local lefties will resume next Friday, when East Village gadfly John Penley will lead a demonstration in front of the Bowery Wine Co. with the Rev. Frank Morales of St. Mark's Church. Besides protesting "right-wing Republicans [a reference to Bruce Willis] opening yuppie wine bars in our neighborhood," as Penley put it, the rabble-rousers will blast the court decision allowing the owner of the tenement at 47 E. Third St. to evict his tenants so he can use the building as a one-family mansion. The New York Young Republican Club, which just held its monthly social at the Bowery Wine Co., is invited to counter-demonstrate - but, Penley told Page Six, "they have to show up in suits carrying briefcases so we can tell them apart."

Anyone know what time the demonstration will take place next Friday...?

Earlier on EV Grieve:

"We want to show our opposition to right-wing Republicans opening yuppie wine bars in our neighborhood"

Looking at "a cozy downtown watering hole with an uptown look"

In the Sunday Pulse section of the New York Post, we're taken on a cozy tour of the Bowery Wine Company, which Bruce Willis has something to do with:

WHEN this boxy nouveau wine lounge (and the sterile luxury condo complex that houses it) replaced a longtime, unkempt Bowery lot in early April, owners and lifelong New York City residents Chris Sileo and Lenny Linar were befuddled to hear locals complain that their little watering hole would ruin the neighborhood. Now a buzzing after-work hangout for downtown yuppies and longtime locals alike, the 124-person haunt is a cozy downtown watering hole with an uptown look.

This "Making the Scene" feature also points out that the CD jukebox offers classic rock from Springsteen and the Stones. And a bunch actors from The Sopranos -- including James Gandolfini -- "have all but made this their real-life Vesuvio's." And the $9-$13 panini menu is an "after-work hit."

Take your VIP tour here.

Previously:

"We want to show our opposition to right-wing Republicans opening yuppie wine bars in our neighborhood"

"We want to show our opposition to right-wing Republicans opening yuppie wine bars in our neighborhood"

From today's Page Six:

BRUCE Willis is not being warmly welcomed by the anarchists, Marxists and counter-culture riffraff of the Lower East Side now that he's opened the Bowery Wine Company on East First Street. "We want to show our opposition to right-wing Republicans opening yuppie wine bars in our neighborhood," activist John Penley told Page Six. Penley, who is organizing the August celebration of the 20th anniversary of the riots in Tompkins Square Park, said, "We're getting a pig and we're naming it Bruce." The whole, roasted pig from Chinatown will be served while folk singer David Peel serenades with his anthem, "Die Yuppie Scum!"

East Village Podcasts recently paid a visit to BWC and filed this report:

BWC feels like an upper west side transplant with its wide-open, gymnasium-like space and track lighting. I’d say loft-like.. but the whole Avalon Place structure reminds me of a new development from the suburbs - spotless and well-fireproofed. Surely, there must be a few doctor’s offices nearby.

[Image Weber Anita/SIPA]