Last summer I had heard from the manager of Petes-A-Place that they weren't planning to reopen until October. I wondered why it would take that long. But I guess it's understandable if they're going to do zero work during the winter.
A woman found dead on an East Village sidewalk Sunday morning was known to several people in Tompkins Square Park only by a first name, Grace. She was a regular in and around the park, they added, and often slept outside.
A man who said he had befriended her in the past few days said he had called for an ambulance on Sunday morning when he was unable to wake her.
“She was a very beautiful person,” said the man, who identified himself only as Tony, “and she had a beautiful heart.”
The real story:
Tuesday we were given a spot health inspection. That is very normal in NY. Normally when you have violations, you are given a 10 day to 14 day window to resolve any issues. We received several violations but were immediately closed for the violation of a ”leaking urinal”. CLOSED. In all my years working in NYC I have only heard of immediate closings from the gross videos you see on TV. Juliana, the most organized person I know, immediately called a licensed plumber and we also notified any other experts for other violations. (A fruit fly by the soda systems and supposed mouse droppings all in the basement).
As law requires, all establishments are required to be in contract with an extermination company for monthly service. We have been in contract for 18 years never missing a month of service. Another violation was that there was not supposed to be any space where the wall contacts the floor. So we called in a specialist to spray foam in the areas that the inspector indicated. OK, so in a one day’s time frame we were able to address every violation. I personally went to the health department where I gave the case worker every certificate we have held for 18 years as well as photographic evidence to all the repairs that were made. The case worker then sent me to another building to await a letter that then gives the first case worker the authority to send another inspector to reinspect our establishment. That was a nightmare day ending in no letter.
This morning Jacqui, Juliana and I waited at 8 am to find my original case worker. I was then able to get another case worker to issue the letter that authorizes a reinspection. A few hours later a new inspector arrived. She spent 3 hours at the bar. Her final words were ”if this was a regular inspection you would of passed easily but because its a “reopen inspection” I can’t pass you. The reason behind this was that the basement floor is sand that has the potential for problems. So now the NY bar is closed the whole weekend and of course Monday is a holiday. So back to the drawing board next week. There are so many issues here. I know the landlord will not help with the costs and to put in a new floor for the basement is going to cost a fortune.
Anyone can go on the NYC health Department website and find out scores of any bars and restaurants. Last night Jacqui, Juliana, and I went on the website and put in about 50 various bars and restaurants that we know and were shocked by the gross difference in our scoring versus theirs. (the higher the score the worse thecase) Our score was a 90. 90! I looked at at least 20 bars in our neighborhood some of them citing the exact same violations as ours but not one of those bars were issued points higher then 20. We started typing in restaurants that we knew had issues of gross negligence and again their scores were lower then ours. I am trying to do the right thing. I am trying to keep my head up but that voice inside of me is screaming ” unfair”. We don’t even serve food. I have been getting texts all day about this person or that person sabotaging us. But I don’t want to believe that either. Its so negative and I would never do that to another bar.
So this is just another roadblock in life. We will keep getting reinspected and then we will open back up to the party of the century! Since the bar is closed this weekend the whole staff is pitching in to repaint the walls. the bar was stained the other day. I am trying to locate some of the wallpaper that the Milwaukee bar has to do a small area. I need to turn this into a positive and know that next week this will be better.
