April 28, 2008
Unlucky Luna Lounge Targeted by DoH
Is Luna Lounge the latest casualty of the Department of Health? Eater reports that the venue "was shuttered on Friday and has yet to re-open." Recently another Williamsburg fixture, Sound Fix, was forced to close its doors after being harassed by the DoH -- they told us the irony of being "shut down for not having a food permit - and WE DON'T SELL FOOD! Ice is considered food in the health dept's eyes, I kid you not."
Their problem was rooted in some nit-picky neighbor noise complaints, and it seems like the same thing is happening to Studio B. Reportedly, Luna Lounge was "cited for operating without a permit on 3/7 and were given time to renew. They will not be allowed to reopen until they pay their fine, get their permit, and pass their reopening inspection."
With Music Hall of Williamsburg thriving in the old North Six space, and the Galapagos space getting taken over by Southpaw owner Matt Roff, some wonder if Luna's 300+ capacity space will be able to survive with or without the latest DoH problems. A request for a comment from owner Rob Sacher wasn't immediately returned.
Photo via irockiroll's Flickr.
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I'm more than happy to support the Luna Lounge, should it re-open.
ice can be contaminated very easily... bare hands touching it for one... and the water, the water!!!
I'm all for controlling noise problems, but this "ice is food" technicality is highly suspicious. I'd rather live near a noisy club than a police state with no accountability to the law. Earplugs are cheaper than lawyers.
Unfortunately, New York police like to act as a law unto themselves. At the same time, they're too incompetent to avoid killing you with 50 bullets on the day of your wedding.
There was an article in the NYT about bars needing to follow the DOH guidelines. They also could be targeted by someone. Maybe another venue?
maybe the nice luxury condos nearing completion in "edgy" williamsburg who don't want noisy neighbors upsetting the yuppies?
same reason there's 3287423083 cops on every corner there lately. they want to clean things up before these people arrive. gaurantee it.
Seriously, how could it be that a bar owner doesn't know that a bar has to have a food permit. Yeah, ice , water, beer, wine, vodka... it's all food under health laws, which cover essentially anything intended for human consumption.
So it's not that they need a food permit because they put ice in drinks (though that makes for a nice "outrageous" sound bite); it's because they make and pour the drinks to begin with.