Sources: Men Arrested Trying To Repaint Bedford Bike Lane
Video: Sad Subway Rant
Call to Ban Carriage Horses, Close Stable
VIDEO: Cycling Activists Repainting Bedford Ave. Bike Lane
Oh D'Oh They Didn't! TSA Posts Airport Screening Manual On Web
The trend of "secret," no-name, no-sign lounges has finally come to this: a West Village restaurant is operating with papered-over windows to affect a still-under-construction aesthetic and confuse the rubes. When gossip about the place, called Charles, started trickling in last year, many assumed consulting chef John DeLucie (Waverly Inn) was just letting "friends and family" try the menu while permit issues were resolved. Noting the crowd of smokers perpetually yapping outside, Village Voice critic Robert Sietsema believed "the place was being operated semi-legally as a sort of speakeasy." But now he's rightfully sick of it all, having learned that it's actually "been operating as a fully licensed restaurant all along...This is presumably done to discourage the likes of you and me from trying to eat there. Fine with me, assholes! I promise never to eat in your restaurant. Meanwhile, the boarded up place is a neighborhood eyesore." It's a righteous attitude, but there's really no stopping the whole "clandestine" lounge fad, is there? It's only a matter of time before you pass a line Escalades idling outside an exclusive construction site where diners pay big bucks to huddle under a tarp.
Village Restaurant Not Under Construction, Just Under Radar
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebookComments (12) [rss]
Post a comment (Comment Policy)
Tips
Newsmap
Contribute
Latest Tip:
lady on motorcycle hit by city bus at 112th and broadway
[more]
How silly!!
People get really up in arms over food.
"Secret" food clubs for grown-ups? This is so stupid.
Maybe the riches just don't want to be seen spending money during a recession.
perhaps they're sitting around gorging themselves on foie gras and didn't want protesters descending to throw hissy fits about it. or maybe they are just assholes.
The cheap blue masking tape really makes me feel like I'm missing something. I'm soooo jealous I can't eat there.
Like maybe you're missing out on Chinet plates and big red plastic cups?
Plenty of restaurants (especially in the West Village) have "back rooms" (sometimes upstairs) where celebrities and special guests get to eat in a quieter, more spacious area, often dining on items not on the menu, specially prepared by the chef.
I've had the opportunity to see a couple of them, and it is truly bizarre to see Gwyneth Paltrow eating a cheeseburger upstairs from the "regular" schmoes.
Anyone who does not think America has two distinct classes, so famous people don't have to be near us, is delusional. I find it as distasteful as everyone else, but there are more important things to care about.
Well, Hillary Duff was sitting at a regular table at Freeman's last night.
Not all celebrities are like that.
The ones I've dealt with @ work just want to be treated like "normal" people.
Eventually, celebrities will just be fed through a slot.
This is the most annoying place ever. I live a few doors down, and this place is an eyesore. At least Le Deaux Gamin before them was more warm and inviting when they replaced metro. But "The Charles" just caters to hat typical crowd with double parked SUV's.
Take the paper off the windows already. You aren't even from this neighborhood. At least make an effort to be part of the community, or go back to the upper west side or wherever it is you like to not be seen but be seen but care but act like you don't. Get over yourselves.