Muslims Threaten Breslin Owner After He Laughs Off Bar Demand

Katie Sokoler/Gothamist

The lovely-looking restaurant and bar The Breslin begins lunch service tomorrow, and co-owner Ken Friedman (The Spotted Pig) is planning on serving alcohol despite objections from the Masjid Ar-Rahman mosque across the street. Earlier this month the mosque’s leaders called a meeting with Friedman at The Ace Hotel, where The Breslin is located, and asked, "Can you move the bar?" Friedman's response makes us want to hurry over to The Breslin right now for a dram of Laphroaig to show our support (and drown out the voices):

I laughed. And the guy said, "Oh, you think that’s funny?" And I said, "Yeah, that is funny, that is really funny, because we’re not going to move the bar just because you discovered we’re serving booze." Can you name one restaurant in New York that doesn’t serve booze? I said, "This is the United States of America and we’ll do whatever the fuck we want." He said the mosque had suggested it couldn’t control the behavior of "a few bad eggs"; i.e., we could get a brick through our window.

Friedman notified police of the threat, but just to show he's not a hard-hearted man, that it's not all dollars and cents, he agreed to put a curtain over the windows so devout Muslims wouldn't be corrupted by the sight of infidel inebriation. But the curtain hasn't arrived yet, so over the weekend he actually taped paper over the windows to hide a gay wedding. A volunteer at the mosque says city law forbids serving liquor within 200 feet of a place of worship and that "not more than 200 feet is between the mosque and the bar."

But Ace Hotel developer Andrew Zobler tells The Observer, "The law is clear that in order for that to apply it has to be an exclusively dedicated house of worship, and at their space they have both residences and a restaurant, so basically, because of those uses the law allowed there to be a bar within 200 feet. Everyone was aware of that when the liquor license was granted." And Friedman adds, "They can threaten, but they can’t really stop us." Yeah, heh, what are these devout, pissed-off Muslims gonna do?

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in Food on October 28, 2009 12:21 PM

Comments [rss]

MEMTHURFKER

ENOUGH ! THIS IS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA not some fuckin theocracy that batters their women and have a book that is absolutely disrespected by violent interpretation that butchers their so called brothers,,,sunni shia etc. shit.....and now a BAR in NYC go back,,, your not wanted as enslaved pitiable slugs of humanity here . YOU CHOSE NOT TO BECOME RELIGIOUS TOLERANT GET OUT OF AMERICA

Paul

It's like the local weight watchers to ask a bakery to not put cakes in the window. I respect the choices of others but this is a bulging metropolis. don't make the mistake of confusing a few idiot muslims with the gentle faith of islam.

kimmurphy22

Holy crapola! this is the BIG apple...the city that never sleeps. Get a life and get over it Mr Muslim!

Kim :)

wow 14th street

The Ace hotel now has plants in front of the windows

so the Arabs do not have to be offended,that's a

concession,what's next? mirrored glass?

The Co-op 1200 Broadway next to this" taxi driver mosque"

surely has owners that cook pig meat,guess they will have to move.

apayne745

I'm not sure about this article. I think I agree with a lot of people here, the author of the article did a terrible job.

NYCgal1975

These assholes make all Muslims look bad.... The religion is all about tolerance' isn't it? They are soo wound up in their little archaic worlds that they think passing by a bottle of Patron will make them go to hell when they die.. Idiots...

robingee

John, let's not get nuts with the "infidel" and "Yeah, heh, what are these devout, pissed-off Muslims gonna do?" comments. You're not helping tolerance here. I am not allowed to park in front of churches but I'm not going to assume the people that go to the church are going to blow up a Planned Parenthood.

NICKFROMSPACE

Hi, I just wanted to comment about "religious freedom". You are guaranteed the freedom of religion in the United States constitution. This means that the state shall not choose which religion you practice. This only restricts the state. This does not mean that people have to respect your religion. At most, the state is respecting peoples 'right to choose' religion individually, without restriction from the state.

As far as the zoning law in the city; there is a street where I live that has a christian church, catholic monestary, jewish cynagog, and an islomic mosque in the same block, and I have always felt that this area must have been zoned for bombing.

I hope people here can tolerate my ignorance of correct spelling and arbitrary rules of grammar.

NICKFROMSPACE

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new york city flowers

I think the bar owner covering the windows is about as much respect for the customs as can be expected. I think enforcing drunk & disorderly in the area should be strictly enforced as well. Other then that it is hard to impose standards on a society built on different values.

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SilentWatcher

To all of you who are going on about the bar, the issue is not at all about alcohol. It's about pork! I followed one of the links to the Observer article and discovered this money quote: "After the recent FergusStock, a festival during which famed British chef Fergus Henderson cooked whole pigs for a rapt crowd of New York chefs and foodies, Mr. Friedman said the mosque’s leaders called a meeting with the hotel. “They said, ‘Can you move the bar?’”"

The Muslim objection came only after FergusStock and the cooking of whole pigs. That the bar serves alcohol is a problem for them, but the pigs! Oy vey! The pigs!!

Muslims are not content to let other people live their own lives. Jews don't eat pork, and they don't bug our ass about it either. Live and let live.

Rycher

The bar owner was totally justified in his response. The Muslim was being highly offensive by walking in there and asking him to move his bar, because it was against his utterly unprovable delusions that some god named "Allah" runs everything.

Make no mistake: walking in there and asking the owner to "move" his bar is a hostile and aggressive act. If you think it was a polite request you have much to learn about islam and bullying. The bar owner was standing up to the bullying.

How would you apologists here like it if I walked into your business and demanded you MOVE IT because my flying spaghetti monster god demands it?? This is the equivalent of what happened. It's highly offensive, confrontational and thuggish.

Do you realize what would be involved in "moving" the bar? Do you realize the magnitude of the task being requested of the bar owner? The costs? The time? The lost business?? Hello?!!

SilentWatcher

Friedman response is quite right. You're in America and we can do what the f*** we want. Muslims are always demanding concessions that bring us in to line with their ideology, yet, they make none to appease our sensibilities. It would be nice if they would stop hating, threatening, flag-burning, complaining, accusing us of bias and discrimination. It would be even nicer if they would respect our laws and not force their ideology upon us. So they say they don't drink. Good for them. We do. Leave us alone. If they don't like the presence of a bar, don't look at it. Just live and let live. No threats. No injuries. Else, if they bring a brick, we bring a gun. Then they'll understand loud and clear that this is America and we can do what the f*** we want.

kalaste

I don't know...I felt it was pretty respectufl that he ordered curtains and pappered the windows.

wow 14th street

If I were the bar owner of the new soon to be not trendy

Ace Hotel, I would put on the side of my hotel wall facing

the "taxi driver" mosque ,a big illuminated bottle of

Schmirnov Vodka.

It was OK for these Muslim's that own several building together where this mosque resides to almost have these

buildings collapse when they were doing illegal construction on them.The DOB closed them down for several

months till they became code compliant.

Fritzdecat

wonder how this will end...

5borough

Reroute the "Heritage of Pride Parade" past that place.

Mo

If the bar owner is smart he'll start carrying a gun at ALL times. These Muzzies WILL kill you and "go to heaven" for doing it. Islam is the enemy of mankind, and you better get used to that because if you don't, we are all doomed. Here is one girl who is doomed because the morons in the justice system think they are just dealing with a "runaway" when the ex Muslim girl herself tells everyone she WILL BE KILLED if force to return home. Count on it, she will be killed if her father gets her back:

FULL STORY