Hell's Kitchen residents are up in arms over the decline of their neighborhood, which, despite its roots as a gang-and-hooker filled, ahem, hellhole, has been a perfectly nice place to raise your kids for the past few years. Until now, because dastardly legions of drunk twentysomethings are getting drunk and being loud and puking up mango-flavored vodka all over the sidewalk. more ›

White Slab Palace, the cavernous Scandinavian bar and restaurant on a busy Delancey Street intersection, appears to have slung its last Aquavit: after suffering a series of NYPD and SLA-related setbacks earlier this summer, the space has shuttered for good. more ›

Open those peepers wide, cowpokes, here's your first look at Flaming Saddles, the new "kick ass Country Western Gay Saloon" opening in Hell's Kitchen Monday night with a rootin' tootin' rodeo party. We could try to describe what awaits inside Flaming Saddles, but there's no way we can top the press release, which describes the establishment as a place "where the Bad to the Bone Bartenders strut their stuff (behind and on top of the bar) & always aim to please. Customers are advised that they best pull themselves up by your boot straps, put on their Tight Ass Jeans and boot scoot and boogie on over to the Wild Wild West Side of NYC. Saddle Up for a Yippee Ki Yay MotherTrucker of a Night!" Eat your heart out, Coyote Ugly. more ›

The NYPD has released a new version of the "Best Practices for Nightlife Establishments," a guide to help nightclub owners spot criminal activity. In addition to offering advice about preventing sexual assaults and handling a crime scene, this edition of the guide has a completely new section all about spotting terrorists. You can read it in full below, but here are the main things bouncers are being told to watch out for: more ›

We're just a few short months away from not being able to drink anywhere, ever on the Lower East Side. Last night around 10 p.m. White Slab Palace, which always struck us as being considerably more low-key than most of the neighborhood fare, even on the weekends, was shut down by the NYPD per a court order. But White Slab wasn't serving to minors, as other bars in the LES have done recently to spur the wrath of the SLA. It was closed for not having a liquor license a few months ago, despite owner Annika Sundvik receiving a permit in the interim, the Lo-Down reports. more ›

The dark and funky hipster bar and music venue Coco 66 on Greenpoint Avenue was the scene of a dramatic raid last weekend, according to reports on New York Shitty and Paper. It seems owner David Kelleran has been operating without a liquor license, and local police tell New York Shitty that the precinct "did a joint operation Saturday with the State Liquor Authority... The owner was arrested and all the liquor was order destroyed by the SLA." According to one observer, $20,000 worth of precious, life-sustaining liquor was poured down the drain! more ›

There is supposedly a "furor" raging among bar owners "below 14th Street" who say the NYPD is pressuring them to purchase expensive ID scanners to help investigators track personal information and fight terrorism. At least, this is what the NY Post is reporting, in an article consisting of quotes from one unnamed nightclub owner who recalls a "high-level NYPD official" telling a group of bar owners that they "are on the front lines of terrorism... We have to be the eyes and ears." more ›

Let's not let the news that Brooklyn's Community Board 1 voted (symbolically?) against the concerts at the Williamsburg Waterfront overshadow the other distressing development that emerged from last night's meeting: the locals are poised to go through with this moratorium on new liquor licenses in north Brooklyn. And unlike the State Parks Department, the SLA has a history of doing the community boards' bidding. more ›

We first caught wind of Don Hill's by way of a downtown playwright who told us he needed to go home and get some rest instead of spending another night at Don Hill's "blowing rails off some model's ass." That such a utopia existed wasn't revealed to us until the turn of the century (we're not that cool?); by then the deliriously debauched nightclub had already been going strong for seven years, and to this day it's still a place where everyone can cut loose like a C-list rock star, or some nobody with infinite potential and nothing to lose. more ›

The NIMBY fun police in Greenpoint has put the kibosh on what was to have been the Brooklyn Night Bazaar, a 100,000 square foot arts and crafts market with a beer and wine garden, nightly performances from "emerging bands," and large scale art installations. Rowdy freaks who enjoy eating, drinking, and listening to live music outside on the banks of the river on a summer night will have to go elsewhere to get their perverted kicks this summer (unfortunately, the Water Taxi Beach in Long Island City is also on the rocks). more ›

Who cares about passing a boring old budget, when the wild NYC nightlife desperately needs policing? A recently-passed bill en route to Governor Paterson's desk would enable the State Liquor Authority to shut down nightspots if police are called six times within 60 days for excessive noise and disorderly conduct. The Villager reports that the bill's main sponsor is Democratic Senator Daniel Squadron, who represents Lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn, and who used to own a bar himself, called What Bar on the Upper West Side. But now this self-hating ex-bar owner is working overtime for the Shush Police, just as Steve Lewis predicted. more ›

Zagat's 10th Annual Nightlife survey dropped today, and the results reveal more about who participates in Zagat's surveys than about The State of Nightlife Today. 5,719 locals shared their thoughts about their favorite nightspots, and what they had to say may not shock you: these people still have money, and they like throwing it around at douchey clubs. Their five favorite places to do this are: more ›

In that Bust Magazine interview Chloë Sevigny recently did, she mentioned being interested in joining her community board (Manhattan's CB 3), saying she'd like to "help preserve some of the older buildings, try and save as many as possible and try to stop them from building as high." more ›

It's getting so you can't make a sleazy living in this town anymore: Scandals strip club in Long Island City (conveniently located at the foot of the Queensboro Bridge, no cover before 8 p.m.!) is taking the city to court to fight zoning changes forcing the establishment out of the neighborhood. According to court papers obtained by the tabloids, the lawsuit accuses the city of relentlessly shrinking the 21 districts where strip clubs can legally operate. more ›

Two state legislators from Brooklyn are leading an effort to tighten a loophole in a State Liquor Authority rule prohibiting bars from opening within 200 feet of schools and places of worship. This would save pious worshipers from temptation by the devil's spirits, and prevent their prayers from being distracted by the sounds of sinful barroom chatter. The current law allows liquor license applicants to measure the distance from door-to-door, but if the new bill passes (it was already approved by the Senate), the SLA will start measuring it from the property lines. more ›

Some people like to go to over-priced and over-hyped clubs at night where they are made to feel really exclusive and important, and right now there's some sort of power struggle going on over who owns these people. Not, like, owns. But you know... who's the sheep herder, or, as they call it, "the king of nightlife"? more ›

Six years after New York City enacted a smoking ban inside bars, restaurants and clubs, patrons of upscale nightclubs continue to light up, according to a Times investigation. Cigarettes are commonplace at venues like Goldbar, Avenue, and Griffin, the paper reports. "Everyone looks the other way," said Guest of a Guest writer Billy Gray, 25. "It's more of an illicit thrill now," he said. "Like when you were a teenager and snuck a beer in your parents' basement." more ›

Fear not people who like to drink until 8 am — the state has extended the deadline for bars looking to push back the last call on New Year's Eve. After only 165 bars applied for the special "night permit" that allows them to keep serving booze for four additional hours after last call on New Year's — a 60 percent drop from last year — the State Liquor Authority extended the deadline for the second year in a row. Bars looking to obtain the permit have until next Monday, the New York Times reports. Nightlife insiders initially said the low number of applicants was due to the poor economy and the early deadline. more ›

New Year's Eve celebrations might turn out ending a little earlier this year, because the number of New York area bars that have applied for a special permit allowing them to keep serving booze until 8 am has plummeted by 60 percent. According to the Post, the number of "night permits" that extend the last call by four hours fell from 388 watering holes in New York City, Long Island and Westchester last year to just 165 this year. more ›

The Beatrice Inn shut down earlier this year after neighbors had enough of the A-list crowd partying it up at all hours. As the same war is being waged by neighbors of the Jane Hotel, against their late night ballroom antics, word is that the Beatrice may reopen. more ›

Chelsea's Bungalow 8, home to late night celebrity sightings, is shutting down operations. CityFile reports that the Amy Sacco-owned lounge has long been rumored to be closing, but now it's really happening. They shut down for "renovations" weeks ago, but allegedly have no plans to reopen... and their phone line has been disconnected. more ›

The business group spearheading what they hope to be the next era of the Limelight—retail—presented its plans to a local community board this week and were met with a great deal of skepticism and suspicion. The Limelight Marketplace group is hoping to put a mini-mall into the onetime church whose eye-catching building along Sixth Avenue in the Chelsea is only eclipsed by the stories of the drug-fueled and freak-filled nights that went on inside its walls during its era as one of clubland meccas of the '80s and early '90s. But instead of being eager to welcome in retail stores to replace the bad reputation of Peter Gatien's club, the Flatiron community board instead came off sounding like Reverend Moore in , expressing fears that the new plan was a ruse to return to days past. The Board Landmark Chairman recommended rejecting the proposal because he worried that the retail proposal is "one big dodge to get a club going there." He also pointed to a large empty space in the floor plan that would be "perfect for dancing." The development group denied they had any intention of shaking up their plans, only saying about the new space, "There's going to be nothing else like it." more ›

Despite the efforts of Chloe Sevigny's t-shirt, it looks like the West Village's Beatrice Inn, which has been closed since April, will not reopen. The NY Post reports that in order to get the party started again, "they'd have to pay $23,000 in fines, install a fire door that matches the period exterior of the building, and put in a sprinkler system." And since their liquor license runs out next year, and will not be renewed at that time, the owners have decided to call it quits. Looks like the neighbors win this one. In the past they had complained about the club, including the late-night traffic that streamed into an apartment upstairs which was used as a VIP lounge for the often A-list clientele. Owner Paul Sevigny even moved one such neighbor into the VIP lounge apartment rent-free when he complained about the noise in his own residence, which was above the noisy dance floor. more ›

Lounge 47, a restaurant and bar with a capacious back yard on Vernon Blvd in Long Island City, has had a tough time making peace with some neighbors who say the noise and smoke from the patio is unbearable. Next door neighbor Beth Garrett and her husband have installed large signs on their property begging Lounge 47 patrons to pipe down, and a growing group of locals want the State Liquor Authority to revoke the liquor license, which was recently renewed. (The Garretts have also been accused of spraying their hose over the fence onto diners.) The current owner is now trying to sell the place, but the potential buyer wants to make sure he'll be able to transfer the liquor license. more ›