Results tagged “productionlounge”

After a bullet grazed a young woman's head near Greenpoint club The Production Lounge early in the morning of February 14th, there's been considerable outcry from local residents who say the gunfire was just the climax of months of cacophony erupting from the bar since it opened. At a community meeting with the 94th Precinct last week, neighbors gave police an earful, and this past weekend there was a giant police spotlight parked outside. Owner Joe Ariola spoke with us at length today; he explained that the lights are NYPD "protocol after a shooting," and told us that "based on the description police have of the shooter, this individual was not in our establishment the night of this incident." He continued:

Just to clarify, we have never had a fight in this place. We've never had to throw anyone out. We don't even have bouncers!... Police have told me that the girl left our place and was walking down the street when she was shot. It did not happen directly outside our place. But because we had an African-American social event that night and the shooter description is African-American, people have tied this to us. We probably do one or two events a week that have a very mixed culture crowd, mainly because we do a lot of events for up-and-coming artists, and a lot of those people happen to be either black or Spanish.

An NYPD spokesman tells us that a black woman in her 20s sustained a gunshot wound to the head around 3:30 Saturday morning after a wild shooting outside The Production Lounge in Greenpoint. We're told the unidentified victim survived, but the NYPD would provide no further details. However, neighbors who live by the club—a tacky, show biz-themed newcomer to Franklin Street's laid-back hipster bar scene—provided more background on the incident, which they say is all part of a pattern of late night cacophony erupting from the lounge.

      

Sure, Greenpoint's newest bar/lounge is an easy target; one glance at the velvet ropes, the movie tchotchkes on the walls, the furniture salvaged from some foreclosed New Jersey McMansion, and one is all too tempted to prophesy the beginning of the end for this charming little stretch of Franklin Street. But after talking with the enthusiastic, well-meaning owner Joe Ariola during the opening weekend, it's hard to be too critical. Also, one gets the feeling he's connected.