Well, we hope it was fun while it lasted? The beleaguered Juliet Supperclub, currently closed amidst a legal dispute, may never again open its doors. Cue the tiny violins for all the big douchebags who loved it. The Real Deal reports that the club has chosen to withdraw a lawsuit it filed in an attempt to stop eviction proceedings started by its landlord.
The Juliet Supperclub Probably Isn't Coming Back
New SLA Map Hopes To Make Tracking "Bad" Bars Easier
Neighborhood NIMBYs are about to get a new tool in their arsenal. DNAinfo reports that the New York State Liquor Authority is getting ready to launch an interactive map this month that will let you see what your local bars have been up to (along with any bar in the State). Better than having to file a FOIL-request just to find out if anyone else has been whining about that noisy bar on the block!
The Bostonization Of NYC: More Neighborhoods Demand Bars Close At 2 AM
One of the things that used to make New York City great is that all the bars stayed open until 4 a.m., so you could support your local businesses long after residents of other more provincial cities had tucked their dainty livers into bed. But more and more—and especially in Manhattan—2 a.m. is becoming the norm for last call, because local community boards are withholding liquor license approval unless barkeeps agree to shut down early. We've seen this happen all over the Lower East Side, the Meatpacking District, and Tribeca, and now Harlem is the latest part of town to demand veritably Bostonesque hours of operation.
SLA Now Investigating The Beleaguered Juliet Supper Club
Eyes, look your last! Arms, take your last embrace! The Juliet Supper Club may not be long for this world. Police are still investigating, and have yet to make any arrests relating to, the shooting that took place at the celebrity-filled Chelsea club on Monday night and in the meantime it is closed indefinitely. And, possibly worse for the beleaguered hotspot, the State Liquor Authority is now investigating the club. considering there have been two deaths there since September, the SLA may well soon seal its fate with a righteous kiss.
UWS Residents Claim Noisy Restaurant Is Acting Like A Club
Tolerating the noise that spills out of bars and clubs is part of the city's social compact with its residents. We get to brag about living near fantastic amenities that we scream about to 911 every other week, and the restaurants pledge to "work with communities" by blasting Sean Paul and selling $2 jello shots between 12-2 a.m. But both the UWS and Inwood locations of Papasito Mexican Grill are drawing ire usually reserved for the "UNTZ-UNTZ" establishments. "I've been here 35 years, I've seen a lot of stuff come and go," UWS resident Kevin Krajick tells DNAinfo, "This is one of the worst things that's happened to the neighborhood."
Pour One Out For White Slab Palace, Victim Of Nightlife "Harassment"
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.
Drink DURING The Movies At Nitehawk Cinema, Starting Tonight With Midnight Rum Diary Screening
The dream of drinking alcohol legally and without shame inside a movie theater in NYC will at last be realized tonight at Williamsburg's Nitehawk Cinema, which has finally expanded its liquor license to include the movie theaters. Nitehawk has two lobby bars with full liquor licenses, but until now guests were not allowed to bring their drinks into the theater, where chef Saul Bolton's delicious food is served. That all changes tonight, appropriately enough, with a midnight screening of The Rum Diary, for which PDT's Jim Meehan has crafted a special cocktail.
Is Hooters Ripoff Canz Selling Booze Without A Liquor License?
We've been following the story of Canz, the Long Island-based boobs-and-sports bar that's been poaching Hooters girls, with some curiosity for a while now. The latest curve in this strange trip involves the brand-new, CC Sabathia-blessed Murray Hill location, which opened last week with plenty of booze but apparently without a liquor license.
Does The SLA Not Care About Community Boards Anymore?
Has the New York State Liquor Authority (SLA) stopped caring about local Community Boards? Since the early aughts the SLA has appeared to be at the beck and call of a few CBs (especially in lower Manhattan) but things seem to be changing. Since this summer alone the SLA has flat out refused to put a moratorium on new licenses in Brooklyn and renewed liquor licenses for a few places despite strong objections from the local Board. Most recently to be on the right side of the trend? The East Village bar Heathers. Curious about what was going on, we called the SLA. Short answer? It's the economy, stupid.
Nitehawk Cinema Fights For Right To Serve Booze During Movies
Drinking during the movies is a longstanding, widely beloved practice dating back to the advent of movie theaters. Sadly, the SLA makes it hard to legally indulge in a tipple theater-side, which has forced generations of moviegoers to smuggle booze in with vulgar plastic water bottles. Until now!
Queens Church Doesn't Want A Hookah Bar For A Neighbor
A Woodhaven church is reportedly squaring off against their hookah-and-booze-swilling neighbors, who are trying to keep the peace while simultaneously applying for a liquor license. But the owner of the hookah lounge says he's not sure what the brouhaha is all about.
Busted Boozy Bodegas: We Don't Sell To Minors, "Ever"
Last week the State Liquor Authority sent undercover agents to 212 bodegas and found that it's pretty sweet being underage in NYC, as plenty of stores don't card for alcohol. 123 bodegas, or 58 percent of those tested in the sting, had no problem slinging suds to whoever. But now, the busted bodega owners are crying foul, alleging that the SLA hasn't contacted them as required by law. "They are supposed to tell us right away," said one bodega owner in Bed-Stuy tells the Daily News, "I am going to fight this. I am going to court. I don't believe this." Believe it, buddy. But blame the media!
Why Bodegas Don't Card Underage Drinkers: It Gets Busy There!
The State Liquor Authority sent six men and women, ages 18 to 20, to over 200 New York City bodegas to attempt to buy booze—and, sure enough, at 123 locations, the underaged succeed. The Daily News has details on the three-day sting, "Of the bodegas visited by the SLA, the Bronx had the highest citation rate. Thirty-eight of the 48 stores - about 79% - sold alcohol to underage spies in the borough. Manhattan wasn't far behind with 75% of the bodegas selling to customers under the age of 21."
White Slab Palace Latest Victim In LES Nightlife Crackdown
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.
Five Stabbed In Brawl At Sketchy Karaoke Club
Five people ended up in the hospital with stab wounds in an early-morning brawl at a "notorious" Bay Ridge karaoke club that residents say is a regular old den of sin.
Chinatown Dens Pumping Out Illegal Rice Wine
A black market for homemade rice wine—those unmarked tubs of reddish liquid stacked up in the corner of your favorite dumpling shop?— is thriving in the depths of Chinatown, and authorities aren't quite sure what to do about it.
Greenpoint's Coco 66 Raided, Owner Arrested, Booze Poured Out
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!
Eat Cetera: Umami Burger Rising, A Mexican Clambake, Central Park Booze Trucks
Click on the photos for the scoop on the impending arrival of LA's Umami Burger, a "Mexican Clambake" by Union Square, legal booze from food trucks in Central Park, and the UES's latest BBQ joint (which just happens to be from a pair of Food Network stars).
LES Bar's Liquor License Renewed Days Before Community Board Rejection
Over the weekend we told how Culturefix, an arts space/boutique/bar on the Lower East Side, won a relative victory in court after it was targeted by the NYPD as part of the latter's recent bar blitz. And today the Lo-Down brings more to the story while pointing out an interesting wrinkle in the relationship between Community Boards and the State Liquor Authority. See, though Community Board 3's SLA committee recommended against renewing the bar's liquor license last week...it did so days after the license had already been renewed by the SLA, one of the bar's owners tells us.
Murray Hill Community Board Is Sick Of Pub Crawling Hooligans
As if the ongoing bar closing blitz in the LES weren't enough to make a person start preparing their eulogies for Manhattan's nightlife, now comes word that Community Board 6, which includes Murray Hill, is trying to ban pub crawls altogether. Wait, that would be beyond their purview? That's okay, they've got ideas to get around that.
What Happens When A Restaurant Loses Booze? It Closes
The real prohibition didn't last, so it isn't that surprising that the prohibition party at the pop-up "experimental restaurant" What Happens When isn't lasting either. In the wake of the SLA's decision to strip the well-regarded restaurant's liquor license, chef and owner John Fraser has decided to simply shut the joint down after Saturday's service.
No Legal Outdoor Boozing For Bryant Park Movies After All
We sure hope nobody in that teeming mass of humanity who went to Bryant Park to watch One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was drinking booze last night. Though for a hot second it looked like drinking was going to be allowed for movies in the park turns out it was never actually made legit. And it won't be.
Central Park Food Truck: Now With Booze!
Finally, some good news out of the food truck court that once was the Tavern on the Green: for the first time ever a New York City food truck has been given permission to serve booze, starting today. The SLA has given the green light to for the Pera Turkish Taco Truck to serve beer, wine and cocktails during regular operating hours—but only if the potent potables are consumed in the truck’s assigned seating area on the terrace.
What Happens When... A Pop-Up Restaurant Loses Its Booze?
Ah, the pitfalls of opening a temporary restaurant. What if your liquor license falls through? That's the situation that chef John Fraser's pop-up restaurant What Happens When is currently facing. The pop-up, which took over the old Le Jardin space downtown in January, is only supposed to run for nine months before it goes away but a recent blow from the State Liquor Authority could hurry along the process. Eater reports that Fraser and co.'s request to transfer the La Jardin liquor license has been rejected by the SLA. What this means in the long term is unclear, but while the Cleveland Place restaurant tries to reason with the Liquor Authority it remains open, just with none of its tasty cocktails and no BYO either.
Puerto Rican Restaurant Sues, Says Manhattan's CB 1 Is Racist
TriBeCa's bi-level Puerto Rican restaurant Sazon has been having problems with its neighbors since it opened but rather than continue work it out the restaurant's owner is so fed up today he filed a multi-million dollar federal civil rights suit accusing the city, the State Liquor Authority and members of lower Manhattan's Community Board 1 of discriminating against the restaurant because its customers aren't "from this neighborhood." Owner Genaro Morales explained to us that the suit was a last resort, "we've made several attempts at mediating meetings with the CB and the community and nothing has gotten better."
Drinking At Bryant Park Movies ThisClose To Being Legal!
Bryant Park's Monday night summer movie series doesn't kick off until June 20, but when it does boozehounds will be happy. After years of turning a blind eye to illegal drinking in the park during the popular outdoor screenings, and rumors of a policy change, DNAinfo is reporting that, pending approval from the SLA (which should happen), drinking will be allowed in the park during movies this summer.
Bruce Willis Out, Dell'Anima Team In On East First Street?
The people who protested the yuppie scum at the Bowery Wine Co., the East First Street wine bar that boasted celebrity investor Bruce Willis, when it opened in 2008 may have won in the long run. Eagle-eyed EV Grieve noticed that on this month's CB3 SLA agenda there is an item listed for the space where the wine bar currently lives (it ain't dead yet!). And who appears to be looking to move in? No less than the team behind West Village Italian foodie-magnets Dell'Anima and l'Artusi.
Cops Crack Down On Drug Users In Hipster Greenpoint
As the local community board prepares to vote on a moratorium on new liquor licenses in Greenpoint and Williamsburg, the Post reports that low-level drug busts are on the rise. Drug arrests have risen 33 percent so far this year compared to the same time period last year in Greenpoint and Williamsburg, an area the Post describes as "ground zero for the city's hipster community." Most of the 51 drug busts in the 94th Precinct were for heroin and marijuana, and according to the tabloid, the majority of the busts happened on Manhattan Avenue, north of Greenpoint Avenue. Along that stretch you'll find establishments like The Mark Bar and Papacitos, where, let's be honest, you probably wouldn't be ostracized for being high on drugs.
SLA: There Will Be No Liquor License Moratorium In Brooklyn
Next month the community board that covers North Brooklyn is expected to vote on a moratorium on new liquor licenses in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Board chairman Christopher Olechowski tells the Wall Street Journal, "We feel that the community is over inundated with the bars and it's becoming not only a quality of life issue but it's a safety hazard. Too much of a good thing starts turning into something that turns counterproductive for a community. Where are we going with this?" Good question—we were thinking first The Diamond, then The Gutter, then maybe the late night happy hour at The Soft Spot, followed by Lucky Dog, and shots at The Woods? And guess what? The State Liquor Authority isn't going to stand in our staggering, loudmouthed way.
Could A Whole Foods Bar Be In The Works For NYC?
USA Today recently noticed that Whole Foods has been slowly rolling out bars inside of the their stores in places like California, Illinois, Arizona and Texas, which got us wondering if such a thing could happen in our fair city. Considering the trouble that Whole Paycheck had with its late wine store in Columbus Circle we were skeptical such an idea would fly by New York's State Liquor Authority, but after talking with the SLA for a bit it sounds like such a scheme could happen here—only under just the right circumstances.

