Wrap-Up on NoHo’s February Hearings
Three liquor licenses, a sidewalk cafe and a BSA application …
were included in NoHo’s February hearings at Community Board #2 Manhattan and at the Board of Standards and Appeals.
SLA LICENSING
Sushi on Jones, LLC, d/b/a NA, 348 Bowery 10012 (RW – Restaurant) at Great Jones St.
This application was for a small vendor within the Great Jones Market space. They were seeking a license to sell pre-packaged Sake with their Japanese offerings. While they will be closing at 11pm nightly, there are several potential issues:
- The Great Jones Market space is classified as a temporary structure and according to DOB records was allowed through Fall, 2016.
- For most of the year this hasbeen an open air food vendor location very close to the new Cooper Square Plaza; particular care needs to be taken regarding serving and monitoring sake sales
- There are 4-5 vendors in this one location; granting a license to one will likely mean the others will follow. Granting a license to one will make it difficult to deny to the others.
- This has not been a licensed location, thus granting a license means it will forever be licensable. Should the “Market” disappear and a larger building replace it, as has been proposed in the past, then a more substantial venue would be able to get a license.
- There are no shortage of already licensed venues in the immediate area.
The Licensing Committee at CB#2 listened to all of these concerns but zeroed in on the Temporary Structure permit and the fact that the applicants were unable to produce a lease. Here’s their full resolution of denial.
Morars, LLC, d/b/a Misirizzi, 36 E. 4th St. 10003 (OP – Restaurant)(Class Change)
This location has had a Wine and Beer license for some time. The new operators recently took over the spot. It is a small restaurant nestled in with the BBar and Grille, Ogawa and Swifts Hiberian Lounge. We are unfamiliar with the regular operation of this new venue.
NoHo-Bowery Stakeholders expressed two major concerns: That the new owners had only had their present license for less than a year and that this end of East Fourth St. had nearly wall-to-wall licensed establishments. The Committee expressed these concerns in their resolution and recommended denial and further recommended that if the State Liquor Authority would otherwise consider it, that a 500′ Rule hearing be held. Here’s the resolution.
Corp to be formed by Michael Callahan, d/b/a TBD, 428 Lafayette St. Ground Fl. 10003 (OP – Restaurant) and MHJ Management, LLC, d/b/a TBD, 428 Lafayette St. Basement 10003 (OP – Restaurant)
This application is actually for two licenses in one location; one for an upstairs restaurant and another for a below-grade entertainment space. It was heard last spring at CB#2, but there were issues with the configuration and the Certificate of Occupancy that affected the acceptability of licenses. The principals are long-time NoHo afficianados, connected with Bond St. and with Indochine. New partners include two Brooklyn entrepreneurs who have operated a music/comedy venue, Baby’s Alright, with notable success. This location was previously a licensed music venue and will likely compete with Joe’s Pub, across the street.
This application, heard and denied in June 2016, is complicated by a certificate of occupancy that would not allow one license to serve both the upstairs and the downstairs spaces and that the venues must be separated. This time the applicants returned with a request for two licenses: one for an upstairs restaurant, with no direct access to the below grade space and a patron occupancy of 56 and another for a theater style music and performance venue with occupancy capped at 120 for patrons and personnel. The theater space hours of operation on Sunday through Wednesday are from 11AM to
2 AM and Thursday through Saturday from 10 AM to 3 AM. The restaurant hours of operation will be Sunday through Wednesday from 8 AM to 1 AM and from 8 AM to 2 AM Thursday through Saturday. They were both approved, subject to a 500′ Rule hearing. Here’s the resolution.
Atla Lafayette, LLC, d/b/a N/A, 372 Lafayette Street with 13 tables and 38 chairs (635-2017-ASWC)
Still to be opened, but approved as a licensed venue last spring, Atla has requested a sidewalk cafe on the Lafayette St. side of their corner location at Great Jones. Given the wide sidewalk, the fact that the building is occupied by offices; the new building across the street will also be office use, the Lafayette Grand Café & Bakery has a sidewalk cafe on the opposite corner and the hours of operation will be from 7:00am to 11:00pm Monday through Saturday and 8:00pm to 10:00pm Sunday, we saw no reason to object. Here’s the Committee’s resolution.
ARTS & INSTITUTIONS
There was a discussion of funding for the arts in CB2, with consideration of a resolution supporting preservation of the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA). The Committee wrote a resolution in “Support of the Protection and Preservation of the National Endowment for the
Arts (NEA)” directed to Senators Schumer and Gillibrand as well as Congressman Nadler.
11 Bond St. Use Groups hearing at The Board of Standards and Appeals on February 14th.
This has been the subject of two Landmarks hearings, four CB#2 hearings and reported regularly in newsletters with announcements of hearing dates and locations. Attached is the final resolution from CB#2 on the BSA application, which we helped to guide in both public and private conversations (CB2, neighbors, developer and attorneys).
The Commissioners at the BSA were largely unfamiliar with NoHo, its built environment, its current commercial make-up and the competitive cost/square root of similar NoHo venues. Their primary line of questioning was what smaller uses could be viable in this uniquely configured landmarked space. This application will return to the BSA for another hearing in April. NoHo-Bowery Stakeholders appeared in favor of the application citing: “Given the evolution of viable uses along our Lafayette St. corridor and the potential balance retail use will bring to a neighborhood that has seen largely residential conversions, we feel the planned use of this particular building will be an asset on Lafayette St. – traditionally a Boulevard of Commerce, contributing to NoHo life.”
You can view all of Community Board #2’s resolutions here on the home page (scroll down)