New York State Liquor Authority

Club Marquee Faces Early Bedtime on Jan. 1

Marquee, 289 10th Avenue
PropertyShark.com
Marquee, 289 10th Avenue

State regulators aren't letting up on posh Chelsea club Marquee owners Noah Tepperberg and Jason Strauss.

The New York State Liquor Authority (S.L.A.) has denied the club's request for an all-night permit on New Year's Eve, according to the New York Post.

The agency is "cracking down on applicants" for the permit -- which allows bar operators to skip the usual 4 a.m. last call and keep selling booze an extra four hours on the Jan. 1 holiday -- "denying permits to nightspots that haven't reported their plans to the NYPD, as mandated, or that have serious charges on their records," the Post reports.  read more »

East Villagers Spurn Sasha Petraske Again, But Fight's Only Just Begun

Sasha Petraske
ardentspirits.com
Sasha Petraske

Bartender extraordinaire Sasha Petraske might just be stuck brewing coffee at Mercury Dime on East Fifth Street, after local Community Board 3 again declined to support his aspirations of alcohol service, according to Eater.

Grub Street adds a splash of drama, noting that the Milk & Money maestro "must have assumed his fate, as he didn't show at the meeting."

Still, his pint dreams probably aren't completed crushed by the community board's rejection.

The vote is only advisory, and other bars, notably including the Beatrice Inn, have succeeded in slinging drinks, despite neighborhood protests. That being said, the ruling New York State Liquor Authority (SLA) has tended to lend a more sympathetic ear to the various community boards' whims in recent years.  read more »

Beatrice Bashers Mad About Booze Renewal

285 West 12th Street.
New York Times.
285 West 12th Street.

Neighbors protesting the trendy Beatrice Inn's effort to renew its liquor license were outraged last week to find out that they were effectively wasting their breath.

By the time the issue had come to local Community Board 2 for a vote on Sept. 18, the hip celebrity hangout's renewal had already been approved by the State Liquor Authority .

"Advise us on how to get rid of this place," pleaded one aghast neighbor.

Raymond Lee, chairman of the board's SLA committee, explained that there was really little that the panel could do because -- despite allegations of the popular hot spot's "coke den" reputation -- the Beatrice on 285 West 12th Street had no record of violations with the SLA (an apparent prerequisite for nixing a renewal).  read more »

Talk About An Open and Shut Case! Death & Co. Sues Landlord for Doorman Fees

David Kaplan.
James Hamilton.
David Kaplan.

An ongoing dispute with an upstairs neighbor continues to create more legal headaches for David Kaplan, proprietor of the popular yet embattled East Village cocktail lounge Death & Co.

Mr. Kaplan, who is also suing the State Liquor Authority over its decision to not renew his liquor license, has now filed for a court injunction barring landlord P.V.P. Management from evicting his bar, located at 433 East Sixth Street, over alleged noise issues.

The tenant living directly above the bar, identified in court papers as Joseph Hurley, has claimed that "repeated and forcible closing of the [bar's] front door ... causes a severe and unreasonable amount of vibration" in his apartment.  read more »

Cipriani Escapes Liquor License Fiasco

Giuseppe Cipriani (left) and Arrigo Cipriani
The Associated Press
Giuseppe Cipriani (left) and Arrigo Cipriani

The New York Post's Steve Cuozzo today pleaded with state regulators not to revoke the liquor licenses of seven Cipriani restaurants and banquet halls around town:

It would...cost more than 1,000 jobs, leave our most iconic celebration spaces empty for the foreseeable future, and knock the fizz out of the city's culture of excess - the golden goose that keeps the talent-fleeing, jobs-hemorrhaging "Empire State" afloat.

Apparently, new State Liquor Authority (S.L.A.) commissioner Jeanique Green is a big Post reader.

This morning, Ms. Green cast the deciding vote to accept a $500,000 penalty in lieu of yanking the licenses, thus allowing the Cipriani empire to stay in business.  read more »

Another City Slicker To Join State Liquor Authority

Another City Slicker To Join State Liquor Authority
Getty Images

Anti-bar-sprawl activists used to bemoan the State Liquor Authority's glaring lack of a single voice from New York City.

Now, the state agency is poised to include a bonafide majority of city slickers.

Governor David Paterson today nominated a former legislative aide, Jeanique Green, presently a senior court analyst in the New York City branch of the state Office of Court Administration, to cast the crucial third vote on all licensing matters.  read more »

Daniel Boyle vs. Giuseppe Cipriani

Giuseppe Cipriani and his father, Arrigo, leaving Manhattan Supreme Court last summer.
AP
Giuseppe Cipriani and his father, Arrigo, leaving Manhattan Supreme Court last summer.

A fierce standoff between two New York titans, both ranked on The Observer's recent 100 Most Powerful People In Real Estate, wrapped up an indecisive first-round yesterday.

Dapper restaurateur Giuseppe Cipriani (ranked No. 97) had offered up $500,000 to settle his dispute with the State Liquor Authority (S.L.A.).  read more »

Death & Co. Puts Liquor-License 'McCarthyism' On Trial

Death & Co. owner David Kaplan
James Hamilton
Death & Co. owner David Kaplan

David Kaplan, owner of embattled East Village cocktail cathedral Death & Co., is suing the State Liquor Authority (S.L.A.) over its refusal to renew his liquor license.

Mr. Kaplan had formally requested a reconsideration of that potentially business-killing decision this past February—a request the S.L.A. has since denied.

In court papers, Mr. Kaplan and his attorney have argued that the proprietors “never defrauded nor made misrepresentations” to the S.L.A.—despite what some critics in the neighborhood have alleged.  read more »

Scores Boss Richard Goldring Pulls a Larry Flynt

Scores West on West 28th Street
PropertyShark
Scores West on West 28th Street

Embattled Scores owner Richard Goldring is suing the city and State Liquor Authority (S.L.A.) in federal court, alleging that the government's recent crackdown on his two Manhattan strip clubs violates his First Amendment rights.

In court papers, his latest attorney called last month's revocation of Mr. Goldring's liquor license at Scores West "a circumstance intended to terminate in Scores West any future First Amendment expressive entertainment and to chill the principals of Scores East and Scores West in the exercise of their First Amendment right to provide such entertainment."  read more »

Scores Empire Just Keeps Crumbling

Scores Empire Just Keeps Crumbling
Property Shark

The champagne room has finally gone dry at embattled Manhattan strip club Scores West.

The New York Post reports that authorities from the New York State Liquor Authority (S.L.A.) showed up Wednesday to confiscate the voluptuous 10,000-square-foot venue's precious liquor license.

(Albeit apparently not before getting a visit from reality TV couple Alex and Simon McCord of "The Real Housewives of New York City" fame.)

The agency's action follows a prolonged legal battle with club management over the arrests of several Scores West employees on prostitution charges in January 2007.  read more »

The Matlock of New York Bar Battles

The Matlock of New York Bar Battles
James Hamilton

Attorney Barry Mallin has never lost against the State Liquor Authority, which he’s been battling for a decade on behalf of neighborhoods tired of bar noise. Is his streak about to end?  read more »