By Carla Zanoni
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — These days opening a pub downtown may be easier than opening one uptown.
The owners of several popular bars and pubs in the East Village and Lower East Side have been hoping to open a new restaurant, to be called the Dark Horse, in Hudson Heights.
Their hopes were dealt a serous blow when Community Board 12 voted 18 to 14 against the restaurant’s application for a liquor license. The license application was shot down because of a policy that dictates the board automatically recommends against a license when an owner fails to appear at the board’s Economic Development committee meeting.
The owners of Arlene’s Grocery on Stanton Street and Scratcher on East 5th Street said they want to bring the Irish American dining experience to 839 W. 181st St. in Hudson Heights — the same space previously inhabited by Agave Azul and Hispañola, two failed restaurants.
The owners also have a popular Riverdale pub called An Beal Bocht Cafe, on 238th Street, between Greystone and Waldo avenues.
"We want to bring a family place to the neighborhood," co-owner Tiornagh Harmon said at the full board meeting on Tuesday. "The restaurant will be someplace where families can come and sit in the afternoons and have a cup of coffee or maybe coffee and a slice of cake."
Despite the failure to show up to the board’s committee meeting on October 5, CB12 member Elizabeth Lorris Ritter asked the group to waive its practice in favor of recommending a license for the restaurant.
"I happen to live near where this restaurant would be located," she said. "And I can tell you I want something like this in the neighborhood."
Because the community board is an advisory group, the State Liquor Authority has ultimate say on whether the owners will receive their license.
A spokesman for the Authority said it does not yet have an application pending, as the restaurant owner has 30 days after the board votes to present its application.
Calls to the restaurant owners were not returned as of press time.
