Elizabeth Ladzinski
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
EAST VILLAGE — The famed bar Coyote Ugly has been forced by the Department of Health to delay its reopening.
The bar, at 153 First Ave., had planned to open its doors again last Friday after its recent shuttering for Health Department violations, including "evidence of rats or live rats present in facility's food and/or non-food areas."
But a letter posted on the bar's website by founder Liliana Lovell explained that even though they had addressed every violation "in one day's time," the department would still not allow the bar to reopen because its basement floor was made of sand, which "has the potential for problems."
Lovell wrote that the health inspector who was sent to check that all violations had been resolved told her, "if this was a regular inspection you would of passed easily but because its a 'reopen inspection' I can’t pass you."
"So now the NY bar is closed the whole weekend and of course Monday is a holiday. So back to the drawing board next week," Lovell wrote.
"We will keep getting reinspected and then we will open back up to the party of the century!" she wrote.
According to the Health Department's website, as of February 18 the bar's violation points had been reduced to 16 — which is considered a "B" rating — from 90.
Calls to the Health Department were not immediately returned.
