MURRAY HILL — Just hours after Canz a Citi Roadhouse received a surprisingly warm reception from the local community board, an unruly patron at the Murray Hill bar allegedly punched a cop in the face, police said.
On Jan. 27, about a half hour past midnight, police responded to a report of a disturbance at the Hooters-type bar at 380 Third Avenue between East 27th and East 28th streets, according to the criminal complaint.
When police attempted to escort Ernest Bent out of Canz, Bent alleged balled up his fists and started swinging at Police Officer Christopher Weigand, of the 13th precinct, leaving the officer’s face red and swollen, the complaint stated.
Bent, 23, faces charges of assault in the third degree, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. He was released on his own recognizance.
The timing of the early-morning incident was ironic: Hours before it happened, the owners of the Murray Hill Canz location, John Roder and Tim Lorito, went before the Community Board 6 committee that reviews liquor license requests. They were seeking approval for a new alteration license based on aesthetic changes made inside the bar.
At the meeting, committee members joked about how the face-to-face meeting marked a sort-of first date with the bar owners, who opened Canz in October of last year without a valid liquor license.
The space used to be home to Choice Kitchen & Cocktails, which Roder owned. But during the shift from Choice to Canz, he did not visit the community board, nor did he file the necessary paperwork with the State Liquor Authority in time for Canz’s grand opening.
The SLA launched an investigation into Canz but allowed the bar to remain open and continue serving alcohol.
Canz a Citi Roadhouse is part of a chain of bars in both Long Island and Queens, but the Third Avenue location is the first in Manhattan.
It garnered ample attention when it opened, in part because of its wait staff of scantily-clad women and its titillating name. Some have bristled at the Canz concept.
CB6 member Steve Dubnoff said Canz was something that, “in my opinion, belongs under the Queensborough Bridge.”
A resident who attended the community board meeting in late January but declined to give her name expressed concern that the neighborhood around Canz was developing a late-night, party atmosphere — one she hoped Canz would not encourage.
“Choice [Kitchen & Cocktails] was a very good neighbor,” she said. “We hope you will be a good neighbor.”
Ultimately, the community board committee voted unanimously to approve the alteration license request.
“We all have our views of what may or may not have happened in the past,” Dubnoff told the committee before the vote. “We are not voting on that. We are voting solely on the shape of the bar.”
The positive resolution was approved by the full community board a few weeks later. Committee chair Carol Schachter, however, did inform her fellow board members about the alleged incident with the cop, which she had read about in a small blurb in "Town & Village."
Reached by phone Friday, Roder said that he was not aware of the arrest. When pressed further, he referred questions to the bar’s attorney, but did not offer the attorney’s name before hanging up the phone. A subsequent voicemail left for Roder requesting the name of the bar’s attorney has not been returned.
With reporting by Shayna Jacobs.
