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Wine Bar Accused of Attracting 'Internet People' Approved for Booze License

By Emily Frost | October 8, 2014 10:52am
 Residents complained a liquor-serving sidewalk cafe would attract heavy drinkers on a residential street.
Riposo 72 Sidewalk Cafe
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UPPER WEST SIDE — A controversial wine bar that local residents accused last week of becoming a hotspot for seedy online daters got the go-ahead to serve booze at its sidewalk cafe Tuesday. 

Riposo 72, which was seeking an extension of its existing liquor license to serve drinks at its forthcoming 16-seat outdoor area, received the thumbs-up from Community Board 7, after protests from neighbors who thought it would become a haven for "internet people." 

"Thousands" of residents living in the buildings surrounding the West 72nd Street and Columbus Avenue wine bar oppose the extended license, neabry resident Al Salsano told the board Tuesday. 

At a committee meeting last week, he fumed that the bar has become a hub for online daters, saying, "I don’t want children walking near 'internet people' meeting." 

Others worried that the sidewalk area would forever change the character of the neighborhood. 

"We don’t want liquor on our streets," resident Sue Rutner testified Tuesday night, claiming that even if the license was not approved, the wine bar would still be overrun with drinkers.

Despite the outcry, the full board ultimately voted in favor of the license — with 25 in favor, 7 against, and 1 abstention — under the conditions it properly remove trash, keep noise down and prohibit smoking by bar workers. 

Steve Wygota, Riposo 72's architect who spoke on behalf of the owner, assured the body that the bar would not leave garbage on the street in front of the sidewalk cafe to block pedestrian traffic. 

"We listened to the concerns the residents had," said CB7 member George Zeppenfeldt-Cestero.

"I’m not aware of any restaurant or bar that serves liquor inside that has an outside cafe that doesn’t also serve liquor outside," he continued. "It’s just really complying with current guidelines."

Earlier Tuesday at a public hearing, State Liquor Authority Commissioner Kevin Kim told Riposo 72 representatives that if the full board approved the application, the bar would not have to come before the SLA for a public hearing and review. Instead, he told them they could go through the streamlined licensing route. 

The wine bar's attorney, Martin Maylor, said he didn't expect the licensing process to take very long with the board's blessing.