UPPER WEST SIDE — A local bar and restaurant with an outdoor patio neighbors claim is unbearably noisy is being replaced by a new restaurant whose owner has promised to keep his venue quiet.
Five Lamps Tavern, on Broadway at West 106th Street, is closing imminently and a new restaurant will open in the space by April 1, the space's new owner, Karim El Sherif, told Community Board 7 Wednesday night.
El Sherif promised the board's Business and Consumer Issues Committee, which ultimately voted to approve his liquor license, that he would add a glass enclosure to the outdoor patio within a year to keep noise to a minimum.
The menu and the particulars of the new restaurant are still being worked out, he noted, but it will include an array of craft beers and an upscale vibe.
"It’s very important to us to have great food," El Sheirf said. "We really want a top-notch restaurant but one that’s affordable."
The new restaurant's name, which is to be determined, will relate to the history of the area, he added. It will be open for brunch, lunch and dinner.
Five Lamps Tavern opened in 2012 after the closure a year earlier of Meridiana, an Italian restaurant that had been in the neighborhood for 20 years. The bar's 72-seat back yard attracted a college-age crowd whose voices carried across the courtyard and into their apartments, residents said.
Neighbors filed dozens of 311 noise complaints about Five Lamps Tavern in 2014, according to city data. The 24th Precinct noted that "there have been significant complaints [to the precinct] regarding rear yard noise" in a letter to CB7, board member George Zeppenfeldt-Cestero said.
Last May, Board 7 turned down the bar's liquor license renewal request, citing noise issues, but it was nonetheless approved by the SLA.
The restaurant was also closed down by the Health Department in July, according to West Side Rag.
Representatives of Five Lamps Tavern could not be reached for comment.
While El Sherif argued that he should not have to pay for past owners' mistakes, board members reminded him that they weren't going to give him "carte blanche" regarding the rear yard.
"You’ve got neighbors who are ready to pounce because they are living through hell," said member Linda Alexander.
El Sherif's plan is to set up a glass enclosure that can be heated in the winter to provide year-round use and to keep noise down so that the restaurant can have a good reputation and relationship with neighbors, he said. But building that enclosure and getting city approvals takes time, El Sherif added.
As a compromise, the board and El Sherif agreed the rear yard would close at 9 p.m. on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights during the first year of operation or until the enclosure is built.
The full board will vote on the plan at its March 3 meeting.
► Amber, the sushi restaurant on Columbus Avenue at West 70th Street, is moving off the avenue and across the street to 103 W. 70th St., in the space currently occupied by Bar Rique.
The rent for Amber's Columbus Avenue location was rising too high for the owners, so they decided to move to the West 70th Street space, said lawyer James Wang.
The restaurant will have the same menu and same hours as the Columbus Avenue location, he said. Wang did not say when the move would happen. Bar Rique first opened as ParkWest in the spring of 2013.
CB7's Business and Consumer Issues committee approved Amber's new liquor license.
► Mughlai, an Indian restaurant on Columbus Avenue at West 75th Street, is closing and will reopen a different Indian restaurant under new ownership. Saffron will open in the space in early April, after some cosmetic changes, said Vivienne Tozaki, a lawyer representing the owner.
CB7's Business and Consumer Issues committee approved Saffron's new liquor license.
