INWOOD — A troubled nightspot looking to rebrand itself again after having its liquor license revoked last year got turned down by the local community board in its latest bid to serve booze.
NoVvo, at 5009 Broadway, had its liquor license stripped in September 2014 amid charges of underage drinking and noise complaints from neighbors.
The restaurant was operating under a special extension from the previous establishment, Hashi Sushi, which was also temporarily shuttered last year for failing to pay workers' compensation insurance before relaunching as NoVvo.
On Tuesday, Nov. 24, Community Board 12 narrowly rejected the restaurant's application for a new license to serve wine in a nonbinding advisory vote to the State Liquor Authority. The 14-13 vote overturned an earlier decision by the board's licensing committee to green-light the request.
NoVvo reps Esmaile Duarte and Maria Rosario told committee members during a Nov. 12 meeting that they had reached a compromise with neighbors by addressing concerns related to the hiring of security and implementing hours for when hookah smoking will be allowed on the premises, residents said at the full board meeting.
“We did not agree to this, and we brought a petition with signatures with over half of the units in our building,” said Inwood resident Jennifer Fox at the full board meeting, speaking of her complex, which sits above the nightspot.
She said residents are concerned with how the new establishment — which locals were told would be called Maramana — would affect their quality of life, presenting 48 signatures representing 37 apartments out of 72 total in the complex, Fox said.
Vicky Sadoff, who joined Fox at the meeting and has been an Inwood resident for more than 25 years, said she’s concerned with how the restaurant has conducted business in the past.
“We don’t want it to become a club or hookah lounge,” Sadoff said, “as the past two incarnations did.”
The new venture, still listed as NoVvo in public documents, is not currently open for business. The last license granted at the address was for Hashi Sushi, owned by Liliana Rodriguez, though ownership information for the new venture was not available, according to the SLA.
The application now moves to the SLA, which Fox planned to contact directly in order to have the board's decision affirmed.
“I don’t think any of us have ever approached the SLA,” she said, “but we’ll see.”
