By Suzanne Ma
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER EAST SIDE — Restaurateur Jesse Hartman is one step closer to bringing a glass-enclosed Italian restaurant to Grand Street after Community Board 3 approved his application for a liquor license — for the second time this year.
The board had approved his application back in June, but lease negotiations with his landlord, the Seward Park Co-op, have dragged on for months. Hartman — known for East Village spots Two Boots and Mo Pitkin's — had no choice but to return to the committee Monday night to ask for an extension.
It was unanimously approved, but not before the hearing became a battleground between the restaurateur and a handful of disgruntled residents.
The proposed restaurant, called "Grand Park," will be at 365 Grand St., on the corner of Grand and Essex, and promises to be a "fine dining, family friendly restaurant," according to Hartman.
But some residents worried that such an establishment, which would stay open until 4 a.m., would change the character of the neighborhood by bringing noise and traffic.
"A family restaurant, in my opinion, is not open until 4 a.m. serving a full liquor bar. That is not a family restaurant," said Stuart Goldstein, a resident of the Seward Park Co-op. "That is my definition of a bar, and we all know what comes along with a bar."
Ernest Marshall, who also lives in the Seward Park Co-op, canvassed other residents by sliding more than 1,700 letters under co-op doors.
"With children, elders and working parents, students who attend school all within 100 feet of this proposed bar, why do we need another bar in the neighborhood?" Marshall said. "Why would a family friendly business need a liquor license and stay open until 4 a.m.?"
But a handful of local residents in support Hartman's restaurant also showed up at the meeting.
"There are literally hundreds of us who are in favor of the restaurant," said Juliet Goldsand, who owns two units in the Seward Park Co-op and described vacant storefronts and a co-op struggling with deficits because of a bad economy.
"I see someone as Mr. Hartman as being an experienced restaurateur who would bring something that we desperately need in the neighborhood," Goldsand said.
Resident Linda Jones agreed.
"If you come home late and night from the subway, that street is dark and very menacing," Jones said. "Having some establishments that would be open later at night to bring a little light and a little life to the street would be a very good thing. It would make me feel a heck of a lot safer."
In the end, CB3 gave the nod to Hartman.
After the meeting, Hartman told DNAinfo he was relieved.
"I felt like celebrating when I left the room, but then I had to remind myself that it's just one tiny hurdle in a million," said Hartman, who hopes to finalize the lease "in the next week or so" and then promptly get started with construction.
"It's a very large, unused space. I love it back there. It's this strange vacuum … it's almost like being in Bryant Park," said Hartman, who excitedly described his vision for the glass-enclosed restaurant. "You could almost see stars at night."
