By Patrick Hedlund and Nicole Breskin
DNAinfo News Editor
MANHATTAN — Legendary Vogue editor Anna Wintour has picked a side in the never-ending neighbors versus nightlife war.
The notoriously tempestuous fashion icon turned up at a local community board meeting Wednesday night to oppose a new Jamaican restaurant slated to open in her Greenwich Village neighborhood, a resident who attended the meeting told DNAinfo.
Wintour rallied the support of dozens of neighbors at a Community Board 2 committee hearing held to discuss a liquor license application for nightlife impresario Serge Becker’s new venture, Miss Lily.
The magazine maven and others claimed the eatery, which is coming to the corner of West Houston and Sullivan streets, would bring unneeded noise and traffic to the family-friendly area.
"I am completely concerned," said Wintour, the Daily News reported. "This is a unique historic neighborhood. I'm also concerned for the safety of the kids here."
Wintour, dressed in a black-and-white dress with her classic bob, presented framed, blown-up color photos of the neighborhood, one of which depicted a child holding a shovel in a sandbox.
“It was beautifully played,” said John Wilhelmy, 28, of Mulberry Street, who turned out for the meeting and noticed the fashion figure immediately.
But the real high point the meeting came when she asked those in opposition to the Jamaican eatery to stand up.
“She asked everyone to stand up and raise their hands who were in opposition,” recalls Wilhelmy. “The committee chair said, ‘Ms. Wintour, you can’t do that. It’s not protocol.’ But she said, ‘oh yes we can,’ and everyone shouted and clapped.”
Wintour’s son, Charlie, 24, also expressed his displeasure with Miss Lily, dismissing the space as a nightclub dressed in a restaurant’s clothing.
"I don't care if you call it a restaurant,” he said, according to the News. “No restaurant stays open until 2 a.m."
Representatives for Becker — who co-owns such swanky establishments as Lower East Side nightclub The Box and NoLIta hotspot La Esquina — insisted the new location would remain quiet and safe, the paper reported.
