Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

New Mexican Restaraunt La Flaca Approved For Liquor License

By Patrick Hedlund | September 29, 2010 12:43pm

By Patrick Hedlund

DNAinfo News Editor

LOWER EAST SIDE —A Mexican restaurant set to open on a quiet stretch of Grand Street should be able to serve alcohol until 4 a.m., Community Board 3 voted Tuesday night.

The controversial plan to open the "New Mexican" restaurant La Flaca at 384 Grand St., at the corner of Suffolk Street, has divided board members and local residents, who sparred about the benefits and pitfalls of an early-morning license.

Unlike other parts of the Lower East Side and East Village, where the board has stopped approving new liquor license unless the operator can prove a public benefit, this particular stretch of Grand Street has very few late-night establishments in the residential area.

"That block is kind of scary walking home at night," said board member Meghan Joye, a local bar owner who was in favor of the restaurant's plan to serve alcohol until 4 a.m. as a way to increase nighttime activity in the area.

However, a contingent of angry Grand Street tenants claimed that CB 3 does not have the neighborhood's best interest at heart.

The residents who oppose La Flaca questioned why, in an open letter, bar owners on CB 3's liquor license committee, such as Joye, were allowed to vote on the application despite what they saw as a conflict of interest.

The board ultimately approved the restaurant's liquor license application by a slim margin, forcing some to question CB 3's logic.

"We need blasting noise in our neighborhood?" said Michelle S., a local resident who declined to provide her last name, following the meeting. "I guess they want to bring more crime to our neighborhood."

Vaylateena Jones, a board member that does not live near La Flaca, said that using the argument that the restaurant would help brighten the block does not justify allowing La Flaca to serve alcohol until the early morning.

"Why do you need a liquor place for some lights on the block?" she asked.

"I don't want them getting closer to me. We've listened to disturbances [from bars] up Avenue A and Avenue B," she added. "Why do we need one down here?"

But CB3 chairman Dominic Pisciotta, who lives near La Flaca, said that the new business would only complement other retail spaces on the relatively low-traffic stretch.

"I actually think a business like this would be beneficial," he said. "There's room for an establishment like that on Grand Street."