By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
SOUTH STREET SEAPORT — A new bar on Front Street allows patrons to be their own bartender — but they may have to be their own bodyguard as well.
A patron of the bar, called Keg no. 229, slashed another customer with a knife during a dispute there last week, police said.
The men were arguing about 10:30 p.m. Jan. 13 when one pulled a knife and lunged at the other. The victim blocked the knife with his left hand and sustained a gash, police said.
The suspect fled but police said they caught him several blocks away, at the corner of Pearl and Beekman streets. The man, Frank Marsicano, 49, resisted arrest and police used pepper spray to subdue him, police said.
The victim, a 46-year-old man who lives in the neighborhood, declined to press charges, police said.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office did not have a record of any charges against Marsicano.
Keg no. 229, which opened in December, is the first bar in the city to allow customers to dispense their own beer. A small computer screen keeps track of the number of ounces each customer has imbibed and charges them at the end of the night.
Calli Lerner, co-owner of the bar, was not there during last week’s fight, but she said the victim was a regular and was an acquaintance of the attacker. She said neither man ordered a drink at the bar on the night of the dispute. One of the men's wife and children were at the bar, which also serves a comfort-food menu, she said.
Lerner said she does not plan to change the bar’s operations or security.
"I’m sorry that it happened," Lerner said. "But I strongly believe it was a very isolated incident."
