NOLITA — A hip young chef has assuaged the fears of Kenmare Street residents concerned about a new restaurant he has planned for their street — by promising to maintain their peace and quiet with earlier closing times.
Chef Ryan Hardy, who currently helms Charlie Bird in SoHo, has gotten the greenlight to open an as-yet-unnamed venture at 86 Kenmare St. with his partners after vowing to close by 11 p.m. Sunday and Monday and midnight the other days, according to Robin LoGuidice, the lawyer for the tenants association.
"Fortunately for all, restaurant owners Ryan Hardy, Robert Bohr, and Grant Reynolds came together with the tenants of 86 Kenmare Street to protect this quiet neighborhood," LoGuidice wrote on her blog on Friday.
The tenants association in the building had been alarmed by Hardy's initial beer-and-wine license application after nearly a decade on frustrations with previous bars, clubs, and restaurants in the commercial space in the ground floor of their building.
Though the two sides appeared to come to an agreement at a June 9 community board committee meeting after three hours of negotiations, LoGuidice sent a furious email to the local community board last weekend informing them that a document Hardy's lawyer provided them, ostensibly outlining the agreement, had been revised and was lacking several key agreements Hardy had made at the meeting.
But since that time, the restaurateurs vowed to adopt the earlier closing times and to install state-of-the-art soundproofing "To mitigate the noise of happy diners," LoGuidice wrote.
A notarized document signed by the tenants and Hardy was provided to Community Board 2 before they voted on Hardy's beer-and-wine license application Thursday night, according to the tenants.
The board unanimously voted to include the stipulations with their recommendation to approve Hardy's beer-and-wine license.
"The community board did unanimously approve the 86 Kenmare wine and beer license," confirmed Hardy's lawyer, Michael Morici, Jr., via email on Friday.
Hardy was not immediately available to comment about the agreement.
