EAST VILLAGE — The owner of a Second Avenue nightclub is determined to move into the former Lit Lounge space a few blocks away, even though the local community board denied him a liquor license Monday night.
Allan Mannarelli — who wants to move his bar, The Cock, from 29 Second Ave. a few blocks up to 93 Second Ave. — said he planned to appeal to the State Liquor Authority directly after Community Board 3’s SLA Committee voted against the license.
“I have full intention of moving the bar there and we’ll try every avenue to do it,” he said after the meeting, adding that he was not surprised at the pushback from residents and the community board.
The state has the final say in liquor license applications, but community boards are given an advisory role in the process.
Lit Lounge closed quietly last month after 14 years in business, according to EV Grieve. The bar owners previously said the dive bar and adjoining gallery would close by September and reopen in Brooklyn.
Mannarelli said his intended move to Lit Lounge’s former digs was a strategic one. The space is larger, he said, and would allow the bar to host drag shows and gay karaoke. His current lease also has a demolition clause that allows the landlord to buy him out and give him eight months to vacate the space, he said.
“As I said [in the meeting], I don't have the luxury of saying ‘OK, let’s wait until that happens then we’ll go find a place,’” he said, adding that he wanted to stay in the neighborhood.
A spokeswoman for the landlord, Westminster City Living, could not immediately comment on The Cock’s lease.
According to documents filed with CB3, The Cock would serve meat pies from Tuck Shop and be open seven days a week until 4 a.m. Mannarelli would keep his method of operation largely the same as it now at the bar’s current location, he told the community board.
Mannarelli later said he planned to close The Cock’s current location as well as his Kips Bay bar, Albion, if he could get the Lit Lounge space.
But neighborhood residents, including those from the East Fifth Street Block Association, opposed the move, saying that the block was already oversaturated with bars. Within a 500-foot radius, they said, there were 61 licensed operators.
Neighbors also worried that The Cock would draw more people to the residential block, leading to even more late-night noise and sidewalk congestion.
“At one time [the neighborhood] was residential, now more of a bar destination with its attendant noise [and] mayhem created by many of the bar patrons all hours of the night,” said a resident who had lived in the area for more than 30 years.
The raucous reputation of Superdive, an Avenue A bar Mannarelli ran until it closed in 2010, also worried residents.
“There is no need to further add to our problem in the far-saturated community,” the resident added. “The Lit Lounge was a bad actor, we don’t need another one at this location.”
The SLA committee was also reluctant to approve a liquor license for similar reasons. It acknowledged that there were no noise complaints in the past 10 years, but noted that the block The Clock currently sits on is a “decidedly different area” that has far fewer residences nearby.
But Mannarelli said he would be a good neighbor and follow all stipulations. He pointed out that The Cock did not have noise issues at its current location and that it queues patrons inside the establishment so that they do not clog the sidewalk.
“We’re not an issue because we do what we’re supposed to do,” he said.
Mannarelli’s assurances weren’t enough for the committee however, and in a 4-3 vote, it decided to recommend that the state deny his liquor license application. The full board will vote on the issue at its meeting next month.
