GREENWICH VILLAGE — A Michelin-starred chef's plan was shot down by Greenwich Village's Community Board 2 when the board's liquor license committee sided with neighbors who wouldn't agree to let him close his restaurant at 10:30 p.m. instead of 10 p.m.
Wolfgang Ban started his cooking career in New York City 16 years ago unable to speak English, and now own restaurants and bars in the East Village.
He received a Michelin star his first year at his first restaurant, Seasonal, and maintained it for six years after that. He also secured a two-star review from New York Times food and wine critic Eric Asimov, he told the committee at their March meeting.
But none of that mattered to the residents of Patchin Place, a small gated enclave behind the restaurant space formerly occupied by Cafe Asean at 117 W. 10th St.
Ban wanted to open a "fine dining Austro-Hungarian restaurant," he said.
"The cuisine is not a very hipster cuisine, so you don't get the Millennials," he explained, responding their suspicions that the restaurant would be noisy. "My client is the more sophisticated mature people who live in the neighborhood, businessmen — and women, of course."
Still, the neighbors insisted he close the backyard garden of the restaurant at 10 p.m. He agreed, but asked that he be allowed to drop checks at that time and give his diners a little extra time "to finish up and pay the check."
"I have no issue stopping serving at 10 o'clock but what I’d like to have is a grace period of 30 to 45 minutes," he said. My customers, they like to sit for two hours... I cannot rush them through the dinner and say, 'You have to be out.'"
But the neighbors refused to budge, even to let him close the backyard at 10:30 p.m. instead of 10 p.m., and the committee sided with them.
"I think it's loosey-goosey," said committee chair Robert Ely of Ban's plan. "I think if we decide in favor of this, it's in a very loosey-goosey way."
Committee member Elaine Young addressed Ban directly, telling him she didn't doubt he was a good restaurateur, but that the neighbors' tenacity won out.
"I know you're a good operator, you're a fabulous operator," Young said. "[But] these people came here, they stay here all night. We deal with these people all the time."
Robin Goldberg was the only member who hedged, though she ultimately voted with the group to deny Ban's liquor license application.
"I think it's a tough call," she said. "We consistently get applications for that block."
