NOLITA — Sweet & Vicious will close their popular backyard early this summer after neighbors said noise from the bar's backyard has been "ruining people's lives."
Sweet & Vicious, which has been at 5 Spring St. since 1998 and has closed its backyard at midnight throughout that time, will now close the backyard at 10 p.m. on weekdays and 11 p.m. on weekends.
"To me, they have very little redeeming social value," Daniel Aubrey, who moved into the building with his wife in February 2014, said at a Community Board 2 liquor licensing meeting Tuesday night where the bar's management was present.
Aubrey said he "had no idea the hell that would visit us when spring came and Sweet & Vicious came to full, evil life," and lamented that he was granted "only two minutes to relate the story of the hell and abomination that these people visit on us."
He also derided "the bizarre mating rituals" that he said the bar's "20-something" clientele engages in after they get "drunk as lords."
Several other people also spoke against the bar, including a woman who said she was there to represent the concerns of her neighbors, many of whom are Asian, elderly and cannot speak English.
Bar employees spoke in defense of their establishment, as did some regulars, including an older gentleman with a cane who said he drinks there several days a week and "it's never too loud for good conversation."
After conversing with opponents outside the meeting for some time, the bar's management returned and promised to voluntarily close the backyard early for the rest of the summer.
They plan to return to the committee's September meeting to meet with neighbors again for a progress report.
"We're just trying to be cooperative," said a manager who identified himself as Burak but declined to give his last name. "[We want to] try our best to serve the community."
