Welcome to First Word, wherein Eater and its correspondents sit for hours at steamy community board meetings to bring back the first word of new establishments and what they're up to. Your reports from the field always encouraged to tips@eater.com.
Lesson from last night's Community Board 2 Business Committee Meeting: Come prepared, or prepare for delay. Here are the highlights:
1) The committee passed a motion in support of a liquor license for a new Chinatown restaurant—Red Egg at 202 Centre Street. The owner touted it as "not your typical Chinese restaurant in Chinatown," featuring Chinese comfort food, dim sum, and, as the owner's Chinese mother lived in Peru, a Latin influence. The presentation to the committee included a scale model of the restaurant design, detailed copies of the floor plan, and a well-prepared explaination that wowed the committee. Even so committee members pushed the owner with seemingly inconsequential questions:
Board member: What hours will you serve dim sum?Red Egg hopes to open at the end of this month if possible, but their license still has to pass at the full board meeting before going to the SLA.
Owner: All day.
Board member: No, what hours?
Owner: All Day.
Board member: Until closing at 11 pm? Because to me, day is daylight and night is night so if you say all day, I think dim sum ends at 5.
2) The committee also approved a motion supporting the transfer of a liquor license for LeDen, a new French bistro that will replace Café Tina at 184 Prince Street. The owner is Frederick LeSort who owns three other restaurants in New York—Frederick's Madison, Frederick's Downtown and Opia.
3) The committee delayed a decision on allowing an expansion of the bar/restaurant area at the Sohotel. The lawyer for the restaurant had the paperwork all wrong—no floor plan, wrong certificate of occupancy—so many members of the committee felt the need to give her a lecture. She countered that the requirements were unclear, but committee members all talked over one another to explain that she was in the wrong. The committee decided to delay any decision until next month. —Erin Sikorsky
· Plywood Report: Red Egg [~E~]
· First Word: Pelaccio's The Windsor, La Esquina Doesn't Get Sidewalk Booze [~E~]
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