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.
Community Board 1, covering downtown and Tribeca, hardly ever has the big ticket liquor license applicants or the community showdowns of its fellow boards—unless Mr. David Bouley is in attendance of course—but they still had a number of new places on their docket last night. A look at who's getting the booze downtown:
1) The owner of Sofrito, a mid-price Puerto Rican joint on East 57th Street, is looking to move into 105 Reade Street (the former home of Fresh) with a 150 seat, two level restaurant and bar called Sazon. He asked for a liquor license with a 2 AM Sun-Wed closing time, shutting up shop at 4 AM on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Unfortunately for him, Reade is a solidly residential street with a vocal presence on the Community Board. You could see the eyes roll: "Yeah, SURE you're going to have a restaurant here that closes the kitchen at 11 and keeps on serving booze until 4 on a Thursday." His license was approved but he has to close at 1 AM Sun-Thurs, and 2 on Friday and Saturday.
2) If you want to mingle with the rich and famous of the CB1 set, all you have to do is lunch at Capri Cafe (165 Church Street). The owner got up to plead his beer and wine license case but the Board wouldn't have any of it: they all gushed over the food, said the place was "amazing" and approved the request without any questions. As one member said, "We have to give this guy a beer license...he's never gonna stay in business otherwise!"
3) Tangier, a bar at 311 Church Street, wants to expand into their basement with a second lounge. Never heard of Tangier? Neither have the good people of CB1. They approved the license and a 4 AM closing time after they finally realized that the bar used to be called Sugar, they had never heard any complaints about it, and that it doesn't make any sense to tell one level of the bar it has to shut two hours before the other. UPDATE: We failed to notice this is the address of Macao Trading Co., trying to finalize the license for their downstairs bar.
4) Other notables to go before the board: Saluggi's at 325 Church Street had its beer and wine upgraded to liquor, and Gigino's Trattoria (323 Greenwich) and City Hall Restaurant (131 Duane) can keep their sidewalk cafes.
— Reporting by Stephanie Butler
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