The Dive Bar that Never Was

Check out how Breslin owner Ken Friedman faces off with angry representatives of the mosque across the street from the Ace Hotel: "They said, ‘Can you move the bar?'...and I laughed. And the guy said, ‘Oh, you think that’s funny?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, that is funny, that is really funny, because we’re not going to move the bar just because you discovered we’re serving booze.’...I said, ‘This is the United States of America and we’ll do whatever the fuck we want.'" That said, he did make this vital concession: "Mr. Friedman and his partner, Spotted Pig chef April Bloomfield, did agree to nix plans for a dive bar in a townhouse next door." [NYO]