Community Board 2 Drops Hammer on Torrisi Spinoff Parm

The full recap of last night's Community Board 2 meeting—including the juicy details on Laura Maniec's new spot, Caliente Cab Co.'s play for University Place, and a Gonzalez y Gonzalez comeback—is coming right up, but first, now, quickly, at once, the news on what went down when Mario Carbone tried to get CB2 approval for his and Rich Torrisi's new concept, Parm.

Carbone explained to the committee that the dinner menu will be similar to what they've got going on at Torrisi but will be served a la carte, and they'll have lunch service during the day from 11 AM - 3 PM along with a to-go window. He spoke about how he has been blessed with popularity, how he wants to expand to better serve his customers, and how he feels it would be the most efficient to have two spaces. However, the fact that he said "customers" and not "community members" was a sticking point with the ornery committee. The committee unanimously denied this application for several reasons: the space was previously unlicensed, they feel the window will cause too much congestion, and they feel they have a problem managing their business. Ouch! One board member was in a tizzy over the illegal benches outside and mentioned them multiple times, which seemed to be her main reason for voting against them. The committee did note that this was a strong move given all the restaurant's accolades.

They may fare better with the full board.
—Jackie Goldstein
· All Community Board Coverage [~ENY~]
· All Coverage of Parm [~ENY~]
[photo credit]