Lavender Lake Looks to Reopen After Sandy's Flooding

Lavender Lake, the Gowanus bar opened by four designer friends this summer, suffered a decent amount of flooding during Hurricane Sandy. Unfortunately for the bar?and for the rest of Gowanus?those floodwaters came from everyone's favorite horrifically polluted waterway and Superfund site, the Gowanus Canal. Suddenly the bar's name, an old-time nickname for the Canal, strikes a little too close to home.

Co-owner Sam Wheeler talks to Canal Creatures about the struggles the bar is facing after the flooding. While he and the other owners have had a crew in there scrubbing everything with bleach, replacing drywall to prevent mold, and power-washing the kitchen and dining room, they've yet to hear back from the city about what needs to be done to ensure the bar is free of toxins and chemicals and what-not. The issue, as Wheeler puts it, is knowing first whether it's even safe for them to be in there cleaning because of the incredible pollutants from the Superfund site, and two, what they need to ensure it's safe to serve food and drinks so that they can reopen.

Once they do reopen, Wheeler says that they're looking into what they need to do to prevent future flooding.
· Lavender Lake's Lavender Lake Concerns [GYFO]
· Gowanus Businesses Post-Sandy: Lavender Lake [Tumblr]
· All Coverage of Lavender Lake [~ENY~]