Town & Village : Shareholders successfully fight opening of restaurant/bar

By Sabina Mollot

A taco restaurant and bar that had been close to signing a lease at East Midtown Plaza has already made a run for the border.

Though initially hoping to move into a retail space last occupied by a Carvel shop and have outdoor seating for 40 people as well as 30 indoor seats, the owners of Cascabel Taqueria pulled out last week. The reason apparently was that the restaurant, which offers bottomless cocktails during brunch at its two uptown locations, would have been limited to a wine and beer license only and would have had to close earlier than its desired closing time of 1 a.m.

The limitations, recently imposed by EMP’s co-op board, came after a number of tenants blasted the plan to have any kind of bar operating outside on the area of the complex known as the triangle. This is currently a common area on East 24th Street and Second Avenue used by residents as well as the public. It’s a popular spot to have lunch when the weather permits it and there’s no alcohol drinking allowed there.
Residents were first made aware of the plan to open the restaurant, called Taco 1584, at a Community Board 6 meeting last month when owners David Chiong and Elizabeth Gaudeau requested the board’s blessing for a liquor license.

Shelley Winfield, an EMP resident, told Town & Village she was at that meeting and told the owners she hadn’t heard about any restaurant coming. In response, she said the owners said the co-op complex’s board wanted them to sign a lease but first start the process of getting a liquor license.

Winfield voiced her opposition to the idea due to noise concerns and CB6’s Business Affairs and Street Activities committee instructed the owners to come back with ideas on how to mitigate concerns about noise. However, shortly before the meeting that was scheduled for Thursday, April 24, the restaurant’s application was pulled from the agenda.
Winfield later said that though she was opposed to a bar, she would welcome a restaurant. “The co-op benefits when the commercial spaces are leased.” Still, she recalled living in another apartment on the second floor within EMP nearby the proposed space and how “noises could be heard from the street.”

Another resident against the plan was John Small, who noted that the space Cascabel would have moved into was occupied by a bar decades ago, which, he said, caused problems with noise, transients coming through the complex at night and rowdiness.

And Cascabel, it seemed, would not have been any different. Along with the bottomless cocktails, the current locations already feature happy hours and flights of tequila. “They also,” said Small, “invite SantaCon attendees to come to their bars during the annual drunkfest.”

Also of concern to Small was that EMP’s co-op board initially didn’t want to discuss the plan for Taco 1584. Small said that at a recent co-op meeting, when the board’s president, Mark Andermanis, was asked about it, he said the matter would be discussed at a “closed meeting” between board members.

“They refused to answer questions,” said Small. The decision to impose restrictions on the restaurant’s operation, he added, was only done after shareholders started complaining and distributing fliers opposing its moving in.

Winfield, who served on the board of directors from 1996-1999, seemed to agree. “It appears the board shares information after everything is settled,” she said.

Andermanis wasn’t available for comment when T&V called him about the issue, but a member of EMP’s co-op board, Mala Mosher, confirmed that the deal with Cascabel’s owners was now officially off the table.
“Both parties agreed that they were not going to continue” in negotiations, said Mosher.

However, she said the lack of information given to tenants wasn’t intentional, but that when the talks began, the co-op board had not yet been presented with a detailed business plan. Once restrictions were brought up, “I don’t think it was doable for them,” she said.
In a letter to CB6 dated April 18, the board said it would have liked to see a license given with restrictions because the proposed space has been vacant for years and is hard to rent because of how small it is.

According to another shareholder, Jeanne Poindexter, the last tenant, Carvel, closed after its rent was doubled. Fortunately for EMP, she added, it’s currently the only vacant space in the Mitchell-Lama complex’s retail strip.

When asked for comment about the plans being scrapped, a manager at Cascabel Taqueria, who said she fields calls for the owner, claimed to have no knowledge of the proposal to open a location at East Midtown Plaza. Chiong and Gaudeau did not respond to the call from T&V. The restaurant, online, claims it has the best tacos in New York.

http://town-village.com/2014/05/06/shareholders-successfully-fight-opening-of-restaurantbar-at-east-midtown-plaza/

Cascabel Taqueria in old Carvel space

cascabel-80streetIMG_7414 (Medium)IMG_7416 (Medium)

Cascabel Taqueria wants to lease the old Carvel store. They would want to put seating in the public space.

First of all, Hooray to the board for finally finding a tenant for this store. The rental income will benefit all of us here at EMP. Also, having a nice restaurant with outdoor seating would enhance the neighborhood and be a place people at EMP could enjoy. Having people dining there would probably keep away the hoards of pigeons and loud bums that hang out there now!

Apparently, there are already some obstructionists who are trying to stop Cascabel from succeeding with a flyer asking you to attempt to syop thenm form getting a liquor license which of course, a restaurant, particularly a Mexican restaurant has to have to succeed. Thsi flyer says that Cascabel features bottomless cocktails. That is not true-They only offer unlimited drinks on their weekend brunch menu and that’s with a 60 minute time limit! Really-How many Margaritas can a person drink in 60 minutes? http://www.nyctacos.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/02.01.14-Brunch_menu_for_print.pdf

I have a friend who lives directly across Second Avenue on the 2nd floor from the Upper East Side Cascabel. It is not noisy at all and a fun, very tasty and lovely restaurant.

 

 

 

Vercesi Hardware to close

An old-time neighborhood standby, Vercesi Hardware is closing at the end of November. The history of the store which was opened by Paul Vercesi as a sheet music store in 1912 can be seen at http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/10/vercesi-hardware.html

The store became known as 23rd Street Hardware after the owner retired several years ago. 23st_hw-noteThe building was sold, will be demolished and turned into yet another luxury high-rise.

We have discovered that the The Xavier Society for the Blind in the adjoining building will be relocating and that building will be knocked down as well.

It is odd that every politico that has jurisdiction over EMP stopped us from going private in the name of ‘Affordable Housing’ yet they let thousands of 5-6 story building that people can afford to live in be knocked down by wealthy developers to be replaced by expensive condos. Why is it that EMP’s 750 apartments are the only answer to affordable housing? How about standing up to rich developers?

23st_hw

 

 

Carvel Store

It looked like they were doing a little work in the Carvel Store. Could we hope that we will have a new tenant in there? Something good!

Maybe some traffic would help with the pigeon problem. Please don’t feed these winged rodents and if you see anyone else doing so, kindly ask them to stop!

carvel pigeon

Another Duane Reade coming at 23rd Street and 2nd Ave

The neighborhood has been crying out for another chain drug store in the ‘hood. And we are getting one! There is a new Duane Reade under construction at the Southeast corner of 2nd Avenue and 23rd Street in the Tempo Building. This is in addition to the Duane Reade’s on 23rd Street & 3rd Ave, 23rd Street & Lexington Ave and 26th Street and 2nd Avenue. It also adds to the CVS down the block and the brand new drug store on 23rd Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue. Is there a trend here? Based on the number of long-time empty storefronts around town and the proliferation of drug stores and bank branches, it seems only the banks and drugs can afford the rents. Maybe it’s because now that Walgreens, CVS and D/R have pushed out all the mom & pop drug stores, they can charge ridiculous prices for everything; A bottle of shampoo that used to be $3 is now $6. A small bottle of bottled tap water is now $2. The cheapest sunscreen is $12 for a small tube. We prefer shopping for our Health & Beauty items at Target in Harlem or by the new Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn where you can buy these items for 1/2 the price. It’s unfortunate that all the things that made New York City unique are disappearing

duane reade, kips bay, gramercy, NYC

Breaking News! Whole Foods coming to Kips Bay.

We have it from a reliable source that Whole Foods will be opening a store on 2nd Avenue in the 30’s probably in the old Borders or Office Depot spaces.

Updated 4/13/2012; The Crunch Gym has closed and moved leading us to speculate that the Whole Foods will incorporate the old Borders space and the  large basement section formally the Crunch workout space.