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State Licenses and Permits
Grimoire Group, LLC, dba “Vie en Rose”, 133 West 30th Street (Between Sixth and Seventh Avenues), New York, NY, application for a new beer and wine liquor license
At the regularly scheduled monthly Community Board Five meeting on Thursday, October 12, 2023, the following resolution passed with a vote of 34 in favor; 0 opposed; 1 abstaining:
WHEREAS, Grimoire Group, LLC (“Applicant”), has notified Community Board Five of its intention to apply for a new beer and wine liquor license for a restaurant and bar located at 133 West 30th Street (Between Sixth and Seventh Avenues), New York, NY (the “Premises”); and
WHEREAS, This application reflects a revision from the Applicant’s original application requesting a full catering liquor license for a proposed events space, which Community Board Five heard in June 2023 and denied unanimously due to strong community opposition against the proposed method of operation, as well as a history of raucous parties occurring as a result of the Applicant subleasing out the space to third-party promoters; and
WHEREAS, The Premises is approximately 4,000 square feet on the ground floor and currently excludes the mezzanine and basement, which will be used for administrative purposes only; and
WHEREAS, Current capacity of the Premises is 74 persons but the Applicant is already in the process of expanding the occupancy to 250 persons and including the other floors of the Premises for patron use; and
WHEREAS, The Premises is located on a mixed use block, with the nearest residential buildings immediately across the street at 130 West 30th Street and another two doors away at 143 West 30th Street; and
WHEREAS, Aside from several one-time catering permits issued for the space, the Premises has never before had a liquor license; and
WHEREAS, This block has several restaurants currently in operation as well as two to three additional restaurant operations which have been approved; and
WHEREAS, This block has a single lane of traffic with no loading zones; and
WHEREAS, This location, being home to the NYPD Traffic Control Division station house at 138 West 30th Street, already suffers from extraordinary traffic congestion; and
WHEREAS, Applicant proposes to operate a restaurant and late-night lounge specializing in “immersive dining experiences” with timed seatings, private events, and ticketed exhibitions and installations; and
WHEREAS, Applicant works with “event teams” such as Fever, Amex Presents, and Secret NYC to promote the events and sell tickets, in order to maximize attendance; and
WHEREAS, Applicant continues to request late closing hours of 2:00 am Sunday through Thursday and 4:00 am Friday though Saturday, despite its claims of being willing to cooperate with the residents, who have consistently and unanimously requested closing hours in alignment with the rest of the block; and
WHEREAS, This revised method of operation still involves “ticketed segments” that lend themselves to queuing, which can only take place outdoors on the sidewalk as the Applicant has stated that indoor queuing is not possible at this time; and
WHEREAS, A “ticketed by segment” operation could produce as many as 1,000 patrons or more to every event (for example, 250 person capacity x 5 segments = 1,250 patrons over the course of an event); and
WHEREAS, Unlike a typical bar or restaurant operation, which may be busy from time to time during meal times or perhaps around a sporting event, the nature of a ticketed events-based operation lends itself to maximum occupancy all night, every night; and
WHEREAS, Applicant has declined to agree to restrict total occupancy to 74, citing the desire of its landlord to expand the occupancy; and
WHEREAS, Applicant has declined to agree to not apply for a full liquor license if a beer and wine license is granted, despite community concerns that the latter is being used as a stepping stone towards acquiring a full liquor license; and
WHEREAS, Applicant obtained several one-time catering permits from the SLA and held “pop up” events at the Premises on October 29, 2022, October 30, 2022, December 31, 2022, and February 11, 2023, which caused great disturbance to the block, with unruly patrons crowding the sidewalks on both sides of the street as well as in the street itself, and which required a police response to control the mayhem; and
WHEREAS, A resident from the building immediately across the street from the Premises testified that patrons from the events were seen vomiting in the street as well as in the planter boxes in front of the residential building and neighboring synagogue; and
WHEREAS, At the hearing of the original application in June, residents of the block testified to the unruly nature of these events and provided photos and videos of the scene to document the conditions (see photos annexed); and
WHEREAS, Representatives from the 29th Street Neighborhood Association provided written and verbal testimony asserting that the operation would inevitably result in large crowds turning over multiple times a night and is thus completely incompatible with this location; and
WHEREAS, Applicant has been unable to present a consistent business plan to the community, having submitted a memo prior to the committee meeting describing a “Typical Daily Schedule” featuring timed seatings, which was then presented to the public, only to claim after hearing additional comments during the meeting that the timed seatings proposed are an example of a past event and “not actually how [it is] planning on operating”; and
WHEREAS, Community Board Five finds troubling the Applicant’s intent to apply for increased occupancy and a full liquor license, despite clear community concern about the implications of both and the fallout from the Applicant’s past actions, which Community Board Five feels have not been adequately addressed and the Applicant continues to deflect responsibility for; and
WHEREAS, Community Board Five finds that the proposed method of operation, even for a beer and wine license, is not appropriate for this location, regardless of the closing hours being in excess of community standard hours, and that it would have a material adverse effect on quality of life in the neighborhood and set a destructive precedent for existing and future operators on the block; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That Community Board Five requests that the SLA not issue any additional one-time catering permits for the Premises; and be it further
RESOLVED, That Community Board Five recommends denial of the application by Grimoire Group, LLC for a new wine and beer liquor license for a restaurant and bar located at 133 West 30th Street (Between Sixth and Seventh Avenues), New York, NY.