LOWER MANHATTAN CULTURAL COUNCIL
A new board member of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, who is also on the CB1 Tribeca committee, suggested that LMCC present to various CB1 committees. There was no news, although as someone who has never thought much about the LMCC, I was surprised that it runs an occasional residency in Paris. How does “Le Citoyen du Tribeca” sound?

STREET-FESTIVAL PERMIT
As part of the mayor’s awesome initiative to reduce the number of street fairs, the city is making various organizations with street fairs planned condense them into one event. So the Downtown Visiting Neighbors and the Downtown Independent Democrats, who were going to have separate events (on Broad and Murray, respectively), are now holding one event, together, on Lafayette between Canal and Leonard, on Sunday, April 22. Vote: 7–0.

Plein Sud’s Frederic Lesort holding the plans for a sidewalk café; click to enlarge and you’ll see where the tables will be

SIDEWALK-CAFÉ PERMIT FOR PLEIN SUD
Plein Sud wants to put ten tables (20 seats) on W. Broadway, south of the Smyth hotel’s entrance; the request was accompanied by a separate application for a liquor license to allow hooch in the café. There was discussion as to exactly how busy that part of W. Broadway is (not very), and how far the tables would be from the subway entrance (64 feet). Plein Sud wanted to serve liquor till midnight seven days a week, but the board voted unanimously for 11 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday (or maybe Thursday) and midnight Thursday through Saturday.

LIQUOR-LICENSE APPLICATION: MARYANN’S
As mentioned here, MaryAnn’s has a private party space in its basement, and it wants a liquor license, but there’s no certificate of occupancy yet, so the board thinks it needs to wait. A neighbor asked if the rumor was true that MaryAnn’s would be turning it into an “after hours club.” The folks from the restaurant said no.

Susghi of Gari’s plans for the ground floor (click to enlarge)

LIQUOR-LICENSE APPLICATION: SUSHI OF GARI
The mysterious Japanese restaurant coming to the old Bouley Studio/Upstairs/Bouley Bakery* space will be Sushi of Gari, which has outposts on the Upper East and West Sides and on W. 46th St., as well as one in Tokyo. (Or maybe it won’t be called that, as the application says “dba TBD,” even though the community petition says it’ll be Sushi of Gari and the menu submitted is Sushi of Gari’s.) Anyway, Gari’s Masatoshi Sugio is partnering with Manabu Nishigaki who has Ise Restaurant on E. 49th St. (which used to be near the WTC) and, according to the application, “Oni Corp” at 56 Pine, which I can’t find online. The first floor will be the kitchen and restaurant seating; upstairs will be the small bar and restaurant seating. They anticipate opening in the summer, with construction starting in a few months. The restaurant wanted to stay open till 2 a.m. weekdays/3:30 a.m. weekends, but the board went unanimously for 1 a.m./2 a.m. (*There was a humorous moment at the start when everyone tried to get a handle on which building was becoming Sushi of Gari. The one that used to be a Bouley restaurant? The white building?)

SIDEWALK-CAFÉ PERMIT: JEAN
Dr.  Michel Cohen was on hand to request 10 outdoor tables (with 21 seats) for Jean, his upcoming lunch spot/wine bar at 65 W. Broadway. The board was nervous about approving café seating for a restaurant before it had opened. For a while, it looked as if the chair’s enthusiasm for Cohen would push it through, but others worried that a precedent was being set. I had to leave before the vote, but my guess is that it did not pass. P.S. Jean is not opening until at least March.

WHAT I MISSED
ROC was there for to renew its sidewalk-café permit, and there was going to be a presentation by members of CB1’s State Liquor Authority Task Force Committee. And the final item on the agenda—the restaurant at 225 W. Broadway dropped, by the way—was “WTC Command Center at 1st Precinct.” My guess is that either CB1 is upset about the construction or the traffic/parking; whether the NYPD would care about its opinion is another matter entirely.