I’m playing catch up on the June Licensing Committee meeting, but this will serve as a heads up for this month’s meeting. Since the applicant did not post the notices two weeks in advance of the meeting, they were asked to come back again.

They did add some more details on the tavern, proposed for the old Schoolhouse Electric space called The Lost Draft at 27 Vestry (aka 177 Hudson): it’s a work cafe with liquor in 1500 square feet. There’s no kitchen area but there are 21 tables with 34 seats and no bar area. The overall capacity is 70.

Proposed hours are Monday to Thursday, 7a to 10p; Friday and Saturday, 8a to midnight; and Sunday 8a to 9p. The owner is Mei Guo and the manager will be Dana Li.

The attorney for the seven-unit condo at 33 Vestry said his clients are concerned about what the clientele would be doing after they came outside after they were drinking — and called Vestry a very narrow street. They also thought the hours were too late and should be substantially reduced since people don’t work till 10p at night, according to him. He also called it an upscale street and that any kind of bar use is not consistent with the character of the neighborhood since the condos are worth millions of dollars. He also noted that with Paisley and Tribeca Cinemas nearby, he’s not sure how the SLA could accept this kind of density of liquor licenses. (He said the residents themselves could not attend a Zoom meeting because of the pandemic and the strain that has put on people.)

“My residents are concerned about what this will do to the block,” the lawyer said. “You are talking about a situation where people are drinking while they are working, and that’s an interesting situation. They are then going to pour out onto the streets when they are done with that, and that’s not consistent with character of this neighborhood.”