Laughing Man, the bustling coffee shop at 184 Duane, has a temporary beer and wine license (the state allowed for these while they work through their byzantine backlog) and is serving both inside the café and in their curbside setup.

They had to seek a waiver from Community Board 1 for bathrooms: the state requires that all bars have two. CB1 granted the waiver last September at its Executive Committee meeting, after the Licensing Committee addressed it but did not pass a resolution. The temporary licenses are supposed to be for 90 days, but I am assuming the state had to extend that since they still aren’t up to date on applications.

They will be on the Licensing Committee agenda again in September.

Hours are still in flux: they did 8:30p the other night and they are eventually aiming for a 10p closing time.

David Steingard, the company’s CEO, told the Licensing Committee *last* September that adding drinks was one of the few ways to keep things going after the blight of the pandemic. “When we designed the space pre-covid it was not what we had in mind,” he said, “But now everyone’s doing everything they can to stay afloat.”

He added: “I am not a night bar person so this is not going to be a joint that will be jumping at night, but a casual gathering place.”