Cocktailians

Death & Co., an NYC Favorite, Sues State Liquor Authority

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by

vidiot
in

Death & Company, the Lower East Side haven much beloved by the purveyors of this blog (see: [a], [b]), is currently suing the New York State Liquor Authority for unfairly targeting them, being one of the newer kids on the block, for filling the gentrifying streets with drunk people.

As the Gothamist mentions, D&C is barely on the radar of actual offenders on this tip; the Cherry Tavern and the Sidewalk Cafe, to randomly name two on that block, are both way louder at street level and create way messier drunks than the vastly classier upstart. But those two bars have something the new kid doesn’t: tenure. And the sedate people moving into the neighborhood have decided, once again, that what makes the neighborhood interesting enough to live in in the first place makes it less than savory to actually live beside.

If Death & Co. closes, it would be a very bad sign for more than just the other bars in the LES, who would clearly be next on the hit list; it would be another nail in the coffin of what is honestly my favorite neighborhood in New York, where I lived happily for two years, and where I would still be living, noise, drunks and all, if the newcomers to the area weren’t so goddamned hell-bent on gentrifying the place into homogenetic oblivion.

Hang in there, guys. We have your back.

Comments

One response to “Death & Co., an NYC Favorite, Sues State Liquor Authority”

  1. N Jarrett Avatar
    N Jarrett

    What a tragedy. It’s amazing that these liquor authorities, boards, and control organizations, originally chartered to protect people from the dangers of alcohol — which are real — invariably increase those dangers by regulating and punishing out anything other than those establishments which appeal to the lowest common denominator.
    As a bar manager and bartender in a heavily centralized and authoritative control state (PA, biggest single buying power in the world), I’m always astonished that bringing in a few bottles of an esoteric and high-quality product is always infinitely more difficult than picking up a few hundred bottles of honest-to-god rotgut.
    Laws are constructed in such a way that any on-premise retailer can be shut down at the whim of a state/city-planner/control organization/licensing authority/block captain, and remarkably it’s generally quality establishments which are making a genuine effort to change drinking culture and elevate cocktails to their appropriate place in the culinary world that get hit instead of those genuine problem spots. As a former (reluctant) inhabitant of the ‘burbs, I watched drunks smash parked cars in an attempt to to exit the parking lot and enter actual traffic, while cops more or less stood by — but urban destinations are targeted as attracting press and held down below the Damocles sword of ridiculous standards while real issue locations are saved by money, connections, and low aspirations.
    Not, I hope, that Death & Co. needs it, but should a legal defense fund be established, I’d personally happily forgo a night of drinking to make a contribution — & while I work too much to drink out too often, when I do I drink well, as, I suspect, do many of us.
    Here’s to reform!

    Reply

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