Keep it down after midnight!
A Community Board 6 committee demanded on Monday night that a controversial Park Slope bar close its 46-seat outdoor patio by midnight on weekends, saying neighbors aren’t exactly the late-night party types.
“It’s reasonable,” said Pauline Blake, who lives nearby and dreads the boom of boozy voices coming from Prime 6, a 230-person sports bar under construction at Flatbush and Sixth avenues. “Later than that means I’m not going to sleep.”
Prime 6 owner Akiva Ofshtein will fight the resolution, saying that he has invested too much money to boot his open-air cocktail crowd earlier than 1 am, which would be one hour more than some, but not all, of the competing bars nearby.
“I can’t go below the competitive standard,” said Ofshtein, who will open in May. “I’m glad everybody is getting ideas on the table — but the contention is Friday and Saturdays.”
According to the State Liquor Authority, bars can legally serve drinks until 4 am, although bars in quiet neighborhoods often usher open-air drinkers indoors long before that to avoid neighborly rifts.
Park Slopers have been protesting Prime 6 for weeks, saying it will keep them up at all hours, clog streets and lure a rowdy crowd from Barclays Center arena, which will open one block away in 2012.
In an interview last week, Ofshtein explained that he would offer “occasional” lounge-style bottle service — a nightlife trend in which big spenders order full bottles of hard liquor for a table of partiers. Previously, he told the State Liquor Authority that he would have four “security guards” and an outdoor “stand-up bar” with live music.
“It will offer several rooms for private parties, including a basement lounge [and] a large outdoor secluded-dining backyard to be enjoyed during the spring,” Ofshtein’s liquor license application continued.
“There will be large TV screens so that Nets games can be watched.”
At Monday night’s CB6 meeting, Ofshtein told another story, describing plans for a “restaurant” that services, “local meats and vegetables” and offers “free kids brunch on weekends.”
In the big picture, opposition to his bar can be seen as a proxy battle in the long fight over the Atlantic Yards mega-project, which will undoubtedly alter the local nightlife scene once the Barclays Center arena is completed and 19,000 basketball fans descend.
Community Board 6 will take up the issue at its full board meeting at the Prospect Park Residence [1 Prospect Park West at Union Street in Park Slope, (718) 622-8400] on April 13 at 6:30 pm.
