Dozens of Park Slopers packed a community meeting on Monday might to say “nein!” to a plan for an outdoor garden at a St. Marks Place German beer hall that they say is simply the wurst neighbor around.
The proprietor of the Koelner Bierhalle between Fourth and Fifth avenues came the seek the local community board’s endorsement for a state permit to shill steins on a patio he said would accommodate around 20 patrons and close at 8:30 pm, but locals claimed the Teutonic tavern is already loud and unruly enough without letting the rummies party outside.
“Having an outdoor garden on our block is insane,” said long-time Warren Street resident Ron Fliegelman at the Community Board 6 liquor license committee. “I don’t understand where there’s even a possibility that this could go through.”
One local couple had such passionate objections to the bar, they cut their vacation short to air their issues at the meeting.
“There’s noise late at night and people throwing up on the street,” said St. Marks Place resident Tom Harriman, who drove all the way from Vermont with wife Meg to protest the beer hall and its outdoor expansion, then went back again afterwards.
Expecting opposition, the owner began his presentation with an impassioned speech blaming the community’s numerous gripes on his former business partners, whom he bought out in November last year.
“I was a minority shareholder, I did not like the way the business was being run, and I took it over last year, revamped it, and tried to make it something great,” said Marquis Williams to his ornery audience.
Williams went on to enumerate the various measures he has already taken to make the bar more palatable for locals — which he said include building a foyer to muffle some of the noise, hiring additional staff to manage outdoor crowds, and keeping the music turned down to a pleasant drone.
But words alone were not enough to assuage the mob, who said they have endured the cavernous watering hole’s raucous late-night revelries since 2012, and who feel like they’ve been swindled before by the management’s empty promises, according to nearby resident.
“There’s just a failure of trust between the bar and what it’s said in the past and what it does,” said Warren Street citizen David Gordon.
And many of the locals’ gripes concerned transgressions they say occurred after Williams took over sole ownership of the establishment — including one local who held up a fist full of 311 noise complaints she had printed out for the event.
“As earlier as a few weeks ago, there’s still people calling 311 with noise complaints,” said Jessica Kimelman. “We’re not really seeing the words that your saying.”
There have been five 311 complaints about the bar this year, and more than 50 since it opened in 2012, according to city data.
The committee didn’t vote on the application, and ultimately decided to form a working group of residents to negotiate conditions with Williams, which he will have to promise to adhere to in return for the board’s endorsement.
The group is expected to meet within the next few days, and hammer out the agreement before the community board’s executive meeting on Aug. 8.
But some locals said they won’t be satisfied with anything but a flat “no.”
“Our main stipulation is no outside space under any circumstances,” said Harriman. “This is a totally residential block!”