Threatened Lounge Gets CB1 Support

By Barry Owens
MAY 1, 2006

Eric Benn does not dispute that his bar is on the wrong side of the law—eight feet on the wrong side, to be exact. But the owner of Bubble Lounge on West Broadway, which is in danger of losing its liquor license because it is within 200 feet of a mosque, hopes to persuade the State Liquor Authority (SLA) that he never intended to step across the line.

"I discovered it quite by surprise," Benn told members of Community Board 1's Tribeca Committee last month.

He was speaking of the Sufi mosque, Masjid al-Farah, that is housed in a nondescript white building across the street and exactly 192 feet from the front door of Bubble Lounge at 228 West Broadway.

The SLA is considering revoking the lounge's liquor license, along with the licenses of two other establishments on West Broadway—Tribeca Tavern and Cercle Rouge—because their proximity to the mosque is in violation of the law.

According to the state's Alcohol Beverage Control law, liquor licenses are prohibited for establishments on the same street and within 200 feet of a house of worship. When bar or restaurant owners apply for a liquor license, they must swear that they are not violating the 200-foot law. If the SLA decides that an owner has falsified his application, the owner can lose his right to a license for two years. The West Broadway bar owners say they were unaware of the mosque's presence, and are pleading not guilty.

"The law is very clear," Benn said. "We have been breaking the law. The question is if we have done this in good faith, or bad faith."

Benn went to the community board hoping to get a letter of support to submit to the SLA, which the board agreed to provide. He brought with him supporters from the neighborhood, including a representative from the mosque ("We would hate to see people lose their business," she said) and, most improbably, the neighbors who tipped off the SLA to the West Broadway bars' apparent violations in the first place.

"We did it," said Janna Townsend, who lives with her husband, Peter, at 1 White Street. The couple has long complained to the board about noisy bar patrons on West Broadway and last year made a concerted effort to block the Liquor Store Bar, at the corner of White Street and West Broadway, from gaining a liquor license after a change in ownership. As part of that fight, the pair informed the SLA of the mosque. What they did not intend, the Townsends said, was for other bars on the block to lose their liquor licenses as well.

"We've had all kinds of trouble with the bars," said Peter Townsend. "But the Bubble Lounge has never been one of them."