SLA Disses Death & Co, Keeps Le Suck Alive

In a case of what the hell were they thinking, the Observer has news of two embattled East Village establishments, Death & Co. and Le Souk, who are both battling the fickle SLA. Amazingly, Death & Co. have not swayed the SLA to re-instate their license, while Le Souk has managed to hold onto theirs for another week. Exsqueeze us? Something about this is just off.

While we have had our issues with Death & Co with small operational items, overall we find it to be a rather well run cocktail den. Le Souk is another beast, with underage crowds, loud music, fights and a general garbage atmostphere. To sum up, the SLA should desire establishments like Death & Co. But since they are the SLA, they do all they can to run them out while Le Souk manages to remain open. No wonder the Governor needed some adult fun, he worked for NY State!

An Evening At: Death & Co.

What is it about Death & Co. that drives the people so crazy? The regulars love it and want it to stay forever. The neighbors hate it and want it gone immediately. And where does that leave us?

After visiting several times after it first opened, Death & Co. left us with a bad taste in our mouths. The food wasn't good, the seats were small, and the price point was, in our opinion, too high. We decided to stop going. But after almost a year, we decided to give it a chance. We showed up early in the evening to meet a friend, but when we told the door guard we were meeting someone, we had to wait outside in the cold until the rest of the party arrived. The next guests were told the same thing, saying the bar doesn't seat incomplete parties. Luckily, our party arrived before after a few minutes and we managed to get the last available small table. The other waiters never got in.

The room is still dark and well designed. Jazz is still on as background music. The cocktail list is lengthy and varied, with several creative concoctions that were tasty, but took 10 minutes to be delivered to the table. We didn't eat, but the food we saw still came in excessively small batches. The size of the room, the crowd and the music make it very loud and hard to talk. Maybe not the best place to catch up with friends, but then what is it a good place for? We aren't sure.

Do we want it be closed? Of course not. But we have our complaints. If it's a cocktail bar with food, then let people wait inside for their group. If it's too small, then allow people to reserve tables. The community issues have Death and Co. walking too fine a line, trying so hard to put it's restaurant foot forward while doing everything it can to operate as one of the most upscale cocktail lounges in town. No one can be everything. Death & Co. deserves a chance to do as it pleases, operating as a full service lounge until 4 AM, 7 nights a week. But that doesn't mean we are going to go.

I Am Not a Bar

We pity poor David Kaplan, the young up and comer who's Death and Co. has gone to battle with the fearsome fogies of Community Board 3. It seems his cocktail restaurant lounge type thing is going to be bullied by his neighbors right out of business. How bad have things gotten? So bad that Kaplan has to take umbrage with the author of a recent sympathy piece that labeled Death and Co. as a bar.

The madness has got to stop. While we support a neighbor's right to relative quiet, New York as a city must make it possible to open and operate a business. With the pending economic issues, this will become even more evident, as potential entrepreneurs (David Kaplan) who are hoping to pour their heart and soul into opening a restaurant, lounge or bar will look at the neighborhood, the high rent, the fees, taxes and regulatory BS and run the other way. Add an onerous community board to the mix and opening an interesting place to have a cocktail is nearly impossible.

Death and Co. is a bar! Their drinks are good, their food is passable. Give them a damn liquor license and let's wrap this shenanigan up.

[Photo Credit]

Quick Hits: Death and Co.

Time for a super fast edition of Quick Hits, where we tell you something oh so quickly.
A very special Little Birdy tells us some news from the bowels of the East Village, saying, "after dinner, when my friends and I couldn't get any seats at PDT, we headed over to Death and Co. around midnight. They were already closed, the doors were locked and there was nobody there." Thanks VSLB. Death & Co.'s troubles with the neighborhood and the SLA are well documented. We certainly wish them the best and hope they are able to stay open.

Photo Credit

In the Dead of the Night(life)

Some interesting developments in the last few days regarding two of the more important bars to open in the last few months. First, it seems Death and Co. ran into some neighborhood opposition regarding its quasi-restaurant service. We've been to D and C a few times, and well, why we appreciate the name and above average cocktails, we are going to give it a pass.

We have also seen Gold Bar go from impossible door to posing for pictures. We admit we haven't been yet, because well, we aren't that hip. But early reports to DBTH are troubling, with one birdy who has been reporting "tons of models, cool space, and the best old-fashioned that $18 can buy." Seems about right, until our resident nightlife expert (yeah, we got one of those too!) saying "They have not gotten any good pr and the opening was not as exclusive as I thought it should be, so they are trying to drum up some pr. Thing is, they usually go Page 6 or NY Mag, which makes me question what is going on if they go to Blogs." I guess they can bend with the best of them.

Well, we like the blog PR route, since you know we are one. (And they love us). But, with Sacco-ville cooked, the irrelevant MeatPacking district, and the Lower East Side's Dunzo status, the state of NYC nightlife is in serious flux.