Prospective Bar Owner Faces Neighbors’ Wall of Opposition

As soon as she walked into the room, Kaarin Von knew it was over.

The 30-year-old proprietor of Von, a bar at Bleecker and Bowery, had hoped to open a second establishment—capacity 150—at 465 Washington St., a residential building near Canal. Last month she came to a meeting of Community Board 1’s Quality of Life Committee to win the board’s blessing for a liquor license for the bar. But the meeting’s sign-in sheet bore the names of many of her prospective neighbors. Never a good sign for an applicant.

There were giggles and loud chatter when her lawyer, Warren Pesetsky, began to speak. The bar’s sound system would be no larger than a home stereo, he announced.

"Right, right. Sure!" shouted Larry Devine of 459 Washington St. He later recounted how he had slept in his bathroom when he lived two floors above Club Vinyl a few blocks away. "The windows shook, the bed was jumping around, the bass was going boom boom boom. That’s what you’ll always hear."

Residents of the quiet north Tribeca street said they also feared unruly bar patrons, uncollected trash, and the existing rat problem made worse. One neighbor said that once, as he was riding his bicycle up the street, a rat ricocheted off the spokes of his wheel.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. Committee chair Carole De Saram held up a page from the zoning resolution and said the street wasn’t zoned for bars. To get a variance, she warned, "could cost you a million dollars."

The building’s owner of two years, Andrew Bradfield, pleaded hardship, saying that his previous tenant, a pasta factory, had moved out in September. Von, who hadn’t yet signed a lease, was the first to show an interest in the space. "I need to make it clear to everyone that I’m in a very difficult position," he said.

Kaarin Von held her tongue until the end. "I’m shocked that everyone assumes the worst about our capacity to run a legal and responsible business," she said, adding that there are no problems with her bar in the East Village.

The committee voted unanimously against her.

Days later, in an interview, Von seemed more charitable toward her opponents.

"I don’t want to be in an environment that’s not accepting, and that’s fine," she said. "I respect that."