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Timberlake's Partner Drops Bid for Murray Street Sports Bar The celebrity-connected restaurateur and nightclub owner hoping to open his latest A-list hotspot in Tribeca has withdrawn his application for a liquor license. Eytan Sugarman had planned to open a 1,400 square-foot sports bar and restaurant at 6 Murray Street, the former home of the Roadhouse restaurant and bar. Along with pop icon Justin Timberlake, Sugarman currently co-owns Southern Hospitality, the Upper East Side BBQ eatery that feeds celebrities from country music star Carrie Underwood and actress Jessica Biel to Mets third baseman David Wright. Community Board 1 district manager Noah Pfefferblit said Sugarman withdrew his application Tuesday, July 29 from the board's consideration. "All I got was a very terse, very brief letter saying that [Sugarman] was pulling his application," Pfefferblit said.
The proposed club had sparked a groundswell of backlash from neighboring residents. Robert Krauss, who has lived on Murray Street for 22 years, collected more than 280 signatures on a petition condemning Sugarman's proposal. "We felt that a sports bar with celebrity visitors and a 4 a.m. closing time would be highly disruptive," Krauss said. "Those kinds of bars can be counted on to be loud and noisy." "We're not anti-business," he added, "we would just prefer one that would fit into what Murray Street is: short, narrow and residential." Although the application was pulled a mere hours before the full Community Board 1 was to vote on the application, Sugarman's attorney, Bruno Gioffre, Jr., told the Trib community opposition was not a factor in the decision. “Essentially, [Sugarman] came to the conclusion that the space just wasn’t the right fit for what he wanted to do,” Gioffre said. Gioffre also alluded to a disagreement with the property’s landlord, but did not say if it was a determining factor in Sugarman’s decision. “He was looking forward to bringing something to that area,” Gioffre said. Earlier in the month, CB1's Financial District Committee had approved Sugarman's application by a 5-1 vote, despite misgivings about the owner's insistence on the right to close at 4 a.m., the latest allowable closing hour for the city's bars. Sugarman, speaking before that committee, said Timberlake was not involved with this particular project—what would have been his fifth in Manhattan since 1999. He said his restaurants and bars do have a reputation for drawing big names. "Part of the appeal of my establishments is that we do have a fair amount of celebrities coming in," said Sugarman at the July 10 meeting. "That would probably be the case here too, but to a lesser degree than some of the other places." Gioffre, his lawyer, urged committee members not to be wary of the establishment because his client's restaurants tend to attract celebrities. "Cameron Diaz might come in with her friends, hang out for a while, get something to eat, and then leave," Gioffre said. "It's not like it's a big event every time something like that happens." Told about the proposed establishment by a reporter, one resident who lives with her 10-year-old daughter a few doors from the former Roadhouse, said she thought that block of Murray Street was congested enough with bars and restaurants. "I don't like it," said the woman, who asked that her name not be used. "There are a lot of families living here, a lot of little kids. I think I'm against any more bars on this block."
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