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Martinis to Displace Tribeca Pushcarts?
Now, it appears, the future of 293 Church Street may no longer lie in that hardscrabble past, but in $13 martinis. Matthew Piacentini, a Portland, Ore., restaurateur, intends to turn the space into a bar/lounge called Honoria Drawing Room. Last month, he appeared before the Tribeca Committee of Community Board 1, seeking the board’s advisory approval for a liquor license. The committee supported it and the full board, in a near unanimous vote, agreed. “We feel Tribeca is the perfect neighborhood because it’s such a civilized place,” Piacentini told the committee. He described the planned 40-45 seat establishment as “a place for ladies and gentlemen, adult people to go, to enjoy food, sipping digestives, aperitifs. Basically it is a drawing room in the classic European hotel style.” “During the day,” Piacentini added, “we want to host a series of symposiums, with experts in different entertaining fields.” Peter Braus, the Tribeca Committee chairman, welcomed the application. “The current occupant of this [space] is so terrible, and such a detriment to the community. I mean, it’s not terrible. It doesn’t hurt anyone. It really, frankly, doesn’t do any credit to our neighborhood.” Braus complained that it was difficult for his wife to push a stroller over the raised sidewalk that serves as a ramp for the carts. Jean Grillo, a public member of the board, argued otherwise. “I’ve lived here 30 years. I’ve had no trouble walking with my child over the little ramp. So I personally am sorry that we’re going to lose a place where those guys can store their carts.” Told by a reporter of the plans for the space, Sean Basinski, director of the Street Vendor Project, a vendor advocacy organization, said he was shocked, and worried where the men would go. “It is one of the few remaining garages,” he said. He recalled a garage that closed in Soho, leaving the vendors without a place to store their carts. “They were sleeping in the streets overnight, next to the carts,” he said. “You can’t push them back to the Bronx where you live.” The reporter accompanied Basinski to the garage, where several men told them they did not know of the proposed plans. One of them, a manager whose father worked there when it opened, said he was confident that he and the others would get plenty of notice if they had to leave. “Think how long it would take to fix this place,” the manager said. “You might have time,” Basinski told him. “I hope so.” “We’ve known these people [the building owners] since 1970. I think they will give us time to find a place or something. They’re good people. They’re all good people. We never have a problem.” He continued, as if to himself: “They can’t just throw us out overnight, anyway. They got to give us time. What, throw us out tomorrow? We’re here since 1970.” Herbert Schwartz, a well-liked textile merchant on Walker Street, owned 293 Church Street and several other properties in the neighborhood until his death in 2001. The building eventually passed to his brother, then to his nephews, Mitchell and Mark Schwartz. Reached by phone, Mitchell, who his brother said handles the real estate, declined to comment. Piacentini said he is only beginning negotiations with the owner. He expects to sign a lease by the end of this month and open by the summer. A hot dog vendor who works Downtown but out of a different garage described the struggle of looking for space among the few cart garages around. Some were too far or too narrow or had no room, said the vendor, who did not want to be identified. “What are your options? Nothing. You have to have your cart in the right commissary and they don’t make it easy. You can’t work while you’re looking. If I don’t work I don’t make money.” “Realtors don’t want to get involved,” the vendor added. “There’s no help from anybody.”
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