Danny Ghitis for The New York TimesIn the wake of a lawsuit and ahead of a community board meeting tonight, the operators of Bow have parted ways with a promoter who threw controversial parties in the basement space.
Travis Bass, the “impresario of the night” who helped launch the club, is no longer involved, a source told The Local.
Mr. Bass did not return a message requesting comment, but an EMM Group rep said they “will be focusing their attention downstairs on early dinner, jazz and the lounge aspect of the space with less to do with the late night.”
At a community board meeting last month, neighbors complained that EMM Group was operating Bow as a nightclub rather than the jazz lounge it had promised to open. One neighbor who complained about noise, Danielle Schwob, has filed a lawsuit against EMM Group and the State Liquor Authority, charging that the authority failed to consult the community board and failed to take the public interest into account when it granted a liquor license.
Lila Selim Mark Birnbaum and Eugene Remm of EMM Group.“Bakers Dozen broke its pledge,” reads the lawsuit, referring to the LLC to which the license was granted. “Instead of the ‘background music’ it promised, it is now operating a club on the premises with a sound system it purports to be the biggest and loudest in Manhattan, with unauthorized dancing on the ground floor, go-go dancers suspended from the ceiling, giant video projections, lines of waiting patrons stretcliing down the block from 11 p.m. on into the night and web-promoted events with admission fees.”
Noise from the club, the lawsuit alleges, has caused many sleepless nights. “The quality of life of the residential petitioners has been decimated and their apartments rendered unfit and undesirable as dwelling units. The continuing nuisance has caused them to become anxious and emotionally distressed,” reads the suit.
EMM Group is scheduled to go back in front of Community Board 3’s liquor licensing committee tonight. We’ll have a full report after the meeting.
