No alcohol in the EU
Opening a restaurant in New York is tough, even at the best of times. Spending $1 million in setting up the joint and getting these people to work on the look helps, of course, but deciding to call the eatery the "European Union" is surely inadvisable. Sluggish growth, strikes, red tape, poor service… that's the EU. And sure enough, Manhattan's EU on East 4th Street near Avenue B has paid a terrible price for tempting fate: it's been denied a liquor licence. That's 40 percent of the projected sales shot already and, on top of that, the proprietor, filmmaker Robert Giraldi, has been paying rent and staff since September. Ouch!
Behind the story of a business idea gone pear-shaped is what's being called the "East Village Noise War". Residents are fed up with restaurants because they mean more traffic, more people and more noise. So they object and the State Liquor Authority listens. The silver lining for those living in the neighbourhood is that from next month on they'll get to dine in a hot new restaurant, and they can bring their own wine, paying retail rather than restaurant prices. That's the kind of EU we'd like like.
