Lola Loses Live Music Appeal [UPDATED]
Embattled Soho restaurant Lola will just have to make do without live music, the State Liquor Authority informed the eatery's owners on Thursday.
Proprietors Tom and Gayle Patrick-Odeen have said that their business—which has been the subject of a nasty, three-and-a-half-year legal dispute with neighbors, who have protested the place's right to sell booze—is "struggling" without live performances.
The couple recently told The Villager that they were "hanging on by a thread."
Live music had been a staple of the drinking and dining experience at the couple's prior location on West 22nd Street. But upon moving to the corner of Watts and Thompson streets, the duo initially applied to play background music only.
The owners insist that this was a clerical error and that the application was later "orally amended" by the SLA.
But the neighborhood Soho Alliance, which has twice sued to overturn the restaurant's liquor license, alleged that the Patrick-Odeens had attempted to deceive regulators and the community on the music issue.
Over the course of the legal wrangling, the entire composition of the entire liquor board changed and any alleged verbal agreement apparently got lost in the process.
The couple recently returned to the current SLA to request that live music be reinstated. An SLA spokesman said the board officially rejected that motion on Thursday.
UPDATE: Ms. Patrick-Odeen told The Observer via e-mail: "We're disappointed but resolute. We're actively considering our next move from a variety of possibilities. Only one thing is certain—this is not the end of this matter."
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The food at Lola's is terrible. They should go out of business not because of a liquor license but because of the food. There are restaurants without liquor license that do just fine. The food is unpredectable.
I am so confused by the above post. I have eaten at the old Lola and at the new SoHo location--the food was absolutely fabulous--at BOTH! The service was great!! Sounds like the other person who post is part of the never ending dishonest, fraudulent barrage of negativity that has been attempting to disenfranchise the only Black person who owns a restaurant in SoHo and shut this beautiful restaurant down simply bc she dared to challenge the all powerful SoHo "racist" Alliance. This is America. SCARY!!!!!
We had dinner at Lola last Saturday (see date bellow). Being out-of-towners we did not know about the legal fight over booze and music. The place was not empty, but you certainly did not need a reservation. Dinner for three (appetizers and entrees) was very good, except for my etoufee (the other two were the moulle andouille and the fried chiken, both great. It is surprising and non-sensical to me that the neighbors of an area which is literally covered with bars and alcohol serving restaurnats would fight a club like this on that basis (or are they motivated by other reasons, biases?)
This controversy is about over-saturation of liquor licenses in a residential neighborhood, 34 in a block radius.
The NYS Supreme Court has repeatedly decided in favor of the tenants on this. Too many!
This has nothing to do with race.
Spurious and bogus vituperation are the pathetic cry-wolf of a scoundrel.
The husband is a Swede "Ulaf Udeen".
Shame on Lola for playing the race card to cover up a bad business decision that is hurting the investors.
This controversy is about over-saturation of liquor licenses in a residential neighborhood, 34 in a block radius.
The NYS Supreme Court has repeatedly decided in favor of the tenants on this. Too many!
This has nothing to do with race.
Spurious and bogus vituperation are the pathetic cry-wolf of a scoundrel.
The husband is a Swede "Ulaf Udeen".
Shame on Lola for playing the race card to cover up a bad business decision that is hurting the investors.
If too many liquor licenses already exist around Lola's area,
why doesn't the Soho Alliance also attempt to revoke those of
a few more nearby establishments, until there is the
"perfect" amount of LL's? Why is this suddenly
"a bad time"?