Spotted Piglet Hiccups: Boozy Breslin Clashes With Mosque
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The much-hyped, soon-to-open Breslin restaurant, situated in the 12-story Ace Hotel on Broadway and 29th, is giving members of the Masjid Ar-Rahman mosque across the street some agita. “Five times a day, there’s a hundred cabs on the street—the good news is you can always get a cab,” co-owner Ken Friedman told the Transom the other evening. He said some mosque visitors “object to seeing people drink alcohol.”
After the recent FergusStock, a festival during which famed British chef Fergus Henderson cooked whole pigs for a rapt crowd of New York chefs and foodies, Mr. Friedman said the mosque’s leaders called a meeting with the hotel. “They said, ‘Can you move the bar?’” he said. “And I laughed. And the guy said, ‘Oh, you think that’s funny?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, that is funny, that is really funny, because we’re not going to move the bar just because you discovered we’re serving booze.’ Can you name one restaurant in New York that doesn’t serve booze?”
Mr. Friedman and his partner, Spotted Pig chef April Bloomfield, did agree to nix plans for a dive bar in a townhouse next door, but as for the restaurant, “I said, ‘This is the United States of America and we’ll do whatever the fuck we want.’” He said the mosque had suggested it couldn’t control the behavior of “a few bad eggs”; i.e., “we could get a brick through our window.” Mr. Friedman said he made the police aware of this threat.
A volunteer at the mosque returning a call from the Transom said that a law forbids serving liquor within 200 feet of a place of worship and that “not more than 200 feet is between the mosque and the bar.” To which Andrew Zobler, the hotel’s developer, responded: “The law is clear that in order for that to apply it has to be an exclusively dedicated house of worship, and at their space they have both residences and a restaurant, so basically, because of those uses the law allowed there to be a bar within 200 feet. Everyone was aware of that when the liquor license was granted.” He added: “Out of neighborliness and respect we’ve voluntarily acquiesced to covering the window with a curtain.”
The Breslin will serve breakfast and lunch beginning Thursday, Oct. 29, and add dinner a week or so later. U2 hosted a party there earlier in the month, and Alain Ducasse recently named its fries the best in New York. The restaurant was named for James Breslin, who originally opened the hotel as the Breslin in 1904 and hosted the longest boxing match in history in a special ring he built in its basement (he also once dated an Andrews sister). “He was the Andre Balazs of his time,” Mr. Friedman said.
He added that he and Ms. Bloomfield are optimistic about the restaurant’s prospects, despite the recent shuttering of another venture, the pricier John Dory on 10th Avenue. He said they plan to reopen the John Dory in a space four times as large (he would not reveal the location), and make it more casual, “like the Spotted Pig with fish.” They further hope to do some “weird things” like a bakery, a bar and perhaps “a country inn.” (This in addition to the Rusty Knot, which Mr. Friedman owns with Taavo Somer, and Locanda Verde, a restaurant he opened in the former Ago space with Robert De Niro, Ira Drukier and Richard Born of the Greenwich Hotel)
When the Transom visited, the “doily curtain” covering had not yet arrived, and paper has been taped to the windows to shield the mosque’s worshipers from the sight of a gay wedding over the weekend. “They can threaten, but they can’t really stop us,” Mr. Friedman said.
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No Capitulation to Intolerance!
“Out of neighborliness and respect we’ve voluntarily acquiesced to covering the window with a curtain.”
I applaud The Breslin for laregely refusing to be intimidated by the violent threats of the Mosque. I think however that it is unfortunate that they have chosen to capitulate even to the extent of covering the window, so that the mosque goers need not be subjected to views of people drinking alcohol or gay people being married. Respect and tolerance is all to the good, but we don't need to respect or tolerate people who believe that it is their place to tell the rest of us how to live our lives. I hope that The Breslin will continue to stand-up for what's right, and not hang that curtain.
On the other hand
The curtain will also protect the Breslin's customers from the off-putting sight of meaty haunches hoisted into the air five times a day. So maybe it's got an upside.
Incidentally, is stuff like this what President Obama was thinking about when he insisted that Islam is making "contributions" to our society?
Islam is a violent cult,
a political system that is not compatible with democracy and multiculturalism. Muslims believe they are better then all. The quran tells them such riduculous things!!
From the not so holy quran-
9:29 Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.
The only sure way a muslim can enter paradise-
9:111 Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain:
Yes there are peaceful muslims, but they are not "good" muslims because they do not follow the evils that the quran and hadith condone.
A "good" muslim wants our laws replaced with sharia law
Umdat al-Salik, or Reliance of the Traveller, a compendium of sharia law.
"o11.5
Such non-Muslim subjects are obliged to comply with Islamic rules that pertain to the safety and indemnity of life, reputation, and property.
In addition, they:
(1) are penalized for committing adultery or theft, though not for drunkenness;
(2) are distinguished from Muslims in dress, wearing a wide cloth belt (zunnar);
(3) are not greeted with “as-Salamu alaykum”;
(4) must keep to the side of the street;
(5) may not build higher than or as high as the Muslims’ buildings, though if they acquire a tall house, it is not razed;
(6) *are forbidden to openly display wine or pork*,
(A: to ring church bells or display crosses,)
recite the Torah or Evangel aloud,
or make public display of their funerals and feast-days;
(7) and are forbidden to build new churches."
Islam is a cult
It is a pleasure seeing so many factual comments about Islam.
Islamic ideology is toxic and contagious. It has taken 1,400 years to spread to 1/5 of mandkind. It will only be stopped when the non-Muslim world forces a refomation on Islam.
Watch what happens to Europe in the next 20 years. It is going to get ugly.
freedom of speech
Right now muslims are trying to limit freedom of speech. They are saying that by our telling the truth of islam we are being hateful.
Please take a look at their not so holy book- it is the epitome of hate speech!
quran speaking of muslims versus non-muslims-
3:110 Ye are the best of peoples, evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, and believing in Allah. If only the People of the Book had faith, it were best for them: among them are some who have faith, but most of them are perverted transgressors.
This verse and grouped all People of the Book together in one faithless group- sounds a bit prejudice doesn't it?
Pray for muslims they are in a cult that will kill them if they try to leave it.
Stop Muslim Immigration
On September 12, 2001, W calls Islam a "religion of peace," which it most certainly is NOT and never has been. I realize that Bush was as ignorant about Islam as were we all, but surely no one buys that "rop" propaganda anymore? I mean, hello.
Islam is a War/Conquest ideology invented by a 7th century AD Warlord for personal power and material gain. Warlord Mohamet is not a "prophet"! - he never prophesied anything, he's a total Con Man. Read the Koran - just take a little cruise through that little hate book and you'll see in short order what a crock of BS it is, and how hate-filled it is.
In the Koran, "allah," their moon god (which is really Mohamet) curses Jews and turns them into swine. You see why the Mohammedans don't like your little "whole pig" festival? They equate pigs with Jews, and boy-oh-boy do they hate Jews, the Haters. Muslims hate Christians, too, indeed they hate ALL non-Moslems, whom "allah" instructs should be killed until the whole world is Islamic and worships only "allah," their moon-god that doesn't exist. Now you know why Moslems worldwide celebrated in the streets of their sucky, loser countries on 9/11 - because their ideology instructs and commands that all "Infidels" and "Disbelievers" be killed. Yes, it does. Don't kid yourself and swallow the PC propaganda - Yes, it does. Islam has as much to do with "peace" as Neptune supports human life. Get it?
And now, after 9/11. we have these arrogant, supremacist Barbarians threatening New Yorkers with a "brick" through their restaurant window due to the restaurant's RIGHT to serve alcohol and pork. GOOD GOD! WHAT HAVE WE COME TO, WHAT NEW LOW HAVE WE REACHED, BY ALLOWING BARBARIANS TO PUSH US AROUND?
It's unbelievable what's happening. It's like the gradual advance of Nazism, and we are tolerating it. We are tolerating what should NOT be tolerated. It's inexcusable.
Mr. Friedman, I hope you will continue with your strong stance against the arrogant, supremacist, Mohammedans. You should not have put up the curtain - that was capitulating to them, kow-towing to them, and giving in. Not entirely, but some. Now your dinner guests can't look out the window in your establishment due to a bunch of Barbarians who, once they achieve critical mass in this country by immigration and their subsequent over-breeding, will not bother asking you anymore - they'll just start throwing the bricks, as they are doing in Western Europe, where the Muslim population has reached critical mass.
"schaick" (above post) - it's Mohamet who told his Muslims that they were the "superior peoples" - the false prophet is responsible for that obvious lie which we in the 21st century still have to deal with. So, you see, Mr. Friedman - you have as your neighbors Neanderthals who think they're superior to you (!), as you are an "Infidel" and also a Jew. Watch yourself, watch your restaurant, and Good Luck. Best Wishes to you on the 100% success of your American eatery, where you can serve ANYTHING YOU WANT.