NIGHTLIFE

Embattled Scores owner Richard Goldring is suing the city and State Liquor Authority (S.L.A.) in federal court, alleging that the government's recent crackdown on his two Manhattan strip clubs violates his First Amendment rights.

In court papers, his latest attorney called last month's revocation of Mr. Goldring's liquor license at Scores West "a circumstance intended to terminate in Scores West any future First Amendment expressive entertainment and to chill the principals of Scores East and Scores West in the exercise of their First Amendment right to provide such entertainment."  read more »

After a lengthy legal fight, ravenous hotel developer Sam Chang has apparently given up his plan to tear down the old Pussycat Lounge at 96 Greenwich Street.

Mr. Chang has agreed to sell the ancient, circa-1799 building to Pussycat owner Robert Kremer for $2.5 million, according to city records -- that's $1 million less than Mr. Chang paid for it in 2005.  read more »

The champagne room has finally gone dry at embattled Manhattan strip club Scores West.

The New York Post reports that authorities from the New York State Liquor Authority (S.L.A.) showed up Wednesday to confiscate the voluptuous 10,000-square-foot venue's precious liquor license.

(Albeit apparently not before getting a visit from reality TV couple Alex and Simon McCord of "The Real Housewives of New York City" fame.)

The agency's action follows a prolonged legal battle with club management over the arrests of several Scores West employees on prostitution charges in January 2007.  read more »

Still reeling from the fallout of its highly publicized 2007 prostitution bust, embattled Manhattan strip club Scores West has filed for bankruptcy.

Court papers filed on Friday point to "mounting tax debt" and a "loss in sales" at the voluptuous 10,000-square-foot venue at 536 W. 28th St. "as a result of the actions by the New York State Liquor Authority proceeding against the [club] to revoke its liquor license."  read more »

It seems like every time you turn the corner these days you run into yet another new bar. This is especially true in the gentrified neighborhoods of Brooklyn and very much so in Prospect Heights. Time Out New York recently ran a page-long charticle on the heavy bar presence on Vanderbilt Avenue, the go-to strip for ProHo nightlife.

The eight-block avenue boasts restaurants, cafes and boutiques for moms and dads puttering around with their stroller-strapped kids during the day and by night there are no less than four drinking establishments and one on the verge of receiving its liquor license. Recently, my friends Adam and Dave joined me in hitting a few of my local spots, including the brand-new Weather Up and the six-year-old Soda.  read more »

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.  read more »

My first apartment in New York was conveniently located right across the street -- well within stumbling distance -- from the dive bar Fubar at 305 East 50th Street.

I always wondered how the reputedly rowdy tavern -- which the doorman warned me about on move-in day -- got its trade name past the liquor board.

As the Times glossed over today: "It is a military term that, in its polite form, stands for fouled up beyond all recognition." Or, as anyone who has seen the film Saving Private Ryan (or the Stallone classic Tango & Cash) would tell it: "Fucked up beyond all recognition."

The term was an accurate descriptor of the place -- even before Saturday's horrifying crane collapse, which literally pulverized the whole building.  read more »

Eater reports that sommelier Paul Grieco's long-awaited Terroir wine bar opens tonight, after some delay, on East 12th Street.

"There's not another wine bar that's run by such a wine figure in the city, I don't think," said Mr. Grieco's partner, chef Marco Canora.

Last week, The Observer sat down with both Mr. Grieco and Mr. Canora to discuss the project, their partnership, and wine bar economics. (Read the interview here.)

Expect "off-the-beaten-path" kinds of wines, as well as a substantial food menu.

"I have a huge advantage because I have this restaurant just down the block," said Mr. Canora, referring to the partners' Hearth restaurant at the corner of First Avenue and East 12th Street. "Somebody else who wants to open a 500-square-foot wine bar and they want to do food? Well, their hands are very tied as to what they can do... I have an entire kitchen over here."

Boozehounds are often warned about potential liver problems.

But recent patrons of Armin Amiri's trendy Socialista club may be at risk of something beyond cirrhosis: Hepatitis A.

The Health Department is advising as many as 800 Socialista patrons to get vaccinated, after a bartender at the Greenwich Village hotspot was diagnosed with the contagious liver disease, according to the Wall Street Journal health blog. (Free shots are available at P.S. 41 this weekend.)  read more »

"We didn't make the product -- the product made us," Ian Schrager told The Observer about becoming a famous hotelier.

What does the godfather of boutique hotels think of the latest wave of aspiring celebrity hoteliers, Robert De Niro, Giorgio Armani and Jay-Z?

"I think when people hear Jay-Z's name, they have a certain level of expectation of the kind of music they're going to hear. I don't think they have a lot of expectation about what kind of hotel they're going to get," he said.  read more »

Last Thursday's fatal shooting at celebrity hangout Stereo recalled an interesting quote from The Observer's September 2007 article about the since-shuttered Chelsea nightclub's recurring legal troubles:

"Stereo strongly believes that their patrons from Tuesday through Saturday are generally not into fighting or carrying weapons."  read more »

The proprietors of the Old Town Bar & Restaurant are usually pretty accurate when it comes to advertising.

So the bar's brand-new 2008 calendar magnets gave us pause:

Did Carrie really meet Mr. Big at the Old Town?

Let's go to the tape--er, complete DVD set:  read more »

West Chelsea's bipolar nightspot Club Myst/Retox Rock Bar will be closing its doors for two whole weeks on Jan. 7, pursuant to a settlement agreement with city prosecutors.

Or, as the club spins it, "CLOSING FOR RENOVATIONS."

See our previous coverage here.

But before shutting its doors, Myst/Retox is throwing some high-profile parties this weekend, including tonight's featured performance by ex-con cum sex-tape star turned turntablist Amy Fisher, which earned a Page Six mention today.  read more »

The tavernization of Chinatown continues.

Page Six is reporting that adult-film icon Jenna Jameson and fashion designer Richie Rich are opening a new bar in Chinatown.

Exactly where the article doesn't say. It only provides this hint:

"It used to be a whorehouse," Richie told Page Six.

Called The General Store, the new nightspot will sell clothing in addition to booze. The bar is slated to open in 2008.

Guy walks into a bar, says to the bartender: "Same shirt as yesterday, Charlie?"

Same shirt, same shit, different day.

Indeed, change is rare around the old P&G Bar, founded in 1942 at the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and West 73rd Street, where around 5 p.m. on Thursday regulars compared bowling scores over Budweisers while horse races flickered on an old boxy TV set in the background.

But change is happening outside the bar.

Scheduled storefront renovations have finally begun on the building. The bar's prior dark-green facade has been stripped away and new windows with light green trim are being installed.

Yet the defiant Chahalis family, which has owned and operated the bar for the past 60 years, refuses to budge and has rebuffed buyout offers from the landlord. (The bar's lease is up at the end of 2008.)

"WE WILL BE OPEN DURING STOREFRONT REPAIRS," according to a sign on the door.

Relations between the contractors and bar goers have been strained at times during the past few weeks, according to a bartender, who scoffed at the notion of unplugging his ice machine so a worker could plug in his drill.

Folks who frequent the place are anxious for construction to wrap up. Said the bartender: "They could've put up the World Trade Center by now!"

Lost City, a blog chronicling the carnage wrought by New York's "ruthless real estate market," has nothing but praise for the planned redevelopment of midtown's Donnell library.  read more »

Grub Street is reporting that spurned burlesque revivalist Ivan Kane has officially put his proposed nightclub space on Kenmare Street back on the market, following the local community board's withdra  read more »

Perhaps not coincidentally, New Yorkers are cutting back slightly on nights out per week (2.0) and on their nightly drink intake (3.2), compared to years past, the new survey finds.

Also, meatpacking is still hot. And yet not. Read survey gurus Tim and Nina Zagat's comments on the new trends here.

More survey highlights after the jump.  read more »