Rule #1: Don’t be the kind of person who turns having fun into a problem.
✦
Apart from the food and drink, I know, as many of us do, what it is to partake in all many of life’s other goodnesses inside of restaurants and bars (not really referring to clubs here). If I haven’t done it myself, I’ve seen it done.
Now that I own a restaurant, my perspective on this brand of adventurism has evolved from what it was when I was a restaurant employee, and even further from what it was when I was just a patron and I didn’t give a fuck.
In the old days, the sky was the limit for me, as it is today for some of my employees and patrons. I accept that; but whether it’s a matter of wishful thinking or sound policy, the one thing I care about is that no one dies in here, or even comes close. I never want to see food-borne ailments emanate from my kitchen heart attacks in the dining room fires firearms drug dealings drug overdoses any type of physical abuse license violations noise that bothers neighbors occupancy issues check padding double tipping accounting tricks of any kind inside my restaurant. I don’t want problems here.
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This entry was posted by Tuttle on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 10:59 AM
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Are the police finally on your ass, Tuttle? I’m on the verge of calling in a complaint about you, myself, and you and me are bsically friends.
This spring I’ve noticed a lot more activity outside your place (including outside your “secret” entrance) than I’ve seen in the 16 years I’ve lived in the nabe. It’s mostly on Saturdays, so I realize there’s alot of people that spend the day around here and then hang around for dinner, but now you have paparazzi out there at all hours too, and they attract alot of other people that aren’t spending money at local businesses and that double park and sit on our stoops.
I think it’s starting to be a problem. No it IS a problem. What are you going to do about this?
I can’t believe you mentioned the secret entrance. But you know that there are two secret entrances, right? Which one are you talking about? If you mean the entrance on Rain Street, that’s not really a secret, it’s just that we don’t encourage its use, even if it’s a better backdrop for photographs than the main entrance.
In all seriousness, we appreciate your point. You’re right to mention the upsurge in restaurant related activities that are taking place on the street.
You should know that it’s a pain in 5L4M’s and my asses, too, and not really defensible from our perspective as people who have striven to be good neighbors over the 13 years we’ve been here; so, this afternoon, we had a nice lunch with Captain Lance German from the Precinct, and while he agrees that something needs to be done, he is hamstrung by a federal judge’s recent ruling that held the City of New York in contempt of court for failing to comply with orders to stop enforcing loitering laws that were ruled unconstitutional in 1983, 1988 and 1992.
This leaves us no choice but to hire uniformed, off-duty police officers to patrol the block around the restaurant. We can’t do much about the paparazzi, who are working, but we can help move other people who are trespassing when they gather on our sidewalks and stoops to catch a glimpse of the restaurant’s customers.
The officers will be stationed out of our precinct, so they will be familiar to most of us as we will be to them, and we expect that will go a long way in making this a successful strategy for keeping celebrity seekers at bay and returning this part of the neighborhood to residents and their guests, and business owners and their patrons. Look for them when we return from our vacation at the beginning of September.
Thanks again for bringing this up.
Tuttle
Fuck. I’m impressed.
How can I delete such a nice comment?
t..