Community Boards

CB2 Slams Bowery Poetry Club’s Bar-Relocation Plans

The current bar at the BPC.
The current bar at the BPC. Photo: Youngna Park

A plan by the Bowery Poetry Club & Cafe to move its bar from the back of the premises up to the front area recently vacated by Bowery Beef ran into opposition from Community Board 2 last week. The board voted to hold another hearing on the application ahead of the next monthly meeting of the board’s SLA committee (CB2’s district manager tells Grub this is “standard procedure”). Zella Jones is one opponent of the plan: She says the club has “a very long history of things that aren’t buttoned up right.” She adds, “Originally they were going to be a strictly poetry club. That last about six months when [owner Bob Holman] realized he couldn’t afford that. They’ve told me their most popular night is a gay and transgender bingo night. I’d like to know what that has to do with poetry.” Holman wasn’t present at the CB2 meeting — he says he’s in Northern Wales learning Welsh for an upcoming PBS documentary on endangered languages — but told us yesterday via e-mail that his plan will help the club “comply better with some parts of the City egress code.” He followed up with a second e-mail: “Believe me, the BPC is running as fast as we can to stay in place with all NYC laws.”

CB2 Slams Bowery Poetry Club’s Bar-Relocation Plans