Kemistry Lounge to Make Case for Liquor License

By Megan Riesz

A nightclub proposed to open on Flatbush Avenue will again try to win a liquor license from the State Liquor Authority on Wednesday, DNAinfo.com reported Monday. 

Kemistry Lounge, a restaurant-bar that has faced staunch opposition from locals, lawyers and a landlord, as Patch reported in August, would have a back entrance onto a residential block of Prospect Place, causing residents and groups like Prospect Heights Neighbors concern about late-night noise and safety. It also plans to have bottle service.

“It’s a very very strange quasi-residential location for a club that’s 5,000 square feet,” said Peter Adelman, a lawyer for Prospect Place Neighbors. “You could really expect to see that in the Meatpacking District. The rear literally abuts a person’s house.”

Community Board 6 rejected Kemistry’s application for a liquor license in April 2012, after which Kemistry Lounge’s landlord allegedly sued for back rent. Regardless, owner James Brown is pressing on.

“I think the community got things misconstrued with the size of the venue and the urban entity of Kemistry,” Brown told Patch last year. “All they heard was club, club, club, club. But we are not a club.”

Adelman, on the other hand, is concerned about the establishment regardless of its categorization.

“We’re not this temperance league at all, we like bars, we like restaurants, we go out to them,” he said. “Having another bar, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but having this one is very bad.”