Residents Protest Atlantic Yards-Area Restaurant

A controversial restaurant near Atlantic Yards was granted a liquor license weeks ago without any protest from the community, but the throngs of angry residents who crowded a community board meeting Monday night in hopes of blocking the license had no idea.

Prime 6, a multi-story bar, restaurant and lounge under construction in the former Royal Video storefront on Flatbush and Sixth avenues, was granted three liquor licenses on Feb. 16 by the State Liquor Authority. George Karp, the attorney for the eatery, said that he notified Community Board 6 of the restaurant’s intentions back in November, but heard no objections from the community.

On Jan. 18 Karp filed an application for the licenses, and was granted all three in record time – including one for an outdoor bar area that will seat up to 27 people.

But while the primary sentiment in the room was anger – over lack of notice, trashy sidewalks and many more anticipated grievances – at times the meeting seemed to approach comedy.

“Our goal is to make a community place, to bring the community in to eat. I didn’t know that opening a bar on Flatbush would cause such a stir,” said owner Akiva Ofshtein, eliciting a wave of laughter from the crowd.

The restaurant, which is less than two blocks from the under-construction Barclays Center basketball arena, plans to open in May in anticipation of the soon-to-come arena crowds.

“When you tell us, the community, that this is a community restaurant you are really and truly insulting our intelligence,” said Pauline Blake, a committee member and resident of St. Marks Avenue, which abuts the restaurant.

"To have a restaurant for the Atlantic Yards crowd is different than to have a restaurant for this community," said Hope Reichbach, a representative for Councilmeber Stephen Levin.

Neighbors to Prime 6 particularly decried the restaurant’s plan to serve food until 4 a.m., seven days a week and called for any backyard space to be scrapped entirely.

“He really just needs to abandon the outdoor space. He may not be aware of the acoustics, but there is no way that it will not be loud,” said Paul Zumoff, a Bergen Street resident and area real estate broker. “I sympathize with how difficult it is to open a restaurant, but he doesn’t appear to be receptive to our concerns.”

Zumoff added that anther noisy restaurant on the block, which already is home to Sugarcane, will surely diminish local property values and make it harder for brokers like himself to rent area apartments.

Ofshtein encouraged residents to “take a chance,” on his space, questioning why so many people had already formed such strong opinions of his still unopened eatery.

But residents said that Ofshtein has already demonstrated his worth as a neighbor by failing to respond to frequent complaints about trash and dangerous conditions on the construction site.

One resident, whose car is parked in a garage next to Prime 6, recounted his car being blocked by a dumpster from the site one day when he needed to get his wife to the hospital. Construction workers in the restaurant were unhelpful, and he ended up having to call the police to help him get his car out of the garage.  

Residents were also suspicious of the nature of the space.

Ofshtein, a Midwood lawyer who spent a decade in the food service industry during college and law school, assured residents that the space would indeed be a “high-end, Manhattan-style” restaurant and nothing more.

But MySpace and Facebook pages for the eatery boasted live music and bottle service. On the MySpace page, many of Prime 6’s 300 friends are sultry women in suggestive poses. The Facebook page for the space appears to have been removed.

Ofshtein, however, denied any involvement in either of the sites, saying that they were designed by an independent business. Though the exact details of the space are not yet worked out, he said it would either be a steakhouse or a “California kitchen.”

Community Board 6 will reconsider the matter in a month, after it first gives Ofshtein a chance to reconcile some of the community’s concerns.

It is unclear, however, what impact the community board can even have now that the liquor licenses for the space have already been granted. Prime 6 will still need the Department of Buildings to sign off on the plans, which an increase in occupancy for a total occupancy of 230 people.

After the meeting, Ofshtein said he is willing to at least consider some of the suggestions from the community.

“The majority of the issues that around tonight are new to me, so I’d like some time to think about them,” said Ofshtein.

“We came to this meeting with no idea there were these sentiments,” added Karp.