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Belligerent Brunch Party Hole Pranna Now On Probation
By
Shayla Love
Published Aug 28, 2014
Modified Aug 28, 2014
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By
Shayla Love
Published Aug 28, 2014
Modified Aug 28, 2014
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Bottomless brunch nightclub restaurant Pranna was put on probation last night by Community Board 5, and given three months to clean up its act or risk losing its liquor license. During a moderately well-attended community meeting, neighbors and local businesses aired their grievances regarding excessive noise, litter, violence and the extreme debauchery of Pranna's patrons. You know, stuff like this:
"If these nuisances are abated, we will give you three months," board member Nicholas Athanail told Pranna's reps. "But if these problems continue, our resolution becomes immediately a denial and revocation of your license."
The videos Gothamist published earlier this week of brunchers stumbling and falling out of the restaurant were just the latest addition to a growing pile of complaints from enraged neighbors.
"Every weekend there are numerous fights," one neighbor, Cynthia Stern, told the board last night. "We have sound machines in our rooms trying to keep the noise down, but even then we are woken up. I have seen bar stools fly out of that establishment. I have called police on several occasions... It's always very violent. I don't understand how you could serve that much alcohol to people. It's not responsible."
Pranna does not hold a cabaret license, which means there is no legal dancing, a distinction classified as "more than three people dancing rhythmically together." Board member Renee Cafaro bluntly told Pranna co-owner Rajiv Sharma, "Maybe you're not selling tickets, but it is very obviously a club brunch."
Athanail boiled down the board's issues into four main points: bottomless brunch, dancing, the DJs and the over-serving of the patrons. "Are you willing to make it a sit-down brunch, without the dance floor?" Athanail asked.
Sharma and his wife, Paya, said they would do what was necessary to retain their license. But Sharma also presented a list of over 100 restaurants that also offer an "endless" brunch deal. "If we are the first bottomless brunch in New York to stop bottomless brunches, if that will grant our liquor license, we will stop the bottomless brunch," he said.
Sharma promised to rearrange the dining room and fill up any spaces that could be construed as a "dance floor." For now they will hold onto their DJs, but will have a sound engineer visit in the next 10 days who will set a limiter on the volume, changing it to "background noise" levels, not "entertainment" levels.
Some neighbors were unsatisfied and demanded more extreme action. Grant Cornhels, a nearby resident, said, "I have never seen a worse example or irresponsible liquor sales in my entire life, than what I see on the weekends there. I completely oppose the renewal of the liquor license for this establishment. Frankly, there's not any level of conditions or stipulations that would satisfy me."
Ted Chapin, who lives directly across from Pranna, may have it the worst. "As bad as the brunches are—and they really are bad; we have the documentary evidence because the lights are shining. But when the lights are off, during the weekends, it’s way, way worse. It’s noisier, it’s sloppier, and it’s violent. People come out of there, they are screaming at each other… the people who leave at 4, they’re the drunkest. There are so many fights. I’ve lived there six years. The number of fights is incredible.
"It is an egregious violation of their liquor license. They absolutely are running a nightclub. How is it that their liquor license isn’t cancelled? How can they can they have a liquor license as a restaurant, and run a nightclub? I want to know? It’s not fair. They need to be cancelled."
Surprisingly, toward the end of the meeting, Sharma made an announcement about the future of Pranna: it's expanding. Sharma revealed Pranna has taken over the corner of 28th Street, which is an empty store and soon-to-be vacant liquor store, and will be using the space for a fine-dining Indian restaurant. The restaurant will be cleaved into two, leaving the original Pranna as a very small bar and lounge. The change will happen in January.
The entire 28th Street corner will be a restaurant under a different name, and they say they are in talks with a Michelin star chef. Sharma added that this was their vision for Pranna from the beginning, but they were forced to change their concept when they opened Pranna in the height of the recession.
"No brunch, no DJ, no late night, nothing of that sort," he said. "We came to New York City to open up the finest restaurants, it just did not work in the time that we were in. We would have shut down in six months."
The board encouraged Pranna to follow the stipulations of the probation, or risk losing both of the liquor licenses. Pour out a ridiculously oversized bottle of champagne for the "People's Brunch"; not even the guy who owns half of Manhattan can save it.
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