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SoHo's Lola Shutters
By
Jen Carlson
Published Feb 4, 2009
Modified Feb 5, 2009
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Feb 4, 2009
Modified Feb 5, 2009
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SoHo restaurant Lola, located on Watts Street and forever plagued with problems, has shuttered. The Observer reports that owners Tom and Gayle Patrick-Odeen have lost after a "longstanding struggle, which took on racial overtones, spurred multiple lawsuits and mounting legal bills [and] ultimately resulting in the business filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy." SoHo Alliance director Sean Sweeney was on the opposing side of the establishment, and represented the part of the community that, according to Lola's owners, feared it would be "a tipping point to turn Soho into another Harlem," and mislabeled it "a black, hip-hop club." This all came out in a sprawling piece on the restaurant in December's Black Enterprise magazine. Meanwhile, while talking to the Observer, Sweeney "liked to joke that he was secretly prejudiced against Swedes," saying, "They're so blond and beautiful."
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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