Who owns sutra lounge

Ariel gave me the inside scoop. As a native New Yorker, I grew up hanging out and working in the club scene. To me it was always a glorious celebration of the amazing diversity of our city, a place where the misfits fit and where everyone, no matter who you were or where you came from, you belonged. That is what I always wanted for Sutra. That really was what allowed Sutra to thrive for 10 glorious years, the mission to create a common ground for a diverse city. Everyone all hanging out together in the name of good music and a good vibe.

No judgment. It was beautiful and you could feel it. We always did our best to accommodate anyone, no matter the budget or occasion including young artists, filmmakers, and photographers who wanted to use our space for their projects and we rarely said no.

There are thousands of music videos, indie films and album covers out there and our legacy lives on in them. As our 10 year anniversary approached it started to occur to me that it might be the right time to turn the lights out at Sutra. I knew that if I hit 11 years, it meant I would have to go to I looked back at everything we had created and felt that it truly was a mission accomplished. We were on the market and off the market, and the truth is, I learned a lot through the experience.

Being a sitting member on the CB3 State Liquor Licensing Committee, I also knew that the standards for finding a truly qualified buyer were even higher for me. I approached people I knew to perhaps buy Sutra as is, I approached promoters and other operators, I planted a lot of seeds. Fact is, these things take as long as they are going to take. In the end, I took my time and found the qualified buyers the exact week of my 10th Anniversary.

Palitz by Moses Comas. Most New Yorkers know that even before Sutra opened in , despite a brief history as lounge called The Flat, in which I was also an investor in, our location was the home of another incredible underground DJ venue called Bar XVI 16 for over 7 years.

In many ways it was part of the inspiration for Sutra to continue its legacy. It may have been what took me so long to finally sell, waiting for that one buyer who was just like me, just like Sutra. The new operators are from Ireland, they own two successful venues in Manhattan and one in New Jersey and have over 20 years experience. Our conversation took place one afternoon a couple of weeks ago at Sutra, located at 16 First Avenue just above East Houston Street.

My whole life, for some reason, I always wanted to live on First and First. I always thought it was the best address in the world. I was able to make that happen… for myself.

I was always a promoter in nightlife even though I had other jobs in PR and stuff like that. I had an opportunity back in , when a friend of mine from school, from like 2nd grade, was opening up a venue here in the Sutra space and he had actually asked me to consult on the neighborhood, since I had lived here for so long and I decided I would invest in that bar… so that I could have a piece of my own venue that I could throw my own events in.

One thing led to another and before long Palitz ended up taking a much more active role in the business. The place eventually morphed into Sutra. Palitz had never run her own establishment, so she learned on the job. In the early days of Sutra, she got her first taste of the clashes that frequently play out between neighbors and bar owners on the Lower East Side:.

Within the first year of owning Sutra, we were actually nominated the number one noisiest bar in New York and we have been at the top of that list for the past 7 years on calls. But it was not because we actually were the noisiest bar.

It was because we had the most relentless caller, a single neighbor. I was a brand new operator and here I was being called the noisiest bar in New York… I had to fight to prove that complaints were not a good way to define a good or bad operator.

It was through the encouragement of the nightlife association that I considered joining the community board, also through the encouragement of Scott Stringer. He felt it was important that the community board truly represent the community. Community Board 3 had a notorious reputation for being very anti-nightlife.

I understood at that moment that I was walking into an unpopular position…. The advisory panel was reshaped by Dominic Berg, who just stepped down as community board chair, to reflect varying points of view regarding the proliferation of bars and clubs throughout the neighborhood.

Other CB3 members and residents many represented by well-organized block associations have argued that bars, which have turned the neighborhood into a giant hour frat party, must be prevented from further expansion in the East Village and Lower East Side. I feel like the perception of what I stand for has really been misconstrued and that it is being used against me to, perhaps, not have a nightlife operator on the board at all.

As for the complaints that she never sides with residents over liquor license applicants, Palitz said:. I know the consequences of a bad operator. People can get hurt. I vote with my conscience and contrary to popular belief I actually have one. Sutra Lounge, 16 First Avenue.

Readers of EV Grieve and other blogs erupted, expressing outrage at the apparent cavalier attitude about a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. Palitz, who said she rarely engages her critics online, responded almost immediately:.

Wright said Time needed a larger space than what they had at Sutra, which was founded as a restaurant before converting into a nightclub. Time will start out primarily playing electronic dance music. Thursdays through Saturdays. Grand-opening events are scheduled for Oct. For more information or presale tickets, call or visit timenightclub.

Twitter: BradleyZint. Bradley Zint left Times Community News in He was a general assignment reporter for the Daily Pilot, where he worked since