Kurowycky Goes XXX?

We’ve been wondering for some time what might be going into the old Kurowykcy butcher shop on 1st Avenue between 7th and 8th. First we heard celebu-chef Jonathan Waxman might be opening an upscale smokehouse called Meat. Then Market Table’s Gabe Stulman planned to move in with a restaurant called Penmanship.

Now it sounds like something completely different might be coming to the spot.



Rumor has it that Stulman, and all the other enterprising restaurateurs in the city, have thrown in the towel on the Kurowycky space. A reliable tipster and local small businessperson informed me that:

“the SLA subcommittee of community board 3 turned down the full-liquor license application for a restaurant going there (one that was going to keep a lot of the old butcher shop elements). & in fact pretty much said they wouldn't even approve a beer/wine one. so the guy who was going to do it, bailed on the idea.”

So what’s going in there? All my tipster heard is “a video store.” And in these Netflix days, what else could that mean but a XXX video store? With such a big space, there’s plenty of room for peep-booths. When a high-end restaurant is passed over for porn, maybe it’s time to say welcome back, bad old East Village!



But don’t get too excited yet.

Another knowledgeable informer filled me in on the liquor license process: CB3 granted Stulman a liquor license recommendation in July, as long as he agreed to certain stipulations about noise level and crowd control. Specifically, the stipulations read, in part: “it will play ambient background music only, consisting of an iPod with small speakers” and “it will designate an employee with the responsibility of insuring that the sidewalks fronting the business be cleared of patrons.”

Penmanship was simply turned down for failure to submit an agreement to the stipulations, but they have another chance to be approved. This informer speculates that the video store idea might be a rumor cooked up by supporters of the restaurant to scare the community into backing the liquor license--because whether it's porn or Blockbuster, people get scared of video stores.



Either way, wild speculation and rumor aside, after many months, something is definitely happening inside Kurowycky. Workers have been going in and out, removing its antique elements. I went in and snapped a few interiors, but didn’t manage to get the beautiful wooden meat-locker doors.

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