EMM Group Trying to Legitimize “Finale” at 199 Bowery

With the February SLA agenda for Community Board 3 now public, many Lower East Siders are fuming over the application to further alter the liquor license at 199 Bowery. As previously chronicled, EMM Group totally pulled a fast one, and is now seemingly trying to cover its tracks. To legitimize an infraction. Reps will appear before the subcommittee again February 11 to “move dance space to back half of ground floor.”

This simplified description is enough to raise the proverbial red flags and boil the blood of tenants at 199 Bowery. With good cause. EMM never mentioned a third bar – what would become the Pascha-backed Finale – in its pitch for a liquor license last year. And since dancing is a component here, the club is in violation of the very stipulation to which they agreed before CB3 (i.e. only dancing in basement). Not to mention the need for a cabaret license, which is reportedly lacking (this comes from Department of Consumer Affairs).

This here receipt from Finale further confirms that the backroom club is operating illicitly.

Aside from the $16 Stolis, note the friggin’ 5% “operations” to drink here (22% for table tabs)! Who do they think they are, Ticketmaster? Anyway, once you get past that initial sticker shock, check out the legal mumbo-jumbo. To cover their collective ass, EMM prints this slimy disclaimer to thwart potential lawsuits from waitstaff, and, most telling, DANCERS. This is not a gratuity, but a tax for stepping foot on premises.

Meantime, the club continues to fulfill its prophecy of becoming the hotspot that was always intended, with the requisite mentions in the usual suspects of gossip rags.