Crime Scenes

Bowery Beef Fights Wave of ‘Spectacular Bum Crime’

Photo: Melissa Hom

The meat-slingers over at Bowery Beef tell us that their shop was broken into last night and then robbed again this morning. As far as restaurant disasters go, it doesn’t hold a candle to the fire that recently befell Bruce Buschel’s Hamptons restaurant, but it’s a sign the old Bowery still has some fight left in it. Ray LeMoine e-mailed to tell us about the “bold junkies” at work.

In the last few months since opening Bowery Beef, a cafe and roast beef sandwich shop, we’ve seen some spectacular bum crime. Like the time a guy in a Minor Threat shirt and plaid pants with green hair tried stealing a dude’s bike at the Irish pub nextdoor and got caught and broke a window, before getting pummeled by staff. The crusty started crying, dropping a girl’s Louis Vutton purse he’d snatched that was full of weed (score!).

Most notably, in the last week nights our register has been robbed three times. By the third attempt the take was approximately $6 in coinage–pretty baller. Last night they just took the whole register. This morning, just after opening, another cool junkie snatched aniPod from behind the counter while our barrista used the bathroom. In the last seven days crime has cost us over $1000. Of course, we are a unique operation. Our cafe is the entryway to the Bowery Poetry Club, known for open mic poetry slams, sweet late-night funk fusion concerts and “Ladies in Free B4 11”-style ragers. But they post a security guard in the cafe. So these are some bold junkies.

Strangely, the shop’s copy of The Shape of Medieval History was spared.

Bowery Beef Fights Wave of ‘Spectacular Bum Crime’