Openings

Will Limelight Haters Rise From Dead to Attack New Grimaldi’s?

Remember the neighbors who complained about being “held hostage” by clubs like Avalon (formerly the Limelight)? Three years later, they’ve helped shut it down and it’s morphing into a marketplace. So they should be happy, right? Chocolates and candy instead of wasted ravers peeing on their stoops! Well, not quite. Buried in today’s Times profile of the forthcoming Marketplace (which is now 90 percent full and will include an outpost of Baci Gelato, because whoever is running this show really has a sweet tooth) is news that the 24-hour location of Grimaldi’s isn’t exactly being met with open arms: “If it receives a beer and wine license, it could attract a rowdy late-night crowd, said Susan Finley, a director of the Flatiron Alliance, an advocacy group, who has lived on West 20th Street for three decades.”

Is it possible Community Board 5 will force Grimaldi’s to scale back its late-night ambitions? That’s Manhattan for ya! It’s still too early to say how much, if any, resistance it’ll meet, but maybe Grimaldi’s should’ve followed old Limelight honcho Peter Gatien’s lead and opened something in Canada. Oh, and speaking of the old Limelight crew, Steve Lewis says he’s on his way to visit party monster Michael Alig. Expect a full report tomorrow.

he Limelight, a Church Turned Nightclub, to Be Reborn as a Market [NYT]

Will Limelight Haters Rise From Dead to Attack New Grimaldi’s?