Sept. 20, 2016 By Christian Murray
Communitea, a café that has been part of the fabric of Hunters Point for the past 11 years, was finally approved for a wine, beer and cider license by a Community Board 2 subcommittee last week.
The café, which relocated to 11-18 46th Road after being on Vernon Boulevard for a decade, had sought the wine and beer license many months ago but ran into a roadblock after it was found to not have a certificate of occupancy or its equivalent for a food and restaurant establishment.
The café’s 46th Road location was a former carpenter’s shop.
The matter has been rectified and its owners Kafia Saxe and Lloyd Canning, a husband and wife duo, are now plan on extending their hours and offering a dinner menu. The venue, which is currently open only until 7 pm, is best known for its selection of tea as well as its salads, wraps, burgers, paninis, croissants and scones.
The community board committee approved the license and Communitea now plans to extend its hours until midnight on Friday and Saturday, as well as 10 pm on other nights.
The owners did not request permission to serve alcohol in the rear yard patio space, which they had sought last year. The owners require a certificate of occupancy as a food and restaurant establishment for the rear yard, which can be an expensive and time-consuming process.
Communitea had operated at 47-02 Vernon Blvd location for a decade before being unable to renew its lease.
In other news, Beans, Grapes & Leaves, a cafe located at 2-10 50th Avenue, has closed after being in operation almost two years. The cafe reportedly cleared out of the premises last month, according to workers at the Gantry Park Landing complex.
Beans, Grapes and Leaves
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6 Comments
and coffee, you forgot to mention the delicious coffee
PS Moratorium on back yards alive and well, withholding liquor license recommendations to not have an open back yard. RIDICULOUS @CB2 you should be ashamed
Leave! BG&L was someone thinking success would come from early access to a good location alone. Only works if there isn’t established, good options. There were.
Congratulations to Communitea. I used to live a block away from their old address and they were a sanctuary. Too bad for the greed that has permeated the neighborhood. The gentrification was welcomed but has not gone well with people and great places like Communitea being forced to close. My former neighbor/building mates can attest to that….
“Too bad for the greed that has permeated the neighborhood.”
So if you had property (co-op/car/etc.) to sell you’d take less then the going value and why??
agreed – whenever you walked in there you never felt comfortable.
when you were ordering coffee … you didnt feel like you should be ordering coffee.
when you were having a glass of wine … you didnt feel like you should be ordering wine.
I had no idea what beans grapes and leaves was… was it a cafe? a wine bar? a dinner place that didn;t really serve dinner? what was it? All they needed to do was do one thing and do it really well. It seems like they were all over the place. Hopefully whoever moves in next is more focused.