LOLA’S LONG WAY HOME

An open letter written during Lola’s relocation to Soho (circa 2004–2009)

If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves and allow those responsible to salve their conscience by believing that they have our acceptance and concurrence. We should, therefore, protest openly everything . . . that smacks of discrimination or slander.

— Mary McLeod Bethune (1875–1955)

My story began as a young girl growing up on the beautiful island of Barbados. I’m reminded of my mother’s stories of life in the United States, a place where opportunity was limitless with the tools of determination and education. The island restricted her and my father a merchant seaman having traveled the world, had found no equal home and would not be shaken from his point of view. My mother followed her dream of making a life for herself and her children in NYC. We joined her four years later after she had acquired the necessary visas.

My siblings and I were strongly encouraged and determined to be successful. I forged a career at one of the leading financial institutions in NYC (JPMorganChase) and became a Vice President in Human Resources. My siblings are equally or more successful. A small and key part of my corporate role was focused on minimizing the organization’s exposure to discriminatory based litigation. I participated in or conducted investigations based upon employee complaints and determined disciplinary action where legitimate complaints were established; as a result I am no stranger to the impact of racism, inadvertent or otherwise.

Slowly, I became disillusioned as I realized that authenticity had to be subverted to break the glass ceiling in corporate America. I left to join my husband in his entrepreneurial venture as a restaurateur. He too with the same sentiments about America had left Sweden as a young man to create his own successful path. We were like-minded in many ways and knew that a working partnership would be ideal. His restaurant “Lola” located in the heart of Chelsea was a New York staple offering more that just good food. A hit with locals, celebrities and tourist alike, Lola offered great live music most evenings and a fantastic gospel brunch which had become famous internationally, having been featured in box office movie hits like The Best Man and Brown Sugar and television shows like Law and Order, Good Morning America, Regis and Kathy Lee and Extreme Makeover to name a few. Unfortunately, business suffered greatly after Sept 11th, but we knew that together we could surpass the success of the past. My personality and corporate skills were in perfect harmony with our renewed focus and the restaurant was on its way to recovery by the end of 2003.

In April of 2004, our lease would end in Chelsea. After many negotiations and discussions we decided it would be in our best interest to move to a new location. We needed a new marketing strategy and 22nd street did not offer any exposure or opportunity for outside seating, which is critical to do well in the summer months. We stayed in the Chelsea location through June and were fortunate to secure a fifteen-year lease for an exciting new space in Soho. We knew that Soho would be perfect for Lola, the location gave us full exposure to foot and vehicular traffic and we were surrounded by other wonderful restaurants and boutique stores. We placed huge posters in the windows to market our plans for the space and began the process of securing contractors to complete the work.

In light of the restaurant’s reputation and a 19-year history in Chelsea, we were unprepared for the unwelcoming committee headed by a woman who lives around the corner from the new space on West Broadway, Ms. Marie Evans. We quickly learned that she was also empowered by the Soho Alliance headed by Sean Sweeney. While this group does not represent all of Soho they are self-appointed as the unofficial guardians having purchased properties way before the Soho boom. As a part of their charter they take responsibility for determining who can and cannot set up business in Soho.

All restaurants must secure the necessary liquor license from the New York State Liquor Authority (SLA). Unfortunately, these licenses are not transferable from one location to another and it is important to have your community board’s blessing when appealing to the SLA. With our previous community’s support and a clean record we thought that securing the license for the Soho location was elementary. We were wrong. At the first community board meeting, which was facilitated by the business section, about four people voiced legitimate concerns about having a restaurant with live music in the community. We assured them that we had plans to adequately soundproof the space and shared our plans in general with them. We asked that they check in with our previous community board and the police department on our reputation and to determine if we had ever been a nuisance. People present who had been to the restaurant attested to the fact that it was a wonderful place. The business board chairman told the group that in his experience we were serious business owners, willing to work with the community and since you did not always get the chance to pick your neighbors, in this case he thought they should act favorably. He suggested that we entertain a meeting with the community facilitated by the Soho Alliance/Sean Sweeney before the full board meeting to address any concerns. This partial board then gave us their approval to proceed. Mr. Sweeney fully agreed to assist us in facilitating the meeting with the community prior to the full board meeting.

Surprisingly, I received a conference call from Sean Sweeney two days prior to the meeting date. He called to advise us that the meeting was being cancelled and deferred to the other party on the phone, Ms. Evans. She informed me that there would be no meeting and that I should “cut my losses and move on” as she had no intention of allowing a restaurant to exist close to her residence. I was amazed as she went on to assert her opinion regarding how awful the location was for a restaurant and that an outside garden was even more out of the question as her newly installed windows would overlook that area. I explained that we were temporarily putting the garden space on hold, but assured her that we were willing to end outdoor dining at a reasonable hour, and while I had doubts that diners would be noisier than the noise from the traffic entering the Holland Tunnel we would entertain soundproofing her windows at our costs to allow her the option of closing her windows thereby blocking all noise if necessary. I assured her that our space would also be adequately soundproofed, and we would ensure that our doors were closed when the music began. We had always enjoyed a good relationship with our previous community and would ensure the same would be true here. Unmoved, she assured me that we would be unsuccessful with the board and that the Soho Alliance had a lawyer at their disposal who had never lost a case. She ended the conversation by advising that together they would ensure that we would never move forward.

The following day, Ms. Evans initiated a campaign against us, beginning with flyers warning residents that Lola restaurant was trying to come into their community and telling them that if they did not come out to the community board meeting to voice their disapproval that they would be in favor of “devaluing their properties, more noise, more dirt, more tourist and more crime.” These flyers were placed on lamp-posts and in apartment vestibules; she even entered our space to deliver one to the superintendent. We learned afterward that many urgent phone calls and visits were made by her to members in the community to ensure a big turnout at the board meeting. She was successful and we were shocked to see that despite our best efforts, concessions, history and reputation, the full board seemingly unaware of the behind the scenes machinations, caved in to the pressure and overturned the financial board’s recommendation for an approval. The board’s resolution, which was forwarded to the SLA gave a somewhat unbalanced perspective on the issue of hours of operation and the timing of the outdoor space. First we had agreed to delay the timing of the outdoor space to allow the community a level of comfort with us. I was asked at the full board meeting if we were willing to keep to our agreement of tabling this issue for three years, when there was no such timeframe established. As a result of my refusal to agree to something that was unreasonable and was never previously promised, the resolution included a comment that we waffled on our hours of operation. I was then accused of being disingenuous. This biased and unfair character assassination in writing from the community board was especially troubling. I considered it possible that the resolution was directly influenced by someone with special interests. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, anger and disappointment just took hold of me and my husband at that point.

More determined than ever, we decided to appeal to the SLA directly without the board’s approval. We began by petitioning our Soho neighbors, many of whom had seen the flyers. With the help of friends and staff we were able to collect 585 signatures supporting our move to Soho. Being present in the location daily gave us a unique opportunity to meet our neighbors and personalize the restaurant more than we had hoped. We also learned during these interactions that we were being misrepresented by Ms. Evans in other ways. Some people were told directly by her that “we were opening a black hip-hop club” an unwanted element in that community. Though Lola was in fact not a hip hop club, the sentiments around my hip-hop bothers and sisters in general infuriated my senses as a woman of color. I was now enraged on a far greater level, the posters were manipulative and preyed on the stereotypical fears of their audience, but to know that she had gone further by deliberately misleading others to benefit her cause was extreme and shocking.

Among many of the other claims made in particular by the Soho Alliance, was that there was no place for parking for additional visitors to Soho. My husband and I were able to identify 10 garages with over 1500+ parking spaces available. Further Zagat’s reviews were submitted to confirm that we are a noisy establishment. However, the Alliance failed to recognize that the reviews represented a perspective from some inside the restaurant, not Chelsea residents. Nevertheless, the new restaurant has been designed with more that adequate soundproofing. They also hired a traffic expert who attested to the fact that the restaurant’s addition would overload an already taxing situation by the way of traffic leading into the tunnel. We were able to dispute this assertion with actual pictures dated and time stamped during the holiday season, the busiest time of the year in Soho. More important they continued to assert that we were a club masquerading as a restaurant. We were able to obtain many letters from our previous clientele to attest to our reputation, while they were able to use their influence with letters to the SLA from politicians, namely Senator Martin Connor, whose letter calls my character into question and whom I’ve never met, Assembly member Deborah Glick and Councilman Alan Jay Gerson. Not one of these politicians exercised due diligence by obtaining corroboration of Ms. Evans’ and the Soho Alliance’s unsubstantiated claims. Instead it appeared that the possibility that restaurants could eventually morph into clubs was enough of an argument for them to lend their reputations and influence to this cause. In light of the political climate in this country, the trickle down notion that relationships and votes/power are more important than truth seems to have been simply applied. I paid a visit to Councilman Alan Gerson, who, when faced with the truth about our establishment and the smear campaign, apologized directly for not researching the matter fully before his decision to write the letter. He promised me that he would not continue to oppose us, though he would also not write a letter of retraction, which he feared would compromise his relationship with the Soho Alliance.

The SLA held the required 500 Foot hearing to determine whether it was in the community’s best interest to entertain another restaurant. The Soho Alliance hired a bus and presented their opposition through the stories of approximately 20 residents. These residents attested to the fact that their neighborhood was besieged by drunken revelers who urinated on sidewalks and in the park and were even engaging in sexual activity in their vestibules. According to them, the vomit on the sidewalks and the crowds that they had to wade through to get to their apartments made living in Soho a nightmare. Listening to them, Soho really seemed like Dodge City itself, certainly not a place that we would want to visit far less set up a business. They were also able to present a petition with 195 signatures against us. Upon careful review however, it was revealed that the group had used the sign in sheets from the community board meeting and without careful review had submitted even the signatures of my husband and I against us. Thankfully, the SLA recognized these beyond gross exaggerations for exactly what they were, and granted us a full liquor license.

To ensure further delays and costs, this group has now sued the SLA and Lola in NY Supreme court alleging that the SLA acted capriciously in granting our liquor license. They have even asked for financial restitution for legal fees. In the hope of rendering our signatures from Soho residents useless, Marie Evans has alleged that my husband and I, with no integrity, falsely mislead residents into signing our petition and/or forged signatures. To support this assertion she referenced the fact that this was true to my nature, as the community board had determined that I was disingenuous. In doing this Ms Evans, however, forgets her own false and misleading tactics incorporated in the smear campaign against us. Thus the Soho residents who do not support this group are rendered as malleable ingénues under our Svengali influence. There is a temporary stay on the license until a decision has been reached.

My husband and I are now financially strained and weary but are as determined as ever to succeed. We recently learned that the Soho Alliance is also now incorporating the same strategy with another restaurant called Besito, whose location is across the street from Ms. Evans. While other restaurant applications are unchallenged, and we have found an endorsement by the Soho Alliance for another; the same tactics are being employed against the owner of Besito who is Mexican. His small restaurant is also supposedly a club masquerading as a restaurant. The fact that the broader downtown community is still hopeful and rebuilding after September 11th is of no consequence here. The community board was split on the matter and at that time its leaders were up for re-election, with members or friends of the Soho Alliance vying for leadership. It is unclear if this witch- hunt was a disguised attempt to gain control of a community board for future gains or whether one woman’s unchecked fury and dishonesty is using fear to manipulate and control the complexion of this community. The end result is an attempt to stop hardworking people from making a living and adding to the diversity of a neighborhood.

Sadly, Ms Evans like so many others has chosen to focus so much on what separates us, ignoring the most important lesson, that we are all intricately tied to each other as human beings on this great planet. As hokey as it may seem to some, the fact remains that what affects just one of us affects us all in the long term. Those who foster or look to promote the innate prejudices that we all have are indeed responsible for what keeps us at odds with each other. Since cross burning has gone out of style, this discrimination though subtle in nature is still dangerous and our present climate makes it unpopular to say that you are dealing with racism. While, I will not venture to call Ms. Evans a racists, her actions are indeed so. I remain lost at where you draw the line. I learned too long ago that when you remain silent in the face of injustice you are also accountable. I will not wait to be asked at a later date why I said nothing. There should be no room for political correctness, if my stance against such behavior can be suggested to be in fact politically incorrect. Allowing one individual and a politically charged group to go unchallenged after this display is beyond my comprehension. My silence will only serve to empower them further, and allow this to happen to others who may venture into the same situation as unknowingly as we did.

I remain steadfast in believing in the America my mother extolled, where hard work and honesty are rewarded in the end. Maybe too many fairy tales have influenced my life. It is now a little over a year that the Chelsea location was closed. The courts have been slow in rendering a decision but we still remain extremely confident, though many have forgotten that even in law there can be virtue.

We will not give up.