Feb. 9, 2017 By Christian Murray
A sports-themed restaurant is likely to open at 47-30 Vernon Boulevard at the location of Tutti Matti—formerly known as Testaccio.
The owners of the new establishment, to be called The Social Restaurant & Bar, went before Community Board 2’s City Services & Public Safety Committee in Long Island City last night and were given the thumbs up in their quest to get a liquor license.
The operators had gone before the committee in Woodside last month but Patrick O’Brien, chair of the City Services & Public Safety Committee, said the board was reluctant to render a decision until Hunters Point residents could weigh in on the application.
Despite the meeting being held at the Irish Center at 10-40 Jackson Avenue, not one person showed up to speak for or against the application.
The committee expressed concern with the application when it was presented in January that it might wind up becoming a noisy sports bar. The operators had originally planned to have TVs in both the bar and the expansive restaurant area.
Last night the operators said that they had scaled their plans back and would only have the TVs in the bar area.
At the January meeting the operators were unable to show the board that an experienced manager would be in charge of the operation. This time they presented two experienced employees that will be tasked with managing it.
The applicants were granted the license to operate the establishment until 1 am Sunday-Thursday, and 2 am on Fridays and Saturdays. A condition of the license was that the front doors were to be closed at all time to ensure that the noise from the TVs didn’t travel to the apartments above and nearby.
The new operators will take over Tutti Matti once all their paper work is in order.
