Community Board Stymies Crobar’s Plan to ReopenAll continues to be silent on the West Chelsea front, at least as far as Crobar is concerned. Last night Community Board 4 recommend that the State Liquor Authority not renew the darkened club’s liquor license. The board (which also recommended a denial of Pacha’s renewal application) may reconsider if Crobar submits an alteration application to show that it’s serious about plans to reduce capacity and make the club more loungy when Miami’s Opium Group takes over (it’s said they’re planning to class up the place with banquettes and 3,000 pounds of crystal and run it as an outpost of their megapopular club Mansion). Crobar’s license expires on October 31, but if the club petitions the SLA, which is currently investigating outstanding violations, an extension of the renewal application may still be possible. Sound a little byzantine? Now we know why the phrase “shut up and dance” was coined. —Daniel Maurer
Earlier: Crobar Cleans House While Readying for Miami Makeover [Grub Street]
intel
Crobar’s Second Verse: Same as the First
With BED freshly closed and rumors floating that Bungalow and Cain are looking to flee West 27th Street, it’s good to know Crobar, for one, is soldiering forward. It reopened last weekend as a new venue — now it’s called Studio Mezmor — and it’s doing double duty as an arts and events studio, and possibly a rock venue. (Don’t tell that to the Bowery Ballroom guys, who are looking to open a music venue in the space that once housed Exit.) But other than the name, not a lot has changed. A few columns have been knocked down, sound systems upgraded, and the annex that was once cluttered with bamboo reeds will now be called the SideBar. The picture above is of the new, awfully familiar-looking VIP mezzanine. After the jump, the new, even more familiar dance floor. Daniel Maurer
CORRECTION, Feb. 22: We’ve been informed that the above photograph is actually of the SideBar, which does indeed look quite different now that the bamboo has been chucked. Which basically undermines our whole argument here. Sorry about that.
gossipmonger
Do Not Get in Diddy’s Way at the GrammysAt Rolling Stone’s pre-Grammy party, Diddy bumped Grey’s Anatomy cast members T.R. Knight, Kate Walsh, and Sara Ramirez from their spot in the VIP lounge; Britney exes Justin Timberlake and Kevin Federline hugged it out. Timberlake also partied so hard that he had to cancel a performance at Clive Davis’s party the next night. Singer Harry Connick Jr. says Anna Wintour is nothing like her character in The Devil Wears Prada. Also, Wintour-cinematically, a filmmaker working on a Vogue documentary lost footage of her at Bryant Park.