Latest / Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning / Natalie Migliore, WOR Reporter

Transcript

Natalie Migliore, WOR Reporter · Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: It's 710WOR Speed on the Street with Natalie Migliore.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Ah, Natalie, you got a finger on the pulse of
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: nightlife in the city, which isn't doing too well.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: Why?
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  Speaker 1: Well, that's according to a new report from the New
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: York City Hospitality Alliance. It shows restaurants, bars and clubs
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: might be stretching the dollar just as much as their
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: patrons are. The latest survey finds 52 percent of these
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: establishments reported lower than expected earnings. So do New Yorkers
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: think the city's nightlife is live and well?
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: Honestly, yeah, you should have seen Halloween night. It was crazy.
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: Everybody was outside. Everybody was just like out and about
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: with their friends. And it was just a vibe.
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  Speaker 5: I think it's very vivid. There's a lot going on.
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  Speaker 5: You go out, you can see all types of things.
• 0:54
  Speaker 5: Every night of the week, especially on weekends.
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: Like sort of. I think gentrification's made it worse for sure.
• 1:02
  Speaker 6: You talk about politics, they don't want to talk to you.
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  Speaker 6: You talk about nightlife, everybody's in.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Everybody's got something to say. And maybe that's because, you know,
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  Speaker 1: these restaurants are saying that they're not doing so well.
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  Speaker 1: But if you go out anywhere in the city on
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: a Saturday night, on a Friday night, even on a
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Wednesday night sometimes, you can't even move shoulder to shoulder
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: on the sidewalks.
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  Speaker 5: Let alone on.
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  Speaker 1: In a bar or in a restaurant sometimes. So a
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  Speaker 1: couple of people mentioned gentrification, neighborhoods changing, and prices that
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: just keep going up, right? A majority of restaurants say
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: they've tried dealing with rising operating costs by adjusting menu prices,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: reducing staff, or cutting hours. Now, according to Gothamist, the
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: medium price of a cocktail in Manhattan is, do you
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: want to guess?
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: How much? $ 12. $ 17. Oh, man.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: You want $ 12, you got to go to the Outer Boroughs.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Some New Yorkers say, there's your answer.
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  Speaker 3: Things are crowded still, but I feel like people are
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  Speaker 3: buying less drinks. So it makes sense to me that
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  Speaker 3: there's fluctuation in how much people can stay open.
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  Speaker 5: They're definitely making money. Because there's a lot of people,
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  Speaker 5: less room, everything is expensive.
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  Speaker 7: I mean, it's packed and all, but... I feel like
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  Speaker 7: bars can also be struggling, too, because they're also competing
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  Speaker 7: with these, like, prices of other bars. And it doesn't mean, like,
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  Speaker 7: just because we're struggling doesn't mean they're also not struggling.
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, 100%. I mean, if you make a single drink
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  Speaker 4: $ 20 and you make cover $ 20, nobody's going to spend
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  Speaker 4: $ 40 when rent is, like, $ 6, 000. You know what I mean?
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: I think that that's definitely, like, a huge part of
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: them not making as much money as they used to.
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  Speaker 2: Now, you know what used to save them, Larry? You
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: would comp the first 50 women in. Which would guarantee
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: to attract guys if they walked in because guys don't
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: go by themselves. Girls don't go by themselves anymore. They
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: go in a crowd. So if you have the guys
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: coming in, then you got nightlife. But if it is
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: unsafe for the women to be out late at night
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  Speaker 2: and they can't afford a cab and an Uber all
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: the time, they're not taking the subway. So there goes
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: your nightlife.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: I don't want to toot my own horn, but I
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  Speaker 1: used to be one of those people.
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  Speaker 6: They got in free. Sometimes I still am.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: They comp you, right?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, if the heel is high enough.
• 3:25
  Speaker 6: You used to pick me up after watching what I say.
• 3:28
  Speaker 6: You used to tick me off.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: Oh, well, and I used to win.
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  Speaker 5: I'm going inside, baby.
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  Speaker 2: And then remember, the guys feel full of themselves. So
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: they say, you're going to buy a bottle here, right?
• 3:40
  Speaker 6: You got to buy the whole bottle.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: And then you have a pourer. Because then, hey, man,
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  Speaker 2: they can flex and the girls will look or the
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  Speaker 2: young women will look and say, wow, he can afford
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: a bottle of champagne.
• 3:51
  Speaker 6: I used to complain about it and I'd talk to
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  Speaker 6: the bouncer and I'd say, why did they get in?
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  Speaker 6: Why did they get in for free? How come I'm
• 3:57
  Speaker 6: standing out here? He went, figure it out, Einstein. It
• 4:01
  Speaker 6: ain't a gay club, pal.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, those guys never used to impress me anyway. No,
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  Speaker 1: it was a lot of fun. But the survey got
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: feedback from 107 respondents who operate a total of 275
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: establishments across New York City. So these are the owners
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  Speaker 1: of one to three places. They've kind of got to
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  Speaker 1: make have multiple, right? So with mom and pop restaurants
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  Speaker 1: and nightclubs and all that stuff sort of disappearing, not
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  Speaker 1: everyone's happy with that.
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  Speaker 3: There's definitely a few restaurant groups that now own like
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: a whole bunch of bars and they're honestly all great.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: So I'm. happy with it but I do miss having
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  Speaker 3: more like local local spots as well.
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  Speaker 4: I mean I think the spots that used to be
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  Speaker 4: sort of like homegrown fun spots to go out have
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  Speaker 4: now become places where people just stand instead of dancing
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  Speaker 4: and I think that like that also has to do
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: with our generation and club culture because it's become the
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: only third space where people can just hook up and
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: see people but Yeah, I think in general, nightlife has
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: gotten worse because people are coming to spaces and they
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: don't know the history behind it. And then you have
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  Speaker 4: DJs who also are not homegrown New Yorkers. So they're
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: playing that nobody wants to dance to.
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  Speaker 2: Look at you.
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  Speaker 6: Look at this.
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  Speaker 1: I'm thinking of like all the club songs that I
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: like to dance to.
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  Speaker 6: She's dancing in the studio. I've never seen her so
• 5:18
  Speaker 6: into a story except for the nightlife in New York.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: I'm a nightlifer. That woman said happy. What about happy hour?
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: What are the prices of happy hour that normally pack
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: the bars?
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  Speaker 4: Right.
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  Speaker 1: They got to track those.
• 5:31
  Speaker 6: Those are the deals.
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: Yes.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 5:34
  Speaker 6: No, we don't want to interrupt you from dancing.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: Natalie, she's like a whirling dervish here. Weigh your six-inch
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: stacked heels, Natalie. Anyways, she'll be back tomorrow, same time,
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: same place at 7.50.