LeSouk in the East Village is Closing
If you have ever been to Le Souk at Avenue B and 4th in the East Village, you have undoubtedly experienced the same thing I have: lines that don’t move, ridiculous waits, and horrible, horrible service. And yet, Friday night after Friday night, Saturday night after Saturday night, the restaurant/lounge continues to draw such large crowds to the point where it takes 20 minutes to get from one end of the bar to the bathroom. I myself have gone a few times despite all of this. But the last time I went was about 3 years ago, and I have stopped going ever since. Here’s what happened:
A couple of friends from Chicago are visiting New York City, and I think it would be fun to have dinner and smoke Hookah at Le Souk on Saturday night. I make a reservation at 10 PM for dinner for five. We get there, the place is so packed that we can hardly get through the front door. After several attempts at locating the hostess and a long wait - apparently reservations mean nothing here - we finally get seated for dinner at close to midnight! We are starving. We order drinks and Hookah, and place a food order as well. Close to 1AM, we have our drinks and Hookah but still no food. We are making the best of the wait time, a belly dancer comes out which is entertaining. But still no food after several polite inquiries from the waitress.
We are fed up and decide to leave money on the table for the drinks and Hookah and get up to leave. As we are leaving, of course the food comes out. We tell the waitress we don’t want it, we have been waiting an hour and it’s one o’clock in the morning and we can’t eat the heavy Middle Eastern dishes.
Now the manager comes out. We are so upset and frustrated, and I feel terrible for having chosen the place. My friends from Chicago don’t deserve this kind of treatment. My friend who is with me just graduated from law school and chooses this particular night to show off what he learned. He is arguing with the manager and the waitress, explains how we had a 10PM reservation and we are now receiving food at 1AM. One of the bouncers/security is grabbing my lawyer friend by the arm and won’t let him go! The manager brings our party to the alley behind the restaurant - holding us against our will - and tells us the owner will come meet us shortly. They simply won’t let us go.
The owner comes out and he is DRUNK. Drink in hand, slurring, can barely stand still. Anyway, more arguing occurs. Finally, we settle the bill for the drinks we ordered and we leave.
What an awful, horrible night out.
Now, I am no stranger to the Manhattan restaurant and nightlife scene. The service industry in New York City pales in comparison with other cities, because well, if you don’t go back, it doesn’t matter! There are hordes of people who will! The shitty service at Le Souk, well, maybe they were understaffed that night and they were too crowded. That’s forgivable. But a drunken management? Holding us against our will? That’s just unacceptable.
I wish I could say that Le Souk is closing because people stopped going. That’s not the case though. They simply lost their liquor license. Check out this post from NY Mag about the closing of the restaurant. Another Manhattan establishment bites the dust. Good riddance.
