After 100 Complaints, Auburndale Residents Want Local Bar Closed

AUBURNDALE, QUEENS — Two months after Kloud Tequila Grill opened on Northern Boulevard, neighbors started issuing complaints about the lounge.

Several people reported that the business, located at 192-08 Northern Boulevard, wasn’t complying with the city’s phased COVID reopening plan throughout April and May. Another pointed out that the lounge was building an outdoor deck without a construction permit. Then, the complaints started flooding in.

Since May, neighbors have called 311, the city’s non-emergency service line, over 100 times, complaining that the business is loud, dirty, and promoting after-hours partying and drinking, Patch found.

Most of these reports, however, are marked as resolved by the Police Department — who just see new complaints roll in, night after night.

'A living nightmare'

Fed up and exhausted by what they see as inaction, hundreds of neighbors rallied outside the lounge last Saturday, demanding that the city shut it down.

“The constant noise, drag racing, garbage and sexual activity right outside of our home is affecting our health and neighborhood safety,” Theodora Tsourapis, president of the Auburndale Northern Association, told QNS.

She said that the business has been a “living nightmare,” keeping her family up at all hours of the night, and demanded that City Hall shut the business down.

Dosung Andrew Jung, told the site that small businesses on the block are suffering because of the lounge, too.

“Every day, we find garbage, vomit, empty liquor bottles scattered around the block,” he said, outlining similar concerns as Tsourapis.

Those concerns are also highlighted in a petition, which is authored by the Auburndale Northern Association and calls on local elected officials — ranging from Governor Kathy Hochul to Queens Borough President Donovan Richards — to investigate the lounge. The petition, which includes a Google Drive of grievances, has garnered 387 of its desired 500 signatures.

Dozens of summonses

The NYPD told Patch that the 111th Police Precinct, which patrols the area, has been working to resolve the issues at the lounge with neighbors and the Community Board since May.

During the past six months, officers have reportedly issued 13 summons for blocking the bus stop, not displaying a liquor license, and various driving offenses; all the summons are “pending court appearances,” police said.

Most recently, officers met with the owners of Kloud Tequila bar this month, and “concerns about disorderly groups and reckless behavior were discussed,” a spokesperson said, adding that they’ve also been in touch with neighbors and Community Board 11.

Other agencies have gotten involved too, like the city’s Department of Environmental Protection and the State Liquor Authority which investigated the business on June 4, records show.

In response to that investigation, the DEC issued a noise summons against the lounge, citing it blasted music from six speakers with the door open. (Members of Kloud Tequila Grill failed to show up in court, and still owe $1925.00, records show.)

The SLA hit the business with sixteen violations of the Alcoholic Beverage Control law, including multiple fire and building code violations and excessive noise, among other complaints, an agency spokesperson told Patch.

Kloud Tequila Grill, however, pled not guilty to the violations, and the SLA is in the process of scheduling a hearing on the charges. Following the hearing the SLA Full Board can decide to impose fines of up to $10,000 per violation or suspend, cancel or revoke, a liquor license.

Patch wasn’t able to reach Kloud Tequila Grill for this piece, but Sal Khan, the operating manager of the lounge, told CBSNY last weekend that he didn’t know neighbors were so upset.

“They could’ve came in and spoken to us, ‘OK, this is what the problem is happening. Can we adjust it?'” he told the outlet.

Khan says that his business closes at 1 a.m. and that he didn’t know any neighbors had complained to 311 or the police. (The business closing time is listed as midnight on Google and 2 a.m. on Instagram.)

“People leaving from here, going in their car and sitting there until 6 in the morning, let’s just say… That, I cannot control,” he added.