When the Brooklyn Night Bazaar was ousted from its 23,000 square-foot warehouse on Banker Street last June with a firm kick from the world's largest luxury auto maker, co-owner Belvy Klein told us that he was on the lookout for a new venue for his massive, nocturnal food-court-flea-venue. By then, he had already secured a multi-year lease with Jacob Riis Park, for a summer weekend project dubbed Riis Park Beach Bazaar. Now, ten months later, Klein and his crew are seeking a liquor license for the Polonaise Terrace building, a towering, Polish banquet hall in Greenpoint.
The liquor license application, first reported by DNAInfo, describes a possible 660-person venue with stages, ping pong tables, mini golf, a video arcade and a karaoke bar, plus a vending area. The requested hours of operation are 6:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. on weekdays, and 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. on the weekends.
Reached for comment today, Klein and Bazaar co-owner Aaron Broudo confirmed that the venue is one that he and his partners are "looking into, among others."
Until it closed in 2013, Polonaise Terrace at 144 Greenpoint Avenue served as a venue for large-scale Polish weddings and banquets. An online listing from 2010 describes four halls—the Empress, the Symphony, the Embassy and the Starlight Room—plus a bridal suite, personal Maitre'D, doorman and valets.
New York Shitty published a translation from an article in Nowy Dziennik, a daily Polish-language paper, when the venue's closure was imminent. "We will 100% be closing the restaurant at the end of September [2013], however information regarding the sale is gossip," an anonymous manager told the news outlet.
City documents show that the building was purchased last June by Cayuga Capital Management, a Brooklyn real estate development and property manager.
We'll update with any additional information. In the meantime, join us in imaging some sweaty moshing and rice ball eating against a backdrop of gilded gold chandeliers.
An event at Polonaise Terrace in 2012 (via Facebook)
[Disclosure: Gothamist was a "media partner" for last summer's Riis Park events.]
UPDATE: An earlier version of this story described the Polonaise Terrace building as landmarked. It is in fact in a landmark district.
