Actor (and NIMBY) Matt Dillon, now 47 years old!, headed to his local Community Board meeting last night on the Upper West Side to express his views on restaurant Calle Ocho changing locales and landing closer to his home base. Donning sunglasses and a hat, DNA Info reports that Dillon doesn't want the restaurant (now on Columbus Avenue) moving about a half block away, to 45 West 81st Street.
Dillon said, "This restaurant is different than a number of restaurants. It's more of a bar crowd. It's more of a night club vibe." Another neighbor agreed, noting, "It's much more of a bar crowd, it's a late night crowd, it's a smoking crowd... very high-energy club feel." Yelp lists the "noise level" as "loud," and one reviewer wrote, "it's so noisy. I don't have a hearing problem, and it was too loud for me to have a conversation."
Owner Jeff Kadish insisted, however, that "It's not a club." Dillon asked Kadish, "Why don't you put a really nice Italian restaurant there? That's what we need. It's not a restaurant that serves the neighborhood. It's a bar scene." The Board will decide on Kadish's liquor license request during its June meeting. Maybe by then Dillon will have channeled more of a Cliff Poncier attitude...
