We've all spent countless hours sitting around a bar passionately vowing to boycott various injustices (right?), but does anyone ever actually follow through? Ask the inspiring patrons of Nevada Smith's, the rabidly popular East Village soccer bar, who have vowed to boycott the bar until two of their most beloved
bartenders get their jobs back. EV Grieve reports that the troubles began last week when the bar was shut down for a day due to alleged underage drinking.
According to an anonymous message board user who claims to have an intimate knowledge of the incident, the court order allowed the bar to reopen on the condition that four of the bartenders caught serving minors were terminated. But it's said that owner Paddy McCarthy "got his lawyer to see whether there was any way of keeping them and the court relented but doubled the fine. As a result the barmen were told that they had two choices: pay a share of the fine (after all the bar was shut down and the DA launched a case to close the bar *permanently* because they served underaged customers brought there by cops - not once but several times) or leave Nevadas."
Two bartenders paid up ($2,500 each is the number being bandied about) but two refused: Kieron Slattery and another bartender named Ken. Now there's an online petition demanding their return, and team Slattery are vowing to follow him over to his new gig at Lunasa's on First Avenue. Adding to the drama, Slattery was told not to show up for work Friday but he did anyway, and after he refused to get out from behind the bar, McCarthy had him arrested! It's hard to imagine this whole thing ending without an epic, bar-clearing brawl.
