Home Restaurant and Lounge, located at 28-49 Steinway St. (Photo: QueensPost)
June 3, 2019 By Meghan Sackman
The owner of a problematic bar saw his application to sell alcohol denied by Community Board 1 yet again last month.
Shkelqim Koci, the owner of Home Restaurant and Lounge, applied for a beer and wine license for his 28-49 Steinway St. establishment but it was unanimously rejected by Community Board 1 at its May 23 board meeting after members noted its past run-ins with the law.
The board stood by previous decisions–made in recent months–to reject the application due to past complaints and various criminal activity.
In the past year, there have been 64 complaints lodged with 311 and 94 calls made to 911 that have stemmed from the lounge, according to Florence Koulouris, Community Board 1’s District Manager. Dozens of incidents have gone to court, she said.
Home had its liquor license first suspended in October 2018 following several violent episodes. These incidents included patrons being slashed, women being sexually assaulted, and a bouncer punching a customer in the face with brass knuckles.
Home went to Community Board 1 in March 2019 asking for its license to be reinstated but the board voted against it. The State Liquor Authority–which makes the final determination on liquor license applications– rejected it soon after, largely based on the board’s decision. The board’s vote is advisory.
The latest application will go before the SLA yet again.
The SLA is unlikely to approve the application unless Koci can show that tangible changes have been made.
“We are going to want to know what they are going to do that will make the situation different this time around before approving it,” an SLA spokesperson said.
Koci could not be reached for comment.
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7 Comments
You three downvoters::: keep in being ghetto trash. Thanks for the entertainment.
Keep being sore about a couple of downvotes. Thanks for the entertainment.
That place attracted an undesirable element into the neighborhood, denying a liquor license would be good for the people living around there.
Good. I hope they never get their license back. It was a place for uncivilized punks who didn’t care about anyone or anything. Always some ridiculous drama going on that ended up in a fight in the street.
There are always problems with this place. Keep it closed. The neighborhood is better off without it. Replace it with something better. Keep these drugged up, drunken, tough guy idiots out of Astoria
Wow. For the first time the community board is thinking about the community!
They FIRST lost their license in October 2018??? As in only 7months ago??? /First???/.
64 311 inquiries/complaints and 91 911 calls all regarding this place??? Nope.
No more alcohol for this place.
Please keep denying their license until they decide to leave from here. Unfortunately I went there for friends birthdays and I got very disappointed from the bartender that tried to add an extra drink on my bill, and when I called the general manager and the bar manager they both didn’t care. So if every employ and also the owner sucks, then they definitely don’t deserve to manage a business. On top of the bad management they brought lots of trouble to our neighborhood, then we do not want them here. Please continue to revoke their liquor license, we don’t want to make our neighborhood worse.