Metro

New bar/jazz club looking to open says booze-barring law shouldn’t apply to it

What would Moses/Buddha/Muhammad/Jesus do?

A jazz club looking to open in Greenwhich Village is trying to convince the State Liquor Authority that a rule barring liquor licenses for any establishment within 200 feet of a building used for worship shouldn’t apply to a Baha’i Center on the block.

Attorneys for Analogue, the proposed wine bar/jazz club, argue that the building on East 11th Street is more of a community center than house of worship and therefore the rule is moot.

“This community Center has lost its exclusivity as a church,” attorney Joseph R. Levey wrote to the State Liquor Authority. “This Center regularly rents itself out to outside promoters that run events that are completely and totally unaffiliated with the Center.”

But a local residents association says the lesser known religion, which believes in multiple prophets, is just as devout as other groups and the law should be upheld.

“Basically the applicants are attempting to circumvent a long standing statute,” claims the East 12th & 13th Street Block Association.

“The Baha’i Center is as observant a group as any Christian, Jewish or other nearby faith-based group, and deserve[s] to be treated no differently than those churches nearby … which often hold musical and other events for non-profit in their auditoriums, and have done so for decades,” wrote members of the University Place Residents’ Association.

The application is being reviewed by a Community Board 2 committee tonight and will be considered by the full community board Jan. 24. The SLA has the final authority over the license, but once a community board recommends a license, the SLA opinion is usually considered a formality.

Co-owner Jared Gordon said the vision for the club was a place with a “old-school New York feel, elegant and characteristic of the type of jazz that has been lost around town.”

“Any fear that there is a monsterous night club trying to take over our club and the neighborhood is misguided,” he said.

The center declined to comment on the pending license. An office manager who answered the phone would only say, “we not taking any interview requests right now.”

Area business owners don’t seem to object to the new club, especially since there are places serving alcohol all around the block.

Susan Silverman, business manager at Fleurs Bella flower shop one door down from the center, said that most people in the neighborhood were looking forward to a new venue.

“With there being so much NYU stuff around here, there isn’t a lot for a older, more sophisticated crowd down here,” Silverman said. “As someone who lives and works in the neighborhood, I was really looking forward to having a place to grab a reasonably priced glass of wine and listen to some jazz.”

bdefalco@nypost.com