November's Community Board 3 Agenda: Mamajuana Café Trying Again for Tonic; Counter Getting a New Name

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Tonic, still late and lamented.

In September, we noticed that the Mamajuana Café, an upscale Latin restaurant in Inwood, had put in a liquor-license application for the old Tonic space on Norfolk. The space was previously slated to become the home of Dans Le Noir, a French dining-in-the-dark concept restaurant.

Mamajuana's owners withdrew their application shortly before CB3's October meeting, but now it appears that they're going to try again: The Lo-Down has a copy of CB3's November 15 meeting agenda, which shows a new application for the restaurant.

Mamajuana enjoys a considerable amount of popularity up in Inwood, though the nighttime crowds it draws to Dykeman Street have inspired a fair share of enmity as well. It's a large restaurant located on a wide, two-lane street; one can only imagine the kind of reactions its presence on Norfolk Street, which is barely wide enough to accommodate a golf cart, will inspire.

In other news, Counter, the vegetarian restaurant on First Avenue, is apparently changing its name to Empellon. No idea as to the significance of the name, although it does mean "shove" in Spanish, so perhaps it will start hosting angry vegan fight nights.

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