Avant Gardner is having liquor license issues over reports of drug use there

But the East Williamsburg music venue seems to have the support of Eric Adams ahead of its license renewal in May

Brooklyn electronic music fans know the Avant Gardner venue in East Williamsburg as one of the largest and hottest in the city, with several stages, including an outdoor area known as the Brooklyn Mirage that attracts some of the industry’s biggest stars.

The State Liquor Authority, or SLA, sees it as something else: A hotbed of illegal drug activity.

Records of that drug use by patrons — and at least three deaths connected to drugs taken while at the venue — have put Avant Gardner’s liquor license in jeopardy, Gothamist wrote in a deeply reported investigation released Wednesday.

Between 2018 and 2022, according to SLA data in the Gothamist report, over 1,600 people required medical attention at Avant Gardner. At least 88 of them wound up needing hospital care. Since its opening in 2017, three people have died after getting intoxicated at the 6,000 capacity venue: a 41-year-old man, a 21-year-old woman and a 23-year-old woman. Police are also still investigating the case of a female employee who claims she was drugged and, when she came to, shown a video of a man performing a sex act on her without consent.

SLA authorities have voiced concerns over these numbers for years, and by the end of 2020 had issued 23 disciplinary charges against the venue. Avant Gardner agreed to pay $100,000 in penalties and hired a monitor to report back to the SLA (an arrangement Avant Gardner reportedly tried and failed to have anulled).

Avant Gardner’s owner, Juergen Bildstein, believes that he could have issues renewing the venue’s liquor license through the SLA before it expires in May. As with almost any music venue, alcohol is a key component of Avant Gardner’s business model.

Bildstein is pulling out all the stops to kill the issue — including calling on his friend Frank Carone, who was an attorney for Avant Gardner before briefly serving as chief of staff to Mayor Eric Adams last year. In July, according to Gothamist, Bildstein secured a meeting with Kathryn Garcia, who oversees the SLA and one of the top aides to Governor Kathy Hochul. Adams’ chief adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, was also present at the meeting and reportedly wrote “We are hopeful that under this Governor businesses will be treated fairly by SLA” in an email afterwards.

For now, the music — and the partying — will go on at the venue, at least until May. Even then, reports Gothamist, it’s unlikely the liquor license will be repealed.