Whole Foods is trying to shut down a Bowery rooftop bar

Whole Foods has taken the Public Hotel to court, alleging that long lines outside the Lower East Side hotel are blocking delivery access to the grocer's location on the same block — and that the hotel refuses to fix the problem by simply pointing the line in the other direction.

Now the store is asking a judge to close the Public Hotel’s popular rooftop club, The Roof, until the hotel relocates the crowds, and to issue “daily escalating fines” if it doesn't.

In a lawsuit, which was filed in Manhattan Supreme Court last week and first reported by the Real Deal, Whole Foods accuses the Public Hotel of creating a “dangerous and unlawful obstruction” by allowing crowds of hopeful clubgoers to spill into Whole Foods’ emergency exit, causing delays, spoilage and safety risks for drivers and pedestrians navigating “a blocked sidewalk with hundreds of people camping on the said active driveway.”

Whole Foods’ management and an attorney for the Public Hotel declined to comment on the pending litigation.

In a sign of how much the Bowery has changed, the neighborhood turf war pits an upscale organic grocery chain owned by one of the world’s richest men against a nightlife venue curated by one of the city’s original impresarios: Ian Schrager, who co-founded the legendary Studio 54 in the 1970s.

Schrager, who developed the Public Hotel in partnership with real estate magnate Steve Witkoff (currently President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East), has built the Public Hotel’s brand on a blend of affordability and exclusivity, with minimalist rooms upstairs and velvet ropes below, where crowds form late at night awaiting entrance.

Whole Foods participates in the city’s Off-Hour Deliveries program, which aims to minimize congestion by moving deliveries overnight. The grocer argues that its overnight deliveries are now being disrupted several nights a week.

“Trucks must wait sometimes over two hours because they cannot drive through the camping patrons,” the complaint reads. Whole Foods says the situation has led to extra labor costs and scheduling chaos on top of the safety risks of navigating large trucks around crowds of drunk revelers.

The hotel’s attorneys have fired back, calling Whole Foods’ demands overbroad and legally shaky. In a July 7 letter to the court, the Public Hotel argued that crowds are there for other reasons — like visiting a food truck, or picking up their Amazon packages (Whole Foods is owned by Amazon) — and that crowds aren’t even waiting for The Roof, but for a different Public Hotel club called ARTSPACE.

The Public Hotel argues that shutting The Roof would cause its business “devastating and irreparable harm” and cost the city $8 million in sales tax. Whole Foods presented the court with email transcripts where the grocer accused the hotel management of ignoring its calls.

“What you are doing is unsafe and it’s going to get your patrons hurt,” one email reads. “I don’t feel like we have a choice but to seek court intervention.”

Pointing the line in the other direction would put the Public Hotel's crowds in the path of 10 Stanton St., a Section 8 housing complex on the hotel’s other flank. The hotel also has a contentious history with the complex: The Public Hotel opened on a parcel that was once 10 Stanton’s green space. More than a decade ago, the community board and tenant association agreed to support the hotel project in exchange for extending their affordable housing contract.

Tensions between the hotel and its neighbors have flared occasionally since then due to noise, traffic and a trend of hotel guests having sex in plain view through its floor-to-ceiling windows.

The parties are sitting down for a conference with the court Friday July 11, according to the Public’s attorney David Saxe.