A reader reached out the other day, wondering whether we had any news about 712-14 South St., most recently home to the Bottom of the Sea restaurant. The restaurant closed about a year ago, and was apparently headed to sheriff's sale as well. If you pass by today, you'll see that there's brown paper up in the windows. What's going on behind them is anybody's guess.
Perhaps you aren't aware of the recent history of this building. Until about a decade ago, the sign on the front was for Senor Rattlers Cantina, but that business closed some time after this 1989 Daily News review. Despite the remaining sign, the building was for years home to Club Kama Sutra, a private swingers club. We had friends who lived across the street back then and we can say with great confidence that it was no secret to the neighbors what was going on in that building.
Still, Bottom of the Sea showed that there was hope for a legitimate business at this location, even if the restaurant didn't make it. We've discovered that the building changed hands earlier this year, and was purchased by Phung LLC for $710K. Permits were pulled for interior demolition, and a zoning permit was pulled to consolidate the two buildings into one property. We would have to imagine that this means a new business will be coming here in the coming months. What exactly they will be selling we do not know yet. Hopefully, it will be something, uh, legal, ya know?