Noisy UES Coffee Shop Torturing Its Upstairs Neighbor, Lawsuit Says

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A ground-floor coffee shop in a high-end Upper East Side building is tormenting its upstairs neighbor with near-constant noise that rattles her apartment, the resident alleges in a new lawsuit.

The suit, filed in state court on Thursday, centers on the Joe & The Juice cafe on the corner of East 80th Street and Lexington Avenue. It opened around October 2018 — more than a year after the plaintiff moved into the apartment above it, within the luxury co-op at 133 East 80th St.

It immediately began causing "significantly disruptive noise" in the woman's apartment, she says — stemming largely from the large blenders, juicers and smoothie machines that the shop uses to make its juice drinks and shakes.

"When in operation, these machines generate a loud, high-pitched whirring noise that is clearly audible throughout the Apartment," the lawsuit says, adding that the machines are in operation "almost non-stop" during business hours.

Patch is not identifying the woman by name, since the suit relates to her place of residence.

The machines are not the only source of noise. While making food and cleaning, employees often smack their equipment against countertops and other surfaces — creating "sudden 'banging' noises that are jarringly audible" in the apartment throughout the day, the woman alleges.

Meanwhile, from before 7 a.m. until around 7 p.m. many days, the store plays loud, bass-heavy music that "can be heard, and the thumping bass can be felt," throughout the woman's home, she says.

Seeking relief, the woman began making complaints to her building co-op board shortly after the cafe opened. The building's managers, Brown Harris Stevens, promised to look into it — but have failed to achieve any results, the resident says.

By March 2020, as COVID-19 swept New York, the woman temporarily moved to California, and Joe & The Juice closed along with many of the city's businesses. By June of last year, however, the shop had reopened and the woman moved back — and found her apartment was as noisy as ever, she says.

With the noise getting "even worse" over the last few months, the woman has escalated things by hiring Acoustilog, a sound-measurement company, to visit her apartment and make recordings. Over 10 days in early April, the company measured sound as high as 17 decibels above ambient noise levels — above what is allowed by the city's noise code, which prohibits noise increases of more than 15 decibels.

The woman's attorney shared the sound measurements with her building management, but failed to reach any agreement with the company about addressing the problem, she says.

The suit seeks a combined $4.5 million in damages from Joe & The Juice and the building managers.

A spokesperson Brown Harris Stevens declined to comment, while Joe & The Juice — a multinational chain based in Copenhagen — did not immediately respond to a request for comment.