NO IRISH, NO BLACKS, NO DOGS: Curiously Race-Specific Dress Code At Cavanaugh’s

BY DAN GROSS/DAILY NEWS A CO-OWNER of Cavanaugh’s River Deck (417 N. Columbus Blvd. ) and two employees were arrested last Wednesday for allegedly pummeling a local DJ, according to a police report.

Kenneth Hutchins, 38, who identified himself to police as a co-owner of the restaurant, and security staffers Eric Wiggins, 40, and Peter Hutchinson, 23, have been charged with aggravated assault. Witnesses said they saw the men beating DJ Cuervo, aka Joseph Mahoney (PICTURED, NEXT TO BREASTS), according to the police report. Mahoney, 26, was writhing in pain on the ground on Columbus Boulevard when police arrived.

Mahoney told us yesterday that during his DJ set last Tuesday night, he announced to the very small crowd that he and friends were heading to Zee Bar (100 Spring Garden) later and asked, “Who wants to come?”

Mentioning another bar enraged Hutchins, who according to Cuervo called the half black/half-Irish DJ “a spic” and, after a prolonged argument, chased him out of the establishment, as did several security guards.

Mahoney says that before the chase, the guards pushed his girlfriend to the ground. He says that after Hutchins and the bouncers caught him, following a chase of about 100 yards, they beat him and ignored his pleas to stop.

In other Cavanaugh’s criminal matters, co-owner Patrick Pawliczek was arrested at 4:20 a.m. Sunday on a DUI charge while driving around 13th & Girard. Pawliczek did not return calls yesterday regarding his arrest.

DAN GROSS: Mookie Is As Mookie Does

RELATED: So while we were digging through the photos on Cavanaugh’s web site, hoping there might actually be a photo of DJ Cuervo allegedly getting his ass beat by the owner and a couple of security guards (hey, you never know) we came across this photo of DJ Kool performing at Cavanaugh’s last week. It occurred to us that Kool is in FLAGRANT violation of the Cavanaugh’s dress code and we can only assume he was kicked to the curb shortly after this pic was snapped. Kool, as you may recall, had a hit with “Let Me Clear My Throat,” which has gone on to become something like the black “Louie, Louie.” It was also the soundtrack to the infamous, but short-lived anti-Chaka Fattah ad that appeared on YouTube (with the tag GO BOBBY) for about five minutes back in January. The vid was pulled after these guys made a big deal out of it, but fortunately these guys saved the video and posted it up again, because not only is it a fascinating artifact of a crucial sociopolitical moment in the life of this city (rowhome racism, of the fear-of-a-black-planet variety, long a fixture of Philly politics, has its Macaca moment and, as per usual, the local MSM blinked and totally missed it), but we’ve checked out all the other versions and this one has the most bangin’ audio.

DJ KOOL: Let Me Clear My Throat

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 at 11:13 am and is filed under News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.