Business & Tech

City Denies Buona Vita Liquor Expansion Request

In rejecting the popular Pier Avenue restaurant's proposal to serve hard alcohol, the council directs staffers to research ways to reduce the number of late-night liquor serving establishments in town.

patrons will still be able to enjoy a glass of wine with their Italian meal at the Pier Avenue restaurant, but they won't have the option of sipping a martini for dessert.

The City Council unanimously agreed Tuesday night to uphold the 's decision to deny the restaurant's request to serve alcohol despite the owner's promise to close early and diligently follow city rules. The council vote revived a citywide debate on .

"We're willing to work with the council and work with the community if there are any concerns," Buona Vita owner Dino Capaldi said.

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"We want to offer the choice of ordering a cocktail. It's just a choice," said Dino's wife, Lea. "We came to the city and have been very upfront, and very open and very honest with what our intentions are… You tell us what you want us to do, and we'll do it."

But the city, and a group of locals who live near the restaurant, wanted to see the eatery's alcohol offerings remain limited to beer and wine. 

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"Why not just have a very nice expanded wine menu," asked Hermosa resident Judy Garland.

Laura Raymond, who lives on Cypress Avenue near the restaurant, reminded council members that some of them promised the community that there would be no alcohol on Upper Pier Avenue.

"No more intensification on liquor license. You all campaigned on it," she said at the council meeting. "This is almost a slap in the face to all of us who lived through the " during the recent Pier Avenue Improvement Project.

Councilman Jeff Duclos agreed with some of the residents, and said that the council should "fulfill the pledge that we made in terms of the vision we want that street to be."

Councilman Michael DiVirgilio has a list of six commitments typed and laminated on his shower wall, he said, and his dedication to helping address and solve the concerns downtown is the first.

"It would be easy for me to agree that the solution to this problem is always saying 'no' and always saying we have to have a policy," he said. "But to say 'no' is not going to make the situation better."

The solution is to cut back the late night operating hours of downtown venues, he told the council. Most of the problems and disturbances along Pier and Hermosa avenues occur after midnight.

So when observing the broader issue, DiVirgilio said, the city needs to focus on three driving forces behind the community's concerns with alcohol.

  1. Because there has been a lack of historical enforcement at businesses and in neighborhoods in the past, he said, now it's difficult to control the growing issues without a surge tactic.
  2. Overabundance of late night alcohol-serving establishments developed downtown in the 1990s when the city was trying to develop the Pier, and now "we've reached a stasis," he said.
  3. The hours of alcohol service has caused the majority of problems. "The stuff you guys are seeing at 2 in the morning is coming from the late, late night crowd," DiVirgilio said.

Buona Vita's offer to close early shows that it not only wants to cooperate with the city, but also be "more effective as being a legitimate restaurant," DiVirgilio said.

Councilman Kit Bobko agreed. "The problem, or solution, if you will, is the time," he said. "Imagine how the Plaza is today. Instead of having unlimited CUPs [restaurants' conditional use permits], what if every CUP on the Plaza is limited to being open until 10 p.m. It wouldn't be what it is today."

But other council members remained wary of supporting Buona Vita's appeal. Not only did the panel vote unanimously against the liquor request, but also to direct city staff to research ways in which the city could move forward with limiting the number of late night alcohol-serving establishments in town.


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