New Haven Independent

Steinhardt and about nine Westvillians were on hand at the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZ) Tuesday night to try to stop Carlos Pena from getting approval to open a new restaurant and club at 50 Fitch, previous home of a crime magnet known as Jacks or Better.

Steinhardt brought her cell to demonstrate to the zoners how she calls the cops late at night and holds the phone in the air to capture the noise she already contends with from another raucous bar in her neighborhood.

“My house is behind the parking of lot of the Owls Nest,” Steinhardt said, referring to the bar on Tour Street. “I can’t tell you how many times, at 1 or 2 in the morning I hear drunken women brawling and screaming in the parking lot. I call 911 and hold my cell phone up so the cops can hear them.”

The Owls Nest and Jacks or Better were on a list of crime-attracting bars on a list put together by the mayor’s office.

In a surprise development, Steinhardt and her neighbors did not end up needing to make their case Tuesday night.

After huddling with Alderman Tom Lehtonen, Pena rose before the BZA not to defend his project but to delay the hearing on a variance he needs open his establishment.

“In respect to the alderman,” he said, “and in order to demonstrate that I intend to be a good and upstanding new neighbor,” Pena said, “I’d like to postpone the hearing until next month.”

Due to the Labor Day holiday, it turned out, that many notices of the BZA meeting were not mailed out to “abutters” and other concerned neighbors. Lehtonen had gathered Steinhardt, activist and arts developer Thea Buxbaum (and her son Geffen), and some six others. But it was likely that with the proper noticing a far larger crowd might appear to oppose Pena’s project.

Unless peace breaks out. Which it might.

After the postponement, polite, even conciliatory talk between the parties ensued in the hallway.

“I am a good neighbor,” said Pena, who introduced his wife Karen to Buxbaum, Steinhardt, and Lehtonen. He said he is the owner of a number of other restaurants, including Cosi on Elm Street. “The last thing I want to do is recreate anything like Jacks or Better.”

Pena said the idea is to create a 72-seat restaurant, with full liquor and entertainment. “However, we’re a family run business,” he said, “and what we want to do is improve on what was a blight to the Westville neighborhood.”

The Westvillians seemed a little surprised, but they were intrigued. Perhaps even a bit more so when Pena said the aim is also to reach out to students at Southern. “Why shouldn’t their entertainment money stay in Westville?” he asked. “Now they have to leave the area for clubs and quality entertainment, but no longer.”

Would he like to meet with other members of the community? Buxbaum asked. “Absolutely,” replied Pena. “We’re really a family-friendly establishment. There’s going to be TV and live entertainment, but all under control. Believe me, if we ever expect for whatever reason an especially large crowd, we always hire a New Haven cop.”

The proposal will come before the BZA Oct. 14. Before then Pena and the local community plan to meet, time and place as yet undetermined. Pena, however, must be confident of his plan and his charm to defuse neighbors’ anxiety, for construction at 50 Fitch has already begun.

Fitch is just past the boundary of Westville Village, a commercial strip that’s been in “renaissance” mode. Click here to read about that.