New Haven Independent

At that most stick-to-the-regulations and generally un-funny venue, the Board of Zoning Appeals, the owners of the future comedy club, Jokers Wild, were all smiles Tuesday night. The BZA approved their establishment, on Wooster Street near Olive, New Haven’s first comedy club in perhaps two decades.

When partners Dominic Acquarulo (left) and Jeff Gagnon had come before the BZA a month ago, commissioners were concerned about two matters: the increased size of the proposed Jokers Wild restaurant/club to 190 seats; and, second, as always, parking, and in particular potential traffic problems posed by a proposed valet parking system.

On Tuesday, the owners in a revised proposal complied by scaling back the restaurant to 125 seats and they also eliminated the valet parking. Instead, regarding the parking, they proposed a movable pylon sign at the corner and in front of the restaurant simply to direct customers to motor on their own over to the ProPark lot on Olive, where they had arranged for 35 additional slots to be reserved for their club’s customers.

With only 17 spots on the site - where two previous restaurants, Delmonico’s and Casa Nostra had failed - Acquarulo and Gagnon had proposed valet parking, but Commissioner Rick Elser, himself a former restaurateur, had cautioned that the traffic congestion would be no joke. (Click here for the story of last month’s deliberations.) Thus the changes offered, which produced, if not guffaws, then agreeable agreement from the commissioners.

After City Plan Director Karyn Gilvarg asked the owners to provide a genuine lease proving that they had secured the 35 additional dedicated parking spots required at ProPark and also to forego a movable pylon sign on city property but instead to put up a permanent one on the property itself, the deal was sealed.

“I’m really happy,” Acquarulo said after the vote. “We’re shooting to be open for business as early as the first of November.”