Thomas MacMillan Photo
As some neighbors rallied to support a new “food and wine and beer education center” on Whitney Avenue, others decried a four-night-a-week “party” in their backyards.
The two camps squared off at a meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) on Tuesday night, where foodie entrepreneur Jason Sobocinski (pictured) pitched his plan for a new venture at 347 Whitney Ave. Sobocinski hopes to open a small “tavern” that would host wine and beer tastings and offer little plates of fancy finger foods.
The restaurant — to be called Bibere — would occupy what is now a storage area for the Wine Thief liquor store, near a small neighborhood convenience store. The commercial ventures are in the middle of what is otherwise a largely residential neighborhood.
His plan has already hit a roadblock: Zoners are not considering outdoor seating as part of the proposal, Sobocinski discovered Tuesday. That means if it gets approved, Sobocinski will have no outdoor seats. Sobocinski called that prohibition a deal-breaker, but pressed forward for other variances he needs.
Sobocinski seeks a use variance to permit his tavern in a residential zone, and a special exception to permit zero parking spaces where six are required. The BZA passed the matter on to the City Plan Commission, which will take it up next week before a final BZA vote in September.
Sobocinski was joined at the BZA meeting by his attorney, Hank Silverman (at left in photo).
“We’re looking to open up an extremely small food and wine and beer education center,” Sobocinski said. He told the board that he runs the Caseus restaurant and cheese shop at 93 Whitney Ave.
“So that’s your menu? Cheese?” asked board Chair Cathy Weber.
Bibere would serve olives, cured meats, pickled vegetables, braised meats, small salads, and sausages, Sobocinski said. Food would be brought over from Caseus.
Neighbors Heather Gerken (at right in photo) and Claire Priest (at left), both professors at Yale Law School, presented the board with a 76-signature petition of neighbors supporting the tavern. “Not a single person we asked declined to sign,” Gerken said.
Whitney Avenue needs more shops and restaurants, like those that dot Orange Street, Gerken said. “We don’t have what [other parts of] East Rock [have].”
Seeking to allay concerns that Bibere patrons would cause a nuisance, Priest said, “The raw cheese crowd is not a boisterous bunch.”
Sharon Carlo (pictured) was the first to speak in opposition. She is an office manager at the Catholic women’s organization Daughters of Isabella, which has offices across from the proposed tavern site. “We are very concerned about the parking liability,” she said. “They’re going to be hanging out outside. There’s going to be garbage. There’s going to be rowdiness.”
John Lapides (pictured), who lives on St. Ronan Street behind the Wine Thief, began his comments with praise for Caseus. He said his mouth began to water when Sobocinski described the proposed menu at Bibere. But the tavern will not be good for the neighborhood, Lapides said. “It will be essentially a party four nights a week in my backyard,” he said. The late hours — open until 11 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday and 12:30 a.m. on Friday and Saturday — are consistent with a bar, Lapides said.
Even if Bibere turns out to be great for the neighborhood, a non-conforming use will be established in the neighborhood and could be inherited by a bar in the future, Lapides said.
Another neighbor spoke out against the tavern plan and presented a petition with a dozen signatures of opposition.
Attorney Silverman responded that there is ample on-street parking in the area. He also said the tavern will be fully outfitted with sound-reduction insulation.
“There is tons and tons of on-street parking,” said Sobocinski after the meeting.
He expressed satisfaction that the supporting petition had over six times as many signatures as the opposing one. But he said he was disappointed that the BZA is refusing to consider outdoor seating at Bibere. Sobocinski said he was told it couldn’t be considered since it hadn’t been properly submitted as part of the proposal.
Outdoor seating is integral to the tavern, Sobocinski said. “I’m doing that or I’m not doing it at all.”
Silverman said Sobocinski will have to file a second application seeking outdoor seating permission. Sobocinski said he has never had a single complaint about his outdoor seating at Caseus.
Sobocinski said his venture can only improve the area. He said he plans to spruce up the exterior of the building and put in raised garden beds to grow herbs. There’s room in the back for even more gardens, unless neighbors object to the smell of growing vegetables, he said.
If the zoning blocks this use and a tiny number of outdoor seats, the city needs to reconsider its zoning. It needs to adopt a walkability index to help make decisions like these, as more progressive cities like San Francisco have done.
The lack of activity on Whitney contributes to personal security risks and high traffic speeds. This also causes the city to lose jobs to places like Spring Glen (a lot of residents currently drive up there to eat), areas which have plenty of retail spaces with outdoor seating that seem to work fine in similar types of residential neighborhoods.