nothin Two Booze Bids, Two Reactions | New Haven Independent

Two Booze Bids, Two Reactions

Christopher Peak Photo

Permit-seekers Joshua Santana and Ryan Taylor.

Upper State Street neighbors Tuesday night embraced a coffee shop’s proposed liquor license as a draw for museum curators and young families attending wine tastings. City Pointers blasted a separate proposed liquor license as a magnet for drunks and teens seeking cheap drinks.

Those differing opinions were voiced at public hearings on liquor license applications before the Board of Zoning Appeals, where new categories of restaurant booze emerged that you don’t find in bureaucratic zoning laws: a glass of Old World wine served with a pastry, versus a rum cocktail served with empanadas. The hearings took place at 200 Orange St.

Upper State Street residents and a prominent visual artist widely supported an application by the Coffee Pedaler on East Street for a tavern license to serve beer and wine. Meanwhile, members of the Hill South Community Management Team and an alder roundly rejected a Latin restaurant’s application for a full liquor license.

At issue in both proposals was a lack of parking in the vicinity, noise late into the night, and the customers who’d be drawn to alcoholic sales.

Essentially, zoning board members were asked to decide: How close to home should a New Havener be able to get a drink?

After hearing the testimony, the zoning board sent the proposals to the City Plan Commission to review the parking plans. The zoners plan to vote on the matters next month.

Quality Establishment”

Will Reynolds and Hesper Rego, Coffee Pedaler fans.

Ryan Taylor, a 35-year-old cyclist who brought trendy pour-overs to Upper State in 2013, is now seeking to add a different set of brews at the Coffee Pedaler. If the zoning board grants him two special exceptions, he’ll serve his favorite wines at 605 East St., allowing him to keep business going later into the evening.

Taylor said the mix of beverages is similar to what one might find at a European cafe in Paris or Barcelona or, closer to home, at Koffee? on Audubon and Maison Mathis on Broadway. He said plans to introduce customers to unique wines — stylish Old World vintages and hip, sulfite-free natural” brands — hrough classes, tasting specials and lectures with winemakers.

We want to do more. A lot of those places incorporate it just to make the sales. They make the margins off it; that’s it. But we’re trying to do educational, interactive, really in-depth experience,” Taylor said. It’s kind of like what we did with coffee. We just went all in; we just dived in, as deep as we can go. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

Eight people testified in favor of the tavern license, saying they trust Taylor will run a quality establishment,” as one regular phrased it. They said he established a strong track record by serving what some called Connecticut’s best coffee.

Titus Kaphar, a fast-rising painter who’s planning to open an arts center in Dixwell, said he brings curators from the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney and all around the world to the shop, because his guests always rave about how exceptional” the coffee is.

I bring people to this city to spend some time in New Haven, and when I do that, the place I bring them is the Coffee Pedaler,” Kaphar said. It’s not just a regular coffee shop, because of his attention to detail.”

Another supporter, Hesper Rego, claimed she moved to the area because of the Coffee Pedaler, buying a rundown” house and fixing it up. Places like Ryan’s are the backbone of a community,” she said. When deciding where we wanted to put down roots, the first thing we looked at was where the cool coffee shops are, because that’s the neighborhood you want to live in.”

Taylor didn’t always have his neighbors’ support. In August, he skipped out on an invite to present his plans to the East Rock Community Management Team. The following month, when Taylor did show up, residents complained about his customers parking illegally, tossing cigarette butts and empty cups in front yards, and gabbing loudly after Sunday night wine tastings.

Opponent Deborah Rossi speaks up.

The most vocal critic throughout, Deborah Rossi, whose house is 17.5 inches away from the Coffee Pedaler, testified Tuesday night about her continuing concerns about the application. She said Taylor had made an effort only recently to respond to her concerns.

I have spoken with Ryan numerous times over the years about the trash, the cigarette butts, the constant parking issues. I find it interesting that only now that he’s going for these exceptions and variances, that now there’s a sign up saying please be polite to neighbors and only now is there a cigarette disposal,” Rossi said.

As a writer, Rossi said, she’s particularly worried about drunk customers standing outside her window late at night while she’s trying to work, as they sometimes do after BYOB tastings on Sundays.

Taylor said he’s taking additional steps to keep neighbors like Rossi happy.

The application for a tavern license would technically allow Taylor to sell beer and wine until last call. He voluntarily proposed a 10 p.m. closing to keep the street quiet.

To deal with traffic, he’s also in initial talks with the Parking Authority, which recently paved over a nearby lot, about reserving a couple of spots. A newly added bus stop right in front of the store should also limit congestion, he added.

Planning staff recommended approving the special exceptions. In a staff report, Tom Talbot, the deputy director of zoning, noted that the neighborhood shop generates an almost exclusively pedestrian clientele” without much impact on vehicular traffic. Introducing beer and wine, he added, wouldn’t alter the character of the immediate area” and, in fact, might complement the other small businesses nearby.

His Folks”

Joshua Santana: “My folks”?

The testimony was entirely flipped against Joshua Santana’s proposal to open a 44-seat restaurant he wants to call Mambo at 151 Howard Ave. in City Point.

Santana proposes opening an affordable Puerto Rican restaurant with a full liquor license that would allow him to pour drinks until 11 p.m. on the first floor of a five-unit apartment building. He operated a laundromat there for seven years; he has since expanded the laundromat and moved it down the street.

He now needs a variance from the zoning board to operate a restaurant within a residential zone, a tougher ask than a special exception requiring proof that the zoning regulations don’t square with the site and that the proposed use won’t impair the neighborhood character.

Santana’s lawyer, Miguel Almodovar, argued the business would capitalize on the revitalization of the City Point area,” including the incoming boathouse and the nearby food trucks. And he said a restaurant would be a less disturbing use to neighbors than a laundromat, with its noisy machines and chemicals.”

These are the types of places that you stumble upon, the type of places that make New Haven different from the suburbs,” Almodovar added. We’re a city here.”

Neighbors protested that a cheap joint wouldn’t bring in the right clientele. Thomasine Shaw, representing the community management team, handed the board members a petition with 100 signatures of neighbors against the restaurant.

The local alder, Dolores Colon, voiced her opposition as well, saying that she didn’t want another business like Eddy’s Food Centre, three blocks away, where a woman’s body was found behind the store in 2015.

It’s not going to be an upscale restaurant, like Sage or Shell & Bones. The income of the clientele that go there are not the type of people that hang out in front of buildings until the establishment closes. They have jobs; they go to work,” Colon said. I just know that certain businesses, based on the socio-economics of the clients, are not particularly conducive to a healthy neighborhood and quality of life.”

Another neighbor put it more bluntly. We want to be safe,” said Carmen Rodriguez. We don’t want to have to cross the street to avoid his folks.”

My folks?” Santana muttered under his breath. They’re people that live in the city. My folks?”

Outside the meeting, he explained his target customer. What about the person who works in 7‑Eleven or McDonalds or Burger King? They can’t afford to even look at the menu [at Shell & Bones], to even think of going to a place like that. I’m bringing something that everybody could go for and enjoy.”

Almodovar, who said the testimony shocked” him, also argued that neighbors probably wouldn’t be happy if a high-end gastro-pub or sushi restaurant” was on the table. If it’s something you find at SoHo in New York, he’d be getting flack for that too,” the lawyer said.

Thomasine Shaw: Traffic’s bad enough already.

One more problem, the neighbors added: The space has no legal on-site parking. Almodovar explained that the restaurant would primarily serve take-out. Neighbors and planning staff responded that that still means people would be double-parking while they run inside for their order.

Talbot recommended denying both the variance and the special exception, saying that the applicant hadn’t proven the hardship that no other business, like a convenience store, could work on the site.

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