Those of you who know me personally have likely already heard this story, but now that it’s officially a closed matter, I’ll recap.
We live next to/above what was once upon a time the restaurant Sol Fire. In January of 2007, they shut down. In the spring of 2007, the space was taken over by new proprietors, who intended on opening “Pepe’s Pink Taco”. We were a little concerned about what type of business was going in, so we met with the owners. At that point, we learned that in addition to taking over the existing space, they planned on replacing the existing parking lot with a new patio for outdoor seating. Again - we were a little concerned about hours and noise, since our bedroom is next to (and four floors up) from the patio. At their initial licence hearing, the owners agreed to limit the hours of operation to 9pm weeknights, 10pm weekends.
Construction ran a little long, and the restaurant/bar didn’t open until either late August or September of 2007 (renamed “Pepe’s Rockin’ Taco Shack”). It wasn’t a particularly balmy fall last year, so the outdoor seating/noise issue really didn’t come into play at all. This spring, however, we were upset that once the weather warmed up, the restaurant was seating and serving people beyond the previously-agreed-upon hours. We made a few calls (and a visit to) the owners/managers, and were not exactly recevied warmly.
In June of this year, Pepe’s was scheduled for a license renewal hearing, and we decided to appear and speak in front of the committee. Unfortunately, the license holder didn’t show up: he sent his brother/business partner in his place - instead of his attorney, as he had been instructed to do. We were still allowed to make our comments for the record, and the brother/partner responded to and was was questioned by the committee. If you’ve got the time you can watch the proceedings in this 200mb QuickTime Movie clip or the entire meeting in Real Video format (jump to the 5:03:00 point). Let’s just say that things went pretty, pretty good for us. Plus, it’s pure entertainment. Honestly. Watch the video, if for no other reasons than (a) you get to see me in a nice blazer and (b) as someone just reminded me, there was an “ass-whoopin” delivered.
Yesterday, the license holder/other brother appeared before the committee (5:59:30 point). Not nearly as entertaining (or lengthly) as the first meeting… but in the end the business has officially, on-the-record, agreed to operate within the hours they had agreed to.
I will say that as of the day after the first meeting, they had been closing up show promptly and quietly. But now that it’s official-official it’s something we really don’t have to be concerned about anymore.
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