Standing on the small raised platform outside his restaurant Max at 181 Duane St., Luigi Iasilli gazed at a sidewalk cafe down the street and counted off the names of nearby restaurants with outdoor seating.
“There’s Roc across the street,” Iasilli complained. “You have Blaue Gans—and this is just the second year they have it. City Hall is on Duane.”
A few days before, Community Board 1’s Tribeca Committee had unanimously opposed his application for a three-table, seven chair sidewalk cafe in the tiny outdoor space, and he was claiming unfair treatment. “There are basically another three restaurants, just on my street, with side-street sidewalk cafes.”
The committee said at its June 13 meeting that they were against Iasilli’s cafe based on a long-standing policy of opposing sidewalk cafes on side streets. But pointing to side street cafes operating in Tribeca, the restaurateur said he is confused and angered by the committee’s decision, and determined to press ahead with his application before the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs.
“I have definitely been treated unfairly. And I want to use the word unfair, because they used the word fair. They said, ‘We need to be consistent and fair to everybody,’” Iasilli said.
In response to questions from the Trib, Committee Chair Peter Braus declined to elaborate on the policy or other cafe approvals, but told Iasilli at the meeting that his committee had opposed several other applications on side streets.
“We do have a pretty established precedent,” Braus told Lasilli at the meeting, citing the committee’s recent opposition for a sidewalk cafe at Smith & Mills on North Moore Street.
“We want to be consistent,” Braus said. “So I think it would be difficult for us to say, ‘OK, we are going to make this one exception for you because then obviously the people we turned down are going to come back to us and say, ‘Well, wait a minute, you know that’s not fair.’”
Other examples mentioned by Braus included Sarabeth’s and Laconde Verde, two corner restaurants that applied for sidewalk cafes on two streets.
“Laconde Verde wanted their sidewalk cafe to wrap the corner. We only gave them tables on Greenwich Street,” Braus said. “Sarabeths wanted tables on Jay and Greenwich. We only gave them on Greenwich.”
A resolution for Laconde Verde from 2010 approves tables on both Greenwich and North Moore streets; a follow-up resolution in 2011 does not mention North Moore. The restaurant has been serving tables on both streets.
The Tribeca Committee’s policy regarding cafes on side streets goes back as far as current staff can remember, CB1 Community Liaison Andrew Brockman said, but the results have been inconsistent based on a variety of factors. Some sidewalk seating predates the policy, he said, and the Department of Consumer Affairs’ can approve an application regardless of the board’s recommendation.
The community board’s approval is one of several factors considered by the city. In most instances, the department favors approval, regardless of a negative vote by the community board, CB3 District Manager Susan Stetzer said.
“The Department of Consumer Affairs is going to approve it anyway,” said Stetzer, adding that her board was only able to secure a denial from the DCA in an instance where the operator had been causing problems in the neighborhood. “They absolutely won't support any denials.”
The Tribeca Committee’s policy appears to be tougher than those of nearby boards. The district managers for Community Boards 2 and 3, which border CB1, said they evaluate each application individually and have no uniform policy beyond what city regulations stipulate.
“If the zoning allows it we hear the application and we judge each one individually,” CB2 District Manager Bob Gormley said. “I don't know that we've ever denied a [new application] outright.”
After rejecting Iasilli’s application, two Tribeca Committee members said they would consider revisiting the policy in the future if most other members wanted to.
“I am comfortable with the policy, I’ve been persuaded, but if people want to say this is something that ought to be done case-by-case and we are willing to budget the time it would take to do that, then I am open to that,” Mark Costello told his committee members following the vote.
The Department of Consumer Affairs will review Lasilli’s application at a hearing on July 18.