Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Sidewalk Cafe topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Community board presses Olio to shrink sidewalk cafe and remove roadway seating after compliance disputes
Summary
At a Manhattan City liquor-licensing committee meeting, attorney Donald Bernstein and residents clashed over Oolios unpermitted sidewalk and roadway seating. The operator proposed eliminating roadway seats and cutting outdoor seating from 77 to 48 as the committee sought guarantees and monitoring before any SLA reconsideration.
Donald Bernstein, attorney for Oolio, told the Manhattan City Community Boards Liquor Licensing Committee that the restaurant group is seeking to resolve a months-long dispute over sidewalk and roadway seating at the Greenwich Avenue flagship. The discussion, held in the committees business session, centered on prior unpermitted extensions of outdoor seating, planters and servers working outside the demarcated sidewalk cafe.
Bernstein said Oolio will remove road-bed seating entirely, reduce the total outdoor seat count from 77 to 48 and accept an 11 p.m. closing time for the sidewalk cafe. "We would propose that we get rid of the road bed seating entirely," Bernstein said. "We're going from a total of 77 seats to 48 seats." He also said the company had removed planters and taken other corrective actions after prior committee and state liquor authority (SLA) intervention.
Residents and committee members said those steps do not yet erase a record of rule-breaking that led the SLA to deny the groups prior outdoor-seating request. "The community is tired, tired, tired of monitoring operations," one committee member said, summarizing repeated neighborhood complaints that servers and service activity occurred outside the demarcated area. Neighbors also pressed for sound testing and a reliable, local contact for complaints.
Stephanie Papus, a nearby resident who addressed the committee, said the concern has been less about regular inside service and more about uncontrolled activity on the sidewalk and roadside: "All I'm here to do is just to make sure we don't hear any sound," she said, and asked the operator to coordinate testing with neighbors.
Committee members proposed specific conditions to rebuild trust: a visibly smaller sidewalk footprint so the public can confirm compliance, physical demarcation (barriers, ropes or planters) placed inside the allowed area, pre-opening sound tests coordinated with neighbors, and a one-year monitoring window during which the committee would expect to see consistent adherence to the conditions. The chair asked that the operator bring a revised, measured diagram showing the reduced footprint back to the committee before any further action at the SLA.
Bernstein said the group had reorganized operations and management and can provide corporate-level compliance resources. He warned that if the SLA refuses reconsideration, the company may seek judicial review: "If the SLA doesn't approve it, we're likely going to take that to court," Bernstein said.
What happens next: The committee paused discussion to seek committee consensus on whether to revisit its prior recommendation; members asked the operator to return with a precisely measured plan that eliminates road-bed seating, shows the reduced sidewalk footprint and specifies the barrier/demarcation plan. The committee said it will circulate stipulations and expects to monitor compliance through resident feedback and scheduled checks if the operator proceeds to request SLA reconsideration.
