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Council upholds CPC recommendation to allow pay-what-you-can Crescent City Café on Magazine Street
Summary
The council approved a conditional-use request for a nonprofit pay-what-you-can brunch cafe at 4807 Magazine Street, citing neighborhood support and the property's long vacancy; the applicant and neighbors said the model would provide dignity to food-insecure residents while restoring commerce to the block.
The City Council upheld a City Planning Commission recommendation to approve a conditional use allowing Crescent City Cafe to operate a sit-down, "pay-what-you-can" brunch restaurant at 4807 Magazine Street, the former Surrey’s location.
Adele Bergman, executive director of Crescent City Cafe, told the council the nonprofit model has worked in other cities and will let people of varied incomes dine together without public stigmatization. “We are a local nonprofit and it will be a pay what you can cafe where anyone can have a meal,” Bergman said, noting neighborhood enthusiasm and potential job opportunities for recently closed restaurants' staff.
Neighbors and volunteers testified the café would address food insecurity as well as bring customers back to a long-vacant building. The property owner, Joe Bicklidge, said he purchased the building to return it to commerce after years of vacancy and deterioration.
CPC staff described the use as consistent with past restaurant activity at the site and recommended approval subject to standard provisos. Council members who questioned operations were told that operational details, including the pay-what-you-can pricing model, fall outside the CPC’s zoning purview and can be managed by the nonprofit operator.
The council voted to approve the conditional use and the application will proceed to the permitting stage.
