Mayor concerned by businesses that shut kitchens
Gilroy – Seeking to distance downtown from its barfly past, City Council put the brakes on new bars there last year, opting for family-friendly restaurants and shops over watering holes.
But defining what’s a bar, and what isn’t, can sometimes become slippery. Some Gilroy restaurants shift their shapes after dark, shutting off the grill at 9 or 10pm but keeping the bar open. As restaurants, they’re subject to fewer restrictions than bars. Legally, minors can frequent them, and they’re unconditionally permitted to operate in downtown Gilroy, unlike bars, which require a city permit from the Planning Commission.
That’s worrisome to Mayor Al Pinheiro, who says some establishments violate the spirit, if not the letter, of downtown bar restrictions. If liquor is “an ancillary use” at a downtown restaurant, taking the back seat to food preparation and service, the restaurant doesn’t need a conditional use permit.
“Restaurants that have a bar are one thing,” said Pinheiro. “But some of them are becoming dance halls. It’s one thing for a family to eat together and the parents have a beer. It’s another for a restaurant to shut down food, and become a whole different place. As far as I understand, that’s not part of the permitting we did for downtown.”
To decide if a restaurant is a bar, city planners scrutinize the square footage, hours, and employees dedicated to food service, versus drinks. A restaurant’s layout and entries are also important, said Planning Division Manager Bill Faus.
“If it operates four hours as a bar, three as a restaurant, maybe it’s a bar,” Faus said. “Then again, maybe it isn’t.”
State agencies don’t differentiate among restaurants that serve alcohol, said John Carr, spokesman for the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. In Gilroy, Applebee’s and Famous Dave’s BBQ have the same kind of license as Happy Dog Pizza, Chips N Salsa and Krazy Koyote Bar and Grill, though the latter operate more like bars late at night. Minors can enter legally at all times, and “no minors” signs are required.
“As long as a business serves meals during normal meal hours,” said Carr, “that counts. We’re less concerned about that, and more concerned about whether they’re checking IDs.”
City Councilman Craig Gartman agrees.
“I don’t have a concern as long as they are, basically, a restaurant,” said Gartman. “After the kitchen closes, as long as they make sure minors aren’t drinking, it’s fine.”
But restaurants that become bars are worrisome to Timoteo Vasquez, organizer of the Cesar E. Chavez Youth Leadership Program. Teens in the program have conducted 600 one-on-one interviews with peers, talking about how, when and where Gilroy teens drink. Vasquez says if teens can get into bars, they can drink there.
“The scrutiny of who’s drinking is not as strict as it is when you have someone at the door checking IDs,” said Vasquez. “If they’re a food establishment, liquor should only be served to those eating. If no meals are being consumed, liquor should not be sold.”
Bar owners say they’re careful to screen out minors, taking on stricter measures than state law requires. At the Krazy Koyote Bar and Grill, security shoo underage patrons from the front bar area about 10:30pm, said co-owner George Headley. Even on designated under-21 nights, alcohol stays up front – and teens in back. ID bands and stamps help sort out who’s underage, and plain-clothes security patrol the crowd, eyeing underage patrons.
“We have the regulations from ABC, the regulations of the city, and we even take it a notch above that,” Headley said. “There is no gray area for us.”
Downtown, the Harvest Time Restaurant isn’t known as a teen hangout, but owner Adalberto Gonzalez stringently cards customers once the kitchen closes at 9pm. So does Happy Dog Pizza, which recently accepted a one-month liquor license suspension after ABC agents were beaten there in February. Happy Dog also nipped its under-21 nights after the incident. They’re not worth it, said owner Steve Gearing.
“By the ABC regulations, we could have minors up there at 1 in the morning,” Gearing said, “but it wouldn’t be appropriate. When we start to operate more like a bar than a restaurant, around 9:30pm, we card them.”
Bars aren’t to blame if state licensing allows teens to mix with legal drinkers, said Gilroy Police Sgt. Dan Castaneda, who handles bar and dance hall permitting. Nor is alcohol the only problem.
“When you have kids that are underage at a quasi-restaurant nightclub, where are the parents?” Castaneda asked. “Even on under-21 nights, when the club ends, you have people outside. Why are the kids out at this time?”
That’s where enforcement comes in, said ABC’s Carr, who stressed the department’s work with local police, using decoys to check whether licensees card.
“If locations are serving alcohol to minors,” he said, “we’ll come calling.”
But for Mayor Pinheiro, even if the status quo is legal, it’s not acceptable.
“We’re trying to revitalize the downtown,” said Pinheiro, “but when these restaurants become dance halls, there’s litter all over the place. It doesn’t cater to families. That’s not what we had in mind.”
