Aliyya Swaby Photo
Cavaliere and Furlow at Tuesday night’s meeting.
Westville’s Lyric Hall will now have permission to sell beer and wine at its shows, while a Grand Avenue restaurant may serve, too — minus the live entertainment.
That is the upshot of decisions made Tuesday night by the Board of Zoning Appeals.
The board unanimously approved licenses allowing Lyric Hall and Grand Avenue restaurant La Cabana to serve beer and wine. But community complaints led the board to nix the part of La Cabana’s application that requested to offer “acoustic music, disc jockey, karaoke and live bands.”
Permittee John Cavaliere’s pitch to allow a tavern license in Lyric Hall’s live performance theater, by contrast, was accompanied by a long line of Westville supporters, who said serving alcohol would help the business bloom.
Cavaliere said he has been “struggling to catch up” with the business’s taxes since they were raised in 2011; a license would help him increase revenue. Lyric Hall would serve beer and wine three to four times per week during events, with weekday hours from 5 p.m. to 12 a.m. and weekends from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m.
Cavaliere renovated the onetime Vaudeville house into an antiques shop and live theatrical and musical performance venue that has become an anchor of Westville Vilalge’s cultural revival. (The videos at the top of the story and here show blues guitarist Guy Davis and Austin folkie Betty Soo performing in a 2013 Bob Dylan revue at the theater. Click here for a story about how neighbors rallied to help the venue recover from damage caused by a 2012 flood.)
Eight neighbors lined up to speak to the board on behalf of the Westville business, including Beaver Hills Alder Richard Furlow.
“Lyric Hall will help sustain and hopefully increase the economic development of Westville Village,” he said.
Musician Chrissy Gardner, a frequent performer at Lyric Hall, called it her “favorite place to perform,” but also “hard without a license.” She said no excessive noise or rowdiness would come from the establishment: “It’s not going to be like a club.”
Meanwhile, Claudio Quezada asked for a special exception to allow a beer and wine license in a general business district in his restaurant La Cabana at 850 Grand Ave. The 28-seat restaurant has no current liquor license, and would serve beer and wine directly to the dining tables, without an accessible bar.
Neighbors’ oppositions hinged on the request to serve live music, DJs and karaoke along with its alcohol, arguing it would increase noise in the area.
“Is it realistic to assume that a restaurant that serves alcohol and presents music will vacate the property at the announced closing time of 9PM?” local businessman Michael Davidson wrote in a letter to the board.
Wooster Square Alder Aaron Greenberg read into the record a letter from neighbors in homes between 70 and 87 Lyon St., who argued that “the acoustic properties created by mortar and brick buildings on Grand Avenue that are surrounded by empty spaces (generally parking areas) create ‘canyons’ [that] exponentially magnify noise to the point that one can literally not concentrate in one’s own home when events take place.”
Four board members voted unanimously to allow the license, with the conditions of keeping hours of operation between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m. and dropping the entertainment. Board member Benjamin Trachten did not vote.