Sandra’s Eyes Expansion

Hill soul food mecca seeks permission to rehab former garage for new 300-seat home.

Plans for that ambitious project emerged at Tuesday night’s regular meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals at the Hall of Records at 200 Orange St.

The Pittmans are proposing to rehab an existing vacant structure, a redoubtable 1925 pile of bricks, a former garage, along with four other adjacent and long vacant and unused parcels, between 197 to 213 on nearby Davenport Ave.

The aim is to create a 300-seat restaurant with 51 off-street parking spaces. The owners need zoning variances to proceed.

According to a staff report, which recommended approval, ​“The applicant is proposing to rehabilitate and expand upward the brick building to include a mezzanine level dining area, indoor and outdoor [seating] under a pergola, and accessory offices for staff. The applicant is proposing the continuation and expansion of the brick facade which is located within the front yard setback for historical and aesthetic purposes.”

Pittman, along with Guilford-based Robert Sonnichsen of Waldo and Associates, the engineer for the project, were on hand to request a range of variances.

The requests include permission for a restaurant in a residential district, a front yard of 17 feet where 25 feet are required, and a building wall height of 32 feet where only 16 is permitted by code. Special exceptions were also being sought for a restaurant liquor license and for permission to have only 51 on-site parking spaces where, given the size of the proposed eatery, 75 are required.

Because the project involves parking, current regulations require the project to be discharged to the City Plan Commission for a review, and then to be returned to the BZA for a formal vote next month.

That did not keep more than a dozen people — Pittman family members, devoted employees, and neighbors and community leaders ranging from Board of Education member Ed Joyner to Hill Alder Ron Hurt — from coming to the microphone and singing the project’s praises.

Joyner called the Pittmans ​“among the first families of New Haven food” traditions. He called particular attention to the Pittmans’ commitment to hiring people such as the recently incarcerated, veterans recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan in transition and in need of a break, and people homeless or down on their luck, training them not only in the food business but how to be entrepreneurs and to build wealth.

Sandra’s, he said, is ​“not only a place to eat, but a place that saves lives.”

“Few minority businesses get to expand,” said contractor Rodney Williams. ​“Few minority businesses get to expand.” Most, he added, barely survive. He urged the zoners to look favorably on a project that represents far more than a restaurant, but also an anchoring cultural institution and ​“role model” for the community.

That theme was echoed by community organizer Abby Feldman and Sabrina Harris, Sandra Pittman’s sister and a business owner in her own right. ​“They don’t celebrate Thanksgiving until they feed the community,” Harris said. ​“Two years ago it was 500 people, and last year more than a thousand. They definitely need the space.”

David Newdall, a Hill old-timer, summed up: ​“For those of us who grew up in the Hill, Congress Avenue is coming back again. Twenty or 30 people sitting outside, that’s very different from the recent past. The sense of community and pride in the Hill on Congress will spread to Davenport.”

Before the hearing concluded Miguel Pittman asked if he could add ​“live entertainment” to the list of variances. That is part of his concept for the new restaurant, which would hire approximately 20 new employees and operate from 11:30 to 9:30 p.m. on weekdays and until 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Pittman was told that because that specific variance is not included in the text before the commissioners, he must return with that as a separate request.

“We’ll see you next month” after City Plan weighs in on parking, said BZA Chair Mildred Melendez.