By Kevin Coughlin
An alcohol curfew for an expansion of the Tashmoo Restaurant & Bar was eased Thursday, after nearly five hours of vigorous testimony and debate before the Morristown council.
But the council rejected the owner’s request to waive curfews for 10 popular drinking nights, including St. Patrick’s Day, Thanksgiving Eve and the holiday bacchanal known as SantaCon.
And a proposal to almost double the size of an outdoor courtyard was shot down because of noise concerns.
“I’m pleased,” Robert Williams, attorney for Tashmoo principal David Walsh, said after the marathon session ended near midnight.
“It’s a great opportunity for Tashmoo, with reasonable hours now. This wasn’t all-or-nothing. I think this will be a very exciting complement to the downtown,” the lawyer said, referring to a $3 million, 228-seat restaurant that Walsh plans to erect at 10 DeHart St.
The council action updates a 2013 approval that enables Tashmoo to “expand” its liquor license from 8 DeHart to the adjacent property, even though the structures will not be connected physically.
On Thursday, the council accepted Walsh’s suggested changes to an 11 pm alcohol curfew, imposed on the expansion in 2013 to placate residents fed up with late-night misbehavior by downtown bar patrons.
Other places with liquor licenses, including Tashmoo, can serve until 2 am.
While the 11 pm restriction will remain for alcohol outdoors at the new restaurant, alcohol may be served indoors until midnight.
DeHart Associates LLC, Walsh’s group, scrapped plans for a retractable roof.
Instead, its revised proposal sought to increase an outdoor courtyard from 1,200 square feet to 2,200 square feet. It also wanted permission to serve alcohol until 2 am on 10 nights per year.
After considerable back-and-forth among council members, the following conditions were hashed out, to be formally approved prior to the regular council meeting on April 12, 2016, at 6:30 pm:
- The restaurant courtyard will remain at 1,200 square feet as originally approved.
- Tashmoo can apply for special curfew waivers at its annual liquor license renewal, just like other establishments.
- No cooking, and no bar, will be allowed outside.
- Three second-floor garage-style “overhead” windows proposed for the rear of the restaurant–facing town homes on Community Place–must remain closed.
- Other such windows on the perimeter of the restaurant, and large doors facing DeHart Street, must close by 11 pm, to limit noise.
Look for the grand opening in about two years, Williams said.
RESTAURANT OR BAR?
Residents from DeHart, Community Place and Macculloch Avenue–Morristown’s Historic District– implored the council to stand firm on the curfew.
Many reiterated long-simmering concerns that a heavy concentration of downtown bars is harming the town’s image and threatening property values with noise, traffic, public urination and vandalism from drunken patrons.
“Hold to your principles, for the quality of life for the people who live here,” said Vincent Zuza, who lives in the 40 Park luxury condos.
Others, including real estate lawyer Christopher Flood and schoolteacher Erica Lapchak, spoke highly of Tashmoo, and said they would welcome a new restaurant that catered to people who have outgrown the 20-something bar scene.
Councilman Michael Elms said he too would like another outdoor dining option, preferably with amplified music, and he favored granting curfew waivers for at least some of the evenings requested by Tashmoo.
But Council President Stefan Armington, who wanted to stick with the 2013 conditions, said the council owed it to neighbors, and to future residents of a 168-unit apartment complex across DeHart Street, to keep things as quiet as possible.
And Councilman Robert Iannaccone, whose First Ward includes the restaurant site, warned that granting special waivers was a “slippery slope.”
“If this is a restaurant, they don’t need those 10 days. It’s a restaurant. Those 10 days are for bars, they’re for clubs. Don’t say, ‘It’s a restaurant 350 days a year, but for these 10 days, it’s a bar and I’m going to cash out,'” Iannaccone said.
DATA DEARTH
The hearing underscored glaring deficiencies in Morristown’s regulatory procedures. Council members acknowledged they were approving Tashmoo’s expansion without knowing how many people actually will occupy the restaurant.
Those estimates rely on calculations by fire and zoning officials, which don’t come until the town planning board reviews the plans — after the liquor license expansion has been granted.
The council also acknowledged it was acting without sufficient data about bar-related incidents.
Morristown police records are not compiled in a format that allows for precise, swift analysis.
Resident Donna Gaffney, a trained researcher, spent months manually compiling a database spanning 18 months of bar-related police reports, which she obtained via public information requests.
Last month, Mayor Tim Dougherty asked Gaffney to present her findings to police.
On Thursday, Gaffney urged the council to study her data before voting on Tashmoo’s expansion. Councilwoman Alison Deeb said that made sense to her, but Armington said the data issue was a future matter.
Other technical shortcomings ranged from irritating to comical.
Although the council chambers are equipped with three wall projectors, all design drawings were presented on an easel facing the council. They were not viewable by the large audience of Tashmoo supporters and opponents who went to the trouble of attending the lengthy session.
And, in the 21st century when computer visualization tools are commonplace, council members struggled to grasp Tashmoo’s proposed courtyard size by counting the ceiling tiles above them.
The whole exercise may be repeated soon. The Iron Bar plans to expand its South Street liquor license into an adjacent “Iron Bistro.”
That expansion also came with an 11 pm alcohol curfew, which owner Jimmy Cavanaugh
is fighting.
He insists he has the state’s blessing to open this month with alcohol until 2 am. Assistant Town Attorney Elnardo Webster II says Cavanaugh does not have that permission.