Tashmoo and the town are locking horns again.
Last summer, Morristown officials revoked outdoor dining privileges for the Tashmoo Restaurant & Bar after it flouted COVID-19 health guidelines at a pop-up beer garden.
Now, Tashmoo’s owners are suing the town in a dispute over occupancy at their new Homestead bar, next door on DeHart Street.
Homestead is designed for 774 people, by the Walsh family’s reckoning. The town says that number should be 351, according to the family’s 166-page lawsuit.
It accuses officials of abusing permit procedures to repeatedly “meddle, micro-manage, and harass” the proprietors, amounting to a pattern of “arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable, and unconstitutional attacks.”
Mayor Tim Dougherty labeled the owners as “bait and switch” developers trying to bend the rules.
Morristown “will not tolerate developers who promise one thing and then attempt to do another. In this case, the Tashmoo owners were approved for a restaurant. Now they are seeking to turn the restaurant into a night club, and chose to sue the Town rather than honor the commitments they made during their approval process.
“My administration will ensure that this facility will operate as approved. We will not tolerate ‘bait and switch’ developers,” the mayor, who is running for a fourth term, said Wednesday in a statement.
It’s the latest clash in a turbulent relationship between the town and the Walsh family, which holds, or has held, stakes in the Horseshoe Tavern and the South Street Social (formerly Sona Thirteen) and Laundromat (the former Dark Horse Lounge) bars, in addition to Tashmoo and Homestead.
Filed in Superior Court last week by Walsh entities DeHart Associates LLC and WCGP LLC, the suit names the town; the planning board; and municipal Clerk Margot Kaye, Construction Official Fritz Reuss, and Planner Phil Abramson.
The suit asks the court to grant the 774-person occupancy, and to levy damages against the town.
It contends Kaye has stonewalled requests for occupancy numbers of other Morristown establishments, requests made under the state’s Open Public Records Act. Kaye did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment.
The suit also alleges that Reuss abdicated his duties to Abramson, and questions Abramson’s occupancy calculations. The suit contends the planner wrongly, and intentionally, derived limits for standing room customers from restrictions for entertainment floor space.
Abramson “took a straightforward limitation on what portion of the restaurant-bar could be used for entertainment, and applied that limitation on floor usage as a building-wide cap on standing-room occupancy,” according to the suit.
The plaintiffs also are contesting bills Abramson allegedly submitted to them, including charges for hours he spent reviewing audio tapes of planning board testimony. “Their bills indicate they are acting purely on a profit-driven incentive,” the lawsuit asserts.
Abramson referred requests for comment to the town administration.
Tashmoo’s lawsuit was prepared by attorneys Ryder Ulon and Thomas Cotton of Schenck, Price, in Florham Park.
TENTS, BOWLING ALLEYS AND RETRACTABLE ROOFS
Homestead, which shares Tashmoo’s liquor license, is the culmination of many uses proposed by the Walshes for 10 DeHart St.
Over the years, they have sought permission for tent events (rebuffed by neighbors); a bowling alley/bar; and a restaurant/bar with a retractable roof, also opposed by neighbors.
When the council initially approved Tashmoo’s liquor license expansion in 2013, with strict conditions, Tashmoo’s lawyer at the time assured officials “we are definitely a restaurant,” not a bar.
As those plans evolved, the town waived requirements for on-site parking at the new venue, but restricted patio use, banned open windows facing townhouses, and insisted on alcohol curfews.
Some conditions were meant to avert issues for tenants of the Metropolitan Lofts, a 59-unit luxury apartment building that opened across the street from Homestead.
Alochol curfews were lifted last year to help Tashmoo and Homestead weather the pandemic. The health crisis struck as construction — delayed by demolition of a 122-year-old house that the Walshes could not give away– was nearing completion.
Homestead received temporary permission to open last July, with a maximum of 459 patrons. But Gov. Phil Murphy’s COVID regulations capped indoor dining at 25 percent of capacity until recently.
Homestead’s temporary occupancy certificate expired in February, according to the lawsuit.
COLORFUL HISTORY
The Walshes’ colorful history with the town stretches back well over a decade.
A security video from the Dark Horse Lounge, posted online, helped defeat a councilman who assaulted a co-owner of the bar in 2006.
The council shuttered the Dark Horse for the 2010 Labor Day weekend, to settle allegations from 2008 and 2009 of underaged drinking, “all you can drink” raffles, and failures to report bar fights.
In 2014, the Dark Horse and Sona Thirteen briefly were denied liquor license renewals by the town over violations alleged by state authorities, who fined Sona Thirteen in 2013 for allegedly passing off cheap booze as expensive stuff.
Some brighter moments were sprinkled in. The Walshes offered $35,000 for a do-over of the rained-out 2010 Morris County St. Patrick’s Parade. Up-and-coming musicians were showcased at the Dark Horse, a tradition that continued at the Laundromat.
And on a memorable night in September 2011, Mike Walsh presented a gently-used Cadillac as a 50th birthday gift to a Dark Horse bouncer named Fluffy.
All nothing but overpriced booze for millennial posers. Dom’s and The Station Cafe were real neighbor joints, that real Morristonians frequented.
I’m confused. Does whether it’s a restaurant, or a nightclub, or anything else have anything to do with occupancy? Swiss Chalet’s occupancy is 177. Does anyone who’s been to Homestead think it’s less than double their size?! The place is enormous. Also if you’ve been there does it seem like a pure nightclub to you? The food is awesome and it’s packed at 2 pm on a Saturday. What are we talking about? It’s clear Kevin Coughlin hates Walshes but wtf. I don’t get it
I can’t believe Eric ‘Fluffy’ Glover is almost 60 years old
The 400 number is much more reasonable given the size of the building.
That being said- the Walsh brothers/whoever else owns these bars should be ashamed. They had all the opportunity to create cool destinations to go out and dine/drink. Homestead is a pretty building, but it lacks any character in there. And the prices are too high.
Tashmoo and South St both have signs that look like a kid made them.
Laundromat is really the only spot that is a destination of sorts for the bars they own