Battle of the Bistro

The people who want to open a Bistro Garden restaurant in Studio City finally got a city liquor permit last week, so the San Fernando Valley will get its own version of the tony Beverly Hills eatery.

This newest edition to Ventura Boulevard haute cuisine didn’t arrive without a struggle. For eight months, the Bistro Garden people attempted to obtain the much-needed liquor permit. For eight months, a group of nearby residents delayed that permit with complaints and rhetoric.

The “Battle of the Bistro” wasn’t just a fight between developers and residents. It was a fight for the reputation of fine dining in the suburbs.

“It’s shocking to think that an elite restaurant can pose problems,” said Rose Elmassian, who led the fight for the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. “People don’t think that the well-to-do would urinate in public or do other crude things. It’s shocking, but it’s true.”

Last May, Elmassian and others from the 40-year-old neighborhood near the Bistro Garden construction site at Ventura and Coldwater Canyon Avenue attended a zoning administration hearing to oppose the liquor permit.

Homeowners expressed their fear that rude and intoxicated patrons might empty out of the restaurant and stumble down their streets.

Such suggestions outraged the Bistro Garden folks, whose original restaurant and its sister location, the Bistro, are renowned for their clientele.

“We have been here in Beverly Hills for 25 years,” said Jacqueline Larroque, the administrator at both restaurants, in a thick French accent. “We have had heads of state, movie stars, presidents, governors, princes and princesses. To even suggest that any of these would urinate on someone’s lawn before they step into their Mercedes is shocking. How could anyone think that?

“I think that the people who are saying those kinds of things are living in a trashy neighborhood,” she said. “Our bathrooms are probably more elegant than their living rooms.”

The debate extended beyond the Bistro Garden, which will open next year. At a recent city hearing, a woman who has lived along Ventura Boulevard for 30 years took the opportunity to hurl a few allegations at a string of restaurants that already line the boulevard, including Marrakesh and La Serre, two of the Valley’s more expensive dining rooms.

“Last week, I picked up 40 wine and beer and vodka bottles drunk by people parked there after they’ve left these restaurants,” Marguerite Casey said.

Casey told city officials that she saw a man walk across the street from the restaurants and urinate in front of her house.

“This is the first time I’ve heard of this,” said Henry Abergel, the manager at La Serre, when told of the statement later. Dinner for two at the restaurant runs between $70 and $120. “Our clientele is super-classy. They have their cars parked right in front by valet. Or, they have limousines.”

Forcing Concessions

The Sherman Oaks homeowners group said that, to some extent, it opposed the liquor permit as a way of forcing concessions on traffic, parking and noise from developer Herbert Piken, who is using the Bistro Garden as a centerpiece for his new $15-million shopping center.

The residents were successful. Last Tuesday, the city Board of Zoning Appeals ruled that to serve liquor the restaurant must soundproof its dining room, provide enough parking for diners and employees and allow the city to review the business’ neighborliness at two-year intervals for the next six years.

But while homeowners hailed the decision as a victory, they also insisted that visions of drunken patrons invading their turf weren’t just a strategic bluff.

“I saw it,” said Elmassian, secretary of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. “The beer cans were under the car. The urine was on the street.

“It gets worse every day.”

This kind of allegation isn’t surprising, city officials said. In the arena of zoning hearings--where homeowners and developers go head-to-head--heated debates are common.

Airing Grievances

“If you have been a zoning administrator for some time, you know that this may be a rare opportunity for homeowners to complain about problems they’ve got in their area,” said William Lillenberg, an associate zoning administrator who presided over the first Bistro Garden hearing. “You hear a lot of people that will talk about theoretical possibilities. Of course, you have to distinguish between what you’re looking at and what could occur.”

When a restaurant applies for a city liquor permit, known as a conditional-use permit, the case is heard before a zoning administrator. He takes into account the restaurant’s application, the report of a zoning analyst, testimony at a public hearing and his own knowledge of the area.

After a decision--with its attendant restrictions--has been rendered, either side can appeal to the Board of Zoning Appeals. Another hearing ensues, and the three-member board votes on a final decision.

Liability Challenged

“Very far-stretched, in my opinion,” said Nikolas Patsaouras, chairman of the Board of Zoning Appeals, in response to allegations he heard directed against La Serre and other expensive restaurants on the boulevard. “The fact is that a man was urinating. The question is, how do you know the person who is urinating in your front yard came from that restaurant.

“People don’t exaggerate as far as the incident,” Patsaouras said. “Where they exaggerate is in trying to put all the blame for all the incidents in a 1-mile radius on a particular establishment.”

So, Patsaouras and Lillenberg said, zoning officials don’t always lend great weight to hypothetical or emotional testimony from homeowners.

“Their fear is strong enough for me to take into consideration,” Patsaouras said. “We can only base our opinions on our common sense.”

When it comes to a resident’s testimony, zoning officials say they respond to those complaints that can be addressed within the limits of a conditional-use permit.

If residents are worried about outsiders parking on their streets, the administrator can order the restaurant to build a parking lot. If residents are worried about noise late at night, the administrator can make the new business close at a reasonable hour.

Worries about drunk diners leaving the premises are difficult to address because there are no city-imposed restrictions that could control patrons after they leave the restaurant, Lillenberg said.

“You have to have the wisdom to understand that you’re considering a specific application,” Lillenberg said. “You can’t solve the problems of the city on one particular application for a liquor license.”

As for the Bistro battle, the homeowners are happy to have won the considerations they fought for. The Bistro Garden people, on the other hand, appear to be a little wounded by the city’s decision and the attacks on their reputation.

“Happy? How can you be happy that every two years, like a criminal on parole, you have to stand up and be judged?” Larroque said. “I think it is outrageous. It is beyond justice.”