ENCINO : Cafe Owners Drop Expansion Plans

The owners of the Insomnia Cafe, a popular but controversy-dogged coffeehouse in Sherman Oaks, will not be opening a sister shop in Encino as planned.

John Dunn, the cafe’s owner, said that problems with his intended partners were responsible for the breakup of the deal.

The decision was due to “partners who didn’t come through with what they promised me,” Dunn said this week.

Dunn said the decision to pull the plug on what would have been the third Insomnia Cafe in Los Angeles--the other one is on Beverly Boulevard near West Hollywood--had nothing to do with rumblings from Encino homeowners, who feared it would generate the same noise and parking problems that have been attributed to the Sherman Oaks coffee shop.

“We could have worked things out with the neighbors,” Dunn said. The owner had gone so far as to lease a building at 16344 Ventura Blvd. and install phones, which have since been disconnected.

In unrelated developments, Dunn and Michael Pulwer of Third Life Inc., the corporation that owns the Insomnia Cafe, are scheduled to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. today in Van Nuys Municipal Court on criminal charges of failing to reduce the cafe’s late-night hours.

A Municipal Court judge is expected to rule on Dunn’s objection to the charges, called a demurrer, which argues that the complaint is defective.

Stanley Stone, Dunn’s attorney, said he has discussed plea bargains with the city attorney handling the case.