City, eatery tilt over hours

After much discussion, the City Council decided to oppose a move by the Pier Plaza restaurant Silvio’s Brazilian BBQ to loosen restrictions on its hours of operation and the food-to-alcohol ratio it must serve.

Owners of Silvio’s, which serves beer and wine as well as food, plan to ask the state Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) to strike down two conditions – a midnight end to alcohol service, and a requirement for food sales to exceed alcohol sales – which were imposed when Silvio’s received a liquor license transfer from the Fish Market Café, the old occupant of the same building.

The conditions were proposed by the city and Silvio’s agreed to them. Then another Plaza eatery, Il Boccaccio, won ABC permission to remain open past midnight despite city objections, when its liquor license was transferred from an old owner to a new one.

On Tuesday council members mulled whether the two license-transfer issues were similar enough to presage a similar decision by the ABC. Councilman Kit Bobko pushed unsuccessfully to negotiate with Doug Howarth of Silvio’s, who asked if the council would ease some restrictions if he dropped his ABC request.

If Silvio’s is successful before the ABC, it could choose to serve beer and wine until 2 a.m. nightly.

Closing hours for downtown establishments have triggered debates on and off the council dais because of complaints of rowdiness and noise on the part of late-night patrons. Police Chief Greg Savelli told the council the downtown situation has improved, but more late-night alcohol service would make it more difficult to maintain the improvement. ER

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