Inexperienced Mild Given to Pedro’s, SB17 Wine Bar

Two North Santa Cruz Avenue businesses received permission Monday evening from the Los Gatos Town Council to make upgrades to existing structures that may be just the tools for success in a competitive downtown market. 

With the approvals, , 316 No. Santa Cruz Ave., will have live entertainment, outdoor seating and changes to its exterior. Construction could begin in July.

Restaurant manager Mike Dipietro and architect Kurt B. Anderson were happy with the 4-1 vote they received from the council to move ahead with their plans to have live music three nights a week and G-rated comedy once a week. 

The council had asked Dipietro and Anderson to revise earlier plans to address concerns about their days and hours of live entertainment, meal service requirements with alcoholic beverages, architecture and security and police department concerns.

The council had also questioned the appropriateness of live entertainment in a town that lacks a formal entertainment policy.

Pedro’s manager lowered the number of special events it will observe every year from six to four—New Year’s Eve, Cinco de Mayo, Carnaval Day and Halloween.

The restaurant will have to provide meal service with alcoholic beverages in its new, 19-seat outdoor patio and entry courtyard, and the meal can’t just be chips and salsa, but real meals, like “nachos,” a reference that made the council and the audience laugh.

The restaurant will also install double-paned windows along Petticoat Lane next to a double-sided fireplace to address noise concerns. The entertainment will begin April 1 with Anderson’s Kurt and Johnny Band, which plays from Ricky Martin to Frank Sinatra tunes, Anderson said.

Councilwoman Diane McNutt said she thought the business was limiting itself too much as far as its hours of operation, suggested to be from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m. 

“If it’s a beautiful summer night and people are eating later, they’re not arriving at your restaurant until 8, and you’re still closing at 9 …,” McNutt said. “Closing at 9 seems really early for a full-service restaurant.” 

Mayor Joe Pirzynski noted that it was without precedent that a council member would suggest later hours for a restaurant. The exchange caused more laughter from the audience. 

The restaurant’s hours of operation were then set from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday and Sunday, and from 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday. On the requested holidays, the restaurant will stay open until 1 a.m. 

But Pedro’s plans for salsa dance lessons are gone.

“I want to talk about nachos,” McNutt continued, which triggered additional laughter. “I don’t think of nachos as appetizers; they’re like an entree.” The councilwoman was referring to the council’s requirement that meals be served with the alcoholic beverages inside the restaurant and outdoor patio and entry courtyard—and how “nachos” qualify as meals.

The restaurant’s 30-seat bar area will be the only place where alcohol will be provided without meals, the council ruled.

Councilwoman Barbara Spector voted against the restaurant’s plans, saying that from a planning point of view, what was being requested and granted was inconsistent with the town’s alcoholic beverage policy.

“I think we should deal with that policy, hold public hearings on it and make a decision as to what we want or don’t want to do with that policy and then apply that to future applications, as opposed to granting exceptions to the policy and telling people that if we ever change the policy, we’re going to make it apply to you,” she said. “From a planning point of view, that is not a good way to do things.”

Pirzynski said town officials have wanted to draft an entertainment policy since 2007 but still haven’t done it. Now that the town has a number of venues that allow entertainment, the town can make exceptions, and when the policy is presented to officials, it will reflect decisions made in the past few years.

“The law may then actually start to imitate the reality,” the mayor said. “In this particular case, I’m comfortable with this … In effect we’re developing law as we speak.”  

Town staff produced a chart that lists all the alcoholic beverage service and entertainment uses in the town’s so-called Central Business District. The chart shows that 12 of 43 businesses are allowed entertainment.

SB17, to be located at 217 No. Santa Cruz Ave., Suite B, plans to open by June. The business will be operated by partners Joseph McCarthy Jr., Gino Fumia and Jim Foley, who will make exterior modifications to a commercial structure formerly occupied by Crossroads Bicycles.

The business will be a wine bar and retail wine shop and would feature outdoor seating for six people and 10 indoor seats. A barrier will be built to prevent alcohol from being passed to outsiders, the council decided. The hours of operation will be 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Thursday; and 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. 

Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Chief Scott Seaman said the barrier is being asked to prevent consumers of alcohol from walking out to a public area. 

Typically, daytime customers will purchase wine by the bottle or case for off-premise consumption, Fumia said. During the evening, the majority of the business will consist of on-premise wine consumption, which will translate to retail sales from repeat customers. Offering wines by the glass will give customers a chance to sample products, he added.

Fumia said Dolce Spazio, the coffee shop next door, has been successful at offering coffee and sweets until later hours, especially during the warmer weather in the summer. Fumia said the business will promote local products by selling wines produced by local wineries, giving them a venue in which their products can be seen by locals who have the most potential to consistently buy the products.

More than 10 people spoke in favor of the business, including C.B. Hannegan’s co-owner, Johnny Hannegan.