Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing, and grant an Entertainment Permit with conditions for Entertainment without Dancing to Long Beach Tiki, LLC, dba The Bamboo Club, at 3522-24 East Anaheim Street.  (District 3)
I think it's our only hearing tonight, and that's hearing 12, which is a Bamboo Club entertainment permit. So let the clerk read that item. Report from Financial Management Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing and grant an entertainment permit with conditions for entertainment without dancing to the Bamboo Club District three. Thank you. We're going to go ahead and turn this. Over to. Our city staff. Good evening, Mayor and members of the council. We'll have a presentation on this item from Mala Camerino, our business license analyst. If the clerk could administer the oath on this one. I think this needs an oath. If you can raise your right hand to you and each of you solemnly state that the testimony you may give in the cause now and pending before this body shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God. Thank you. Good evening, honorable mayor and members of city council. Before you tonight as an application for entertainment permit without dancing for Long Beach Tiki LLC, DBA, the Bamboo Club located at 3522 through 24 East Anaheim Street in the third Council District, operating as a restaurant slash spa. The business has a valid ABC line has valid ABC licenses as follows Type 47 on sale, general eating place, type 58 Caterer Permit and Type 77 event permit. These authorize the sale of beer, wine and distilled spirits for consumption at the licensed premises. Among other things, all of the appropriate departments, Health and Human Services, Development Services, Police and Financial Management have reviewed the application and provided their recommended conditions as contained in the hearing packet. The following conditions should be noted, such from section two of the additional conditions section. Condition one Entertainment activities shall be restricted to no later than 10 p.m.. Sunday through Thursday 11 p.m.. Fridays and Saturdays entertainment can begin at 12 p.m. every day. The business applied to requesting entertainment to be permitted from 11 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week. And the Long Beach Police Department recommended the restricted conditions. Condition five to permit the permit has been requested to develop and maintain a plan to address neighborhood concerns related to the operation of the business. Business, for example, meetings and attending. Attending meetings and adding information on two newsletters. Condition eight The Speaker Volume in the patio area shall be kept at a low level so as not to disturb any other businesses or residents. If any noise or disturbance complaints can be attributed to the speaker volume in the patio area, the committee shall modify or remove existing existing speakers at the direction of the Chief of Police. Along with Tara moore, I, along with Tara mortensen, business service bureau manager, logged in virtually and Commander Lance from the Long Beach Police Department are available to answer questions that you may have. This concludes my staff report. Thank you. We're going to we do have some public comments before I turn this over to Councilman Price, one of your public comment first. Okay. So I'm Clark and we have two members of the public. Two members of the public are signed up to speak, Eric Verdasco, and said, I can faith you can line up at the podium. Eric Verdasco And so and I can say. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor. Members of the council. My name is Eric Produce CO and this is my business partner, Brett Gallo. We are the very proud owners and operators of the Bamboo Club at 3522 East Anaheim Street. We are here to answer any questions that you may have for us. Additionally, we would also, as was read on the record, would like to respectfully ask that one of our conditions be changed, and that's a condition related to 2 hours. As was mentioned, we we respectfully ask that we be allowed to provide entertainment until midnight, seven days a week. But we do want to clarify that that request is only for indoor entertainment. That is, with all the doors closed, all the windows closed so that we don't bother neighbors, you know, in ways that are detrimental to to our surroundings where we're. Collectively between three business partners. We have probably over 20 years of restaurant and bar operation experience, so we know how important it is to make sure that we're always aligned with the needs and of our neighbors, that we be respectful and mindful and address any issues there that that may come up immediately so that, you know, everyone's happy. We are here again. If you have any questions, we'd be happy to answer them. Thank you. Next speaker, please. It's the 1960s for president. I'm here in support of this entertainment license coming for the Bamboo Club. Speaking of respect, as a musician and creative myself, I think it's imperative in order for Long Beach to elevate and transcend our small town origin story into a major metropolitan city. We we have to comfortably come to an agreement and compromise with, you know, our residential spaces and our our emerging nightlife. And I think this is a great example of such as the previous gentleman just stated. I think the conditional agreement with respect to what the staff report says about the midnight, uh, time, time slot, I think that that should be raised to midnight and not 10 p.m. because just holistically speaking with respect to the Anaheim corridor there, there's already five other businesses operating in that space that are open later. So it wouldn't be too egregious of a thing to ask. Also, you know, just with respect to maintaining businesses in the area, uh, this is a, this is a restaurant as well as a, uh, an entertainment space. And so there's a lot of jobs and potential hours that could be increase with respect to a later hour and later timeline being instead of 10 p.m.. So just thinking about as residents, younger people are more and more, uh, operating in this and this part of the Anaheim corridor. I don't use the term zafira. I do say Anaheim Court or. I think that this would be a boon to the area as a whole, both on the tax element and respect to residents, because these types of businesses bring younger residents into the area not just to spend their disposable income, but also, most importantly, to live in, you know, potentially become greater, um, tax revenue. Uh, uh, I don't know, you got to take the money from this, but whatever that term is called at the moment, I can't think of. So I'm a I'm a fan. I've, I've operated for many years with respect to Mr. Jim Ritz and and others have been since he's had. And so and my father was a big fan of Liquid Lounge. And so, you know, I think that this is just a continuation of such it's good business so here in support. Thank you. That concludes public comment. Thank you. Let me turn this over to Councilman Price. Thank you. And thank you staff for your presentation. And I know you guys have worked really hard on this and we did put it over till tonight and we were going to do it earlier. So I really appreciate the presentation. I really appreciate it. So a couple of questions. What are the measures that we have in place to address some of the noise complaints from the patio? Good evening, Mayor, and members of City Council. My name is Tara mortensen and I'm the Business Services Bureau manager for the Police Department, have put in measures associated with the patio to ensure that there is discretion from the chief to be able to address any noise complaints that come in and to be able to take immediate action without having to return to council. We also have the the restricted hours also as an additional measure, but specifically from the patio, it's the chief of police discretion to be able to address the complaints and to be able to either remove the speakers or address other measures. Okay. So what could could we can we have a requirement that the speakers on the outside be pointed away from the residents and towards Anaheim St? Is that something that we can work with the business on? Yes, ma'am. Okay, perfect. I think that would go a long way. So I am supportive of this application. I read and considered the letters that we received in opposition. I've also read and considered the letters that we have received in support and I do support this application. I do not at this time feel comfortable accepting the modification that the business owner shared with us tonight at the podium to go until midnight, seven nights a week. What I would like to do is approve the application with the hours that have sufficed, recommending approval on and be open to revisiting this in a year and assessing whether there has been calls for service an increase in nuisance activity. Hopefully not anything of that nature. But it is my understanding that this is a business owner that is responsive, especially to neighborhood impacts given where they're located. We want to make sure that the Zafira business district continues to thrive and that they that they support the operations of the various businesses that are operating within that corridor. And I very much support that effort. But I do want to be very sensitive to neighborhood impacts, and I just want to let the business owners know and I know they're here, that, you know, nothing impacts people's quality of life more than the impacts of the surrounding neighborhood. So I know you guys are going to be good business partners to one another, but also to the community. And I think that's really important. And we want to make sure that we stay vigilant on that given given the potential quality of life impacts that could come from a business that has extended hours like this. So wishing them the best. And I would ask my colleagues to support the staff's recommendation tonight. Thank you. Councilman. Super now. I stand in support of the councilman's parameters as stated. Thank you, Councilwoman Zendejas. Just to just some clarification. So what we're voting on tonight is see what Councilmember Price said. And also we won't be modifying but actually reducing the hours, am I correct for the business? Is that what we're. Sorry. I was waiting to see if Tara was going to speak again. Oh, sorry. Yes. Uh, what we're modifying is the original application. So the item before you tonight is. Is exactly what you're going to have to go ahead and vote on, which is the hours that are provided and the conditions that are within the packet. And those are the hours that that were presented where. Sunday through Thursday, entertainment will end at 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday entertainment will end at 11 p.m.. And so that's what's been approved by the Long Beach Police Department. Okay. So we're not really changing that. It's the original application. No, the what the Long Beach Police Department has has recommended is reduced from the original application. And then this evening, the business owner has requested an additional change to the recommendation that's been provided to you tonight. And I believe Councilmember Price has said that she is not supporting that and won't be entering that additional item. Okay. I just you know, one is to be very fair, I know that I've had a, you know, a lot of, you know, upset residents in my district to really address a business that has been completely a nuisance in our business. I mean, in our district. And that the community feels very, very against that business. So I just wanted to ask that because we want to make sure that we're uplifting good business owners and those that are not such good business owners, that we don't let them, you know, continue doing their bad behavior. So I just wanted to make sure that we keep an eye on this and and that we are fair with everybody across the board. Thank you. Councilwoman Allen. I yes. I just want to say, I'm very familiar with your business. You guys are great operators. I would support absolutely support it going to midnight. It sounds like that my colleagues and it's not my district are 211. But I think this is a good compromise. Let's see how you guys do. And I'm sure you guys are going to do great and you can extend those hours indoors. So thank you for being a good business and our community. Appreciate you guys. Councilman Mongo. I go to the comments of my colleagues on the dais and excellent business owner, great partner. Thanks for being here and thanks for taking on this location. It takes a lot to be a business in today's environment. And we really appreciate you. Thank you very much, Richardson. Just want to take a moment. Just thank Eric and your team for continuing to just care and invest in our city. You have a great establishment and look forward. I wish you much success in the future and that you're you're able to continue to build, you know, support with the community because we want to see you be successful. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'm going to I'm also just going to add, I think I think everyone has said really nice things about both of you and Bret Eric as business owners. And I just want to add also, I think you're you both are stellar business owners, not just at the Bamboo Club, which for those that don't know is really have become really one of the premier tiki bar and restaurant locations in the entire region. I know that you both have folks that are coming from pretty long distances in some cases to come visit and spend a week tonight, night with with all of you. You've done a phenomenal job at the space. And I want to congratulate both not not just on this business, but the other restaurants and bars that you have in Long Beach. You have chosen to invest in Long Beach and you've chosen to open up multiple locations in Long Beach. And I think that says a lot about your commitment to the city, which I know you both have immensely invested in the city in a variety of other ways. And so just thank you both for your your commitment. And I'm happy to see that you'll be acquiring this entertainment permit to expand the already great entertainment you're providing folks who are coming to your to your locations. I want to just I'm going to add one thing that I had learned recently in a conversation I had with both of you, that a lot of folks are now , you know, Eric Brown have been such responsible business owners that they purposely during the pandemic, when a lot of restaurants were opening up restrictions and filling the restaurants back up completely full, the two of them chose at their businesses to keep pretty significant distancing in place. And even when they were allowed to bring a lot of folks in into the bars area, they kept more of a restaurant floor plan, how to folks sit down, try to keep their customers and most importantly, I think their staff safe. I know you and I, both of you put a lot of thought into how you would operate in many and oftentimes at a loss. I mean, you could have filled your your bars and restaurants with a lot more people and you chose not to do so for the sake of your employees. I know that that's very appreciated by a lot of folks. So thank you both for all you do. And with that, I want to turn this back over to vote. So members, there is there is a motion and a second for the hearing. Please cast your votes. Motion is carried. Thank you. And next up, we have, I think was one member of the public for general public comment.