Chilacas gears up for Council showdown.
Shaken, not stirred.
That's not just the way that cheeky chap from MI6 likes his martinis. It's also apparently how Chilacas likes its controversy, if not its margaritas, and the "Restaurant and Cantina" on Old Pecos Trail has served up plenty of both in the last six months.
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You see, some folks feel Chilacas has become much more cantina than restaurant since it underwent a facelift last year. And by "some folks" we mean "the City of Santa Fe."
Chilacas was served with two violation enforcement letters from the city back in March claiming its certificate of occupancy was void because the establishment had undergone a significant "change of use" disallowed by the zoning code. The business stayed open upon appealing to the Board of Adjustment, which promptly passed the matter on to the Oct. 26 City Council agenda. Now it's up to the Council to decide whether or not to grant Chilacas a new certificate of occupancy.
"I think the city's case is very strong," Dan Baker, president of the Southeast Neighborhood Association, says. "There is the change-of-use provision in addition to the problems with alcohol license violations…and continued police response. When you put those together there is a very strong case."
Chilacas owner Curtiss LaCross and his lawyer Larry Maldegen declined to comment for this story.
Chilacas had previously subsisted in various incarnations on a grandfathered-in exemption as a restaurant operating in a residential area. At least-Baker says-back when it was still a restaurant.
"It's a sports bar at best," Baker says. "When you walk in and see the refrigerated Jagermeister machine it's fairly obvious you're not walking into a restaurant."
LaCross raised the ire of his neighbors when the restaurant extended its hours, added a "shot chair" and a stripper pole on the bar while frequently hosting DJs and live music. If you build it, they will come. But while the influx of patrons may have been good for business, it was less so for LaCross' neighbors.
"I've met with him several times and said 'Curtiss, if you back off the hours and the amplified music and serve a little more food, I would be OK with that,'" Baker says. "But he's really pushed the issue. I think if he played it a little more politely, the city would have backed down but he continues to not play by the rules. I can't understand why he would be so arrogant as to continue to push the issue the way he has."
That was also a concern of Assistant City Attorney Maureen Reed, who became the de facto prosecutor at the Board of Adjustment hearing after it was announced Maldegen would call and cross-examine witnesses at the meeting. Reed called on Santa Fe Police Deputy Chief Raye Byford at the meeting to testify to an increase in crime since Chilacas' renovation. Reed declined to comment specifically on the pending case, but did point out the issue on which the Council's decision will likely hinge.
"Our primary concern is that this was a family restaurant that has turned into a nightclub," Reed says. "That is a use that is not permitted in that neighborhood according to the zoning code."
Baker says many residents of the surrounding neighborhoods would be more than happy to have a restaurant or even a low-key sports bar in an area largely devoid of such services. But this incarnation of Chilacas ain't it.
"If you have reasonable hours, keep the noise down and blend into the surrounding neighborhood, that's fine," Baker says. "If you're operating a drink-until-you-drop nightclub with amplified music that's serving liquor until 2 am along with police breaking up fights in the parking lot, that's not fine."
According to Joe Ray Sandoval-co-founder of the city's Chicanobuilt hip-hop DJ collective-shutting down another hotspot in a city largely devoid of nighttime recreation won't necessarily keep the problems away.
"If you start taking away all the places for people to go, I honestly think it's going to get worse," Sandoval says. "It just creates more problems. People will stay home or go to house parties where there are no rules or regulations."
Sandoval and Chicanobuilt-which hosts DJ nights at Chilacas on Thursdays and Saturdays-are refugees of the Paramount nightclub, whose demise in August has left the city's night owls with virtually nowhere to roost.
"It's like a death in the family-it doesn't really hit you until a few weeks or months afterwards," Sandoval says. "I'm not knocking any other bars but the Paramount was something special. There is a huge void in Santa Fe and I think people are starting to realize it. If Chilacas is shut down there will be an even bigger void."
But even if the City Council decides not to grant Chilacas a new certificate of occupancy, the fight is hardly over. According to Reed, either side can appeal the City Council's decision to district court, a process that could take months to resolve. Maldegen declined to give any indication whether or not his client will take the matter to district court, but if LaCross does, Chilacas may live to fight another day.
That's good news for Sandoval, even though he acknowledges the opponents of his employer have solid "change-of-use" ground to stand on.
"It's hard to argue with them on that," Sandoval says. "It was a restaurant and it has become more of a club, but you know what? We need it. Is that the best spot? It's what we got."
