Sidewalk cafe operators fear new law is a ‘death sentence’
Miami Beach rejected 13 renewal applications for sidewalk cafe permits, prompting concerns from club owners and praise from city leaders.
In what local leaders say is a step toward taming South Beach’s wild side, City Hall is cracking down on sidewalk cafe operators with a history of rule breaking.
This week, the city administration rejected 13 applications from South Beach restaurant owners seeking to renew their sidewalk cafe permits, which allow them to set up outdoor tables on the public right-of-way for a one-year period. The 13 businesses make up 9% of the 144 that applied for a renewal. Nine of the denied businesses are on Ocean Drive, where sidewalk cafe tables have been part of the postcard of the world-famous strip for decades.
City Manager Alina Hudak announced the city’s new permit-review system in a memo to the City Commission on Tuesday. The new system assigns points to different code violations and gives Hudak discretion to consider factors like bad online reviews.
It’s a departure from the city’s prior practice of approving “virtually all” cafe permit applications and renewals, as the city attorney once described it in a memo. The last time the city denied a cafe permit was in 2018, a city spokeswoman said. Prior to the new law, the application process mostly consisted of submitting site plans and paying off any outstanding fees.
News of the rejection was met with praise in online resident forums and by the South Beach community group, SOBESafe, which wrote in an email: “On the highest level, we welcome this process as a prime example of the use of enforcement to sort the rulefollowing operators from the scofflaws who contribute to unsafe conditions in South Beach, supporting the former and pushing the latter into compliance or retirement.”
But some in the nightlife industry worry a one-year suspension amounts to a “death sentence” for what may be low-level offenses.
“That one-year closure is tantamount to putting you out of business,” said attorney Steve Polisar, who said he has been contacted by “several” of the businesses denied their permits.
Polisar said the new law casts too wide a net and will catch good operators who contribute to the city’s tax base. He agrees with clamping down on businesses with serious
violations.
“I think they need to do this rationally,” he said.
“It shouldn’t be a political issue.”
The City Commission unanimously passed an ordinance last year directing the city administration to consider criteria like code violations, criminal violations or bad online reviews when reviewing cafe permit applications.
Commissioner Mark Samuelian, who sponsored the initiative, praised the city’s action and said it would “raise the bar” for businesses.
The popular sidewalk cafes, he said, have come to define Miami Beach, but bad business practices along the city’s major tourist strips feed into the perception that South Beach is an “anything goes” party destination.
“Our goal is not to revoke permits, our goal is to improve the experience for our visitors and residents and that requires improved performance from many of these sidewalk cafe operators,” Samuelian said.
The new law, he said, was part of the city’s efforts to fix South Beach’s tattered reputation. It goes hand in hand with increasing police staffing, enacting new alcohol restrictions and investing in spring break programming to attract a “more mature” crowd, he said.
The impacted businesses must cease their sidewalk cafe operations Nov. 30. They cannot appeal the denial but can reapply for their permit in a year.
Mandy Calara, the owner of Voodoo Rooftop Lounge & Hookah, said he was surprised the city denied the Ocean Drive club its sidewalk cafe renewal because he considers it to be a law-abiding business.
“I just expected that we were gonna get approved again,” he said.
In a Tuesday letter informing Calara of the denial, Miami Beach Public Works Director Joe Gomez listed four code violations and two noise warnings dating back to 2019. The letter also referenced accusations of “deceptive and misleading practices” in “unfavorable online reviews regarding its business operations.” Letters to the other businesses all mention code violations, and many reference bad online reviews.
Calara, who said he has owned Voodoo for about 5 years, said his club has never used deceptive practices and has never had a major code violation.
He thinks the city is targeting his club. In July, amid COVID-19 restrictions, the city announced it would shut Voodoo down for the remainder of its state of emergency after a fight broke out near the sidewalk. Someone eventually fired a gun, although no injuries were reported at the time.
Officially, the club only received a COVID-related violation for not having social distancing and facemask use.
Calara said the brawl happened because “rowdy” guests were not allowed inside the club.
“It wasn’t even anything that happened in our sidewalk cafe or establishment,” he said.
The new restrictions may place an additional burden on South Beach clubs already bracing for a ban on early-morning alcohol sales, Calara said. Voters this month approved a non-binding referendum calling for a 2 a.m. booze ban citywide, and commissioners are expected to consider new restrictions on alcohol sales.
Without cafe tables, Calara said he may have to open his club later if he loses his lunch crowd.
He’s considering selling his club because he said the city is making it exceedingly difficult to do business.
“We’re gonna survive but it’s gonna have a pretty significant cut on any profits for the business,” he said. “I may look to sell soon.”
The new restriction is one of several that commissioners have enacted since 2018 to tamp down on unscrupulous behavior from sidewalk cafe operators, like soliciting pedestrians and overcharging for menu items.
The commission passed a sidewalk cafe code of conduct in 2019 requiring business operators to display actual prices for menu items and disclose if gratuity is included in the order. The code of conduct also banned specials boards citywide and solicitation, or hawking, throughout much of South Beach.
In September, the City Commission also approved increasing cafe permit fees from $27 per square foot to $125 per square foot, and enacted a new voluntary subsidy program that offsets the new fee if the applicant agrees to ban large cocktails over 22 ounces and hookah smoking in the sidewalk cafe, and require employees to wear uniforms.
Thirty-one restaurants signed up for the program for the new permit year, but four of them had their renewals denied, the city spokeswoman said.
“I believe that most of these establishments are looking for us to establish a floor of reasonable conduct that’s expected,” said Mayor Dan Gelber, who sponsored the subsidy program. “Without that floor it’s a race to the bottom, which is, I think, what we’ve seen.”
Martin Vassolo: 305-376-2071, martindvassolo