By Carla Zanoni
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
INWOOD — The State Liquor Authority's decision to renew a controversial restaurant's liquor license late last month — against the wishes of residents, Community Board 12 and elected officials — has angered Assemblyman Denny Farrell.
Farrell fired off a letter requesting information about the Authority's decision to grant Il Sole, at 229-233 Dyckman St., a two-year liquor license renewal on Feb. 1.
According to SLA spokesman William Crowley, the Authority made the call without knowledge of the community sentiment. He said the Authority renewed the restaurant's license seven days before receiving the letter from CB12 regarding its vote against the renewal.
The board only has 30 days to make its opinions known on liquor license applications. Because Il Sole submitted its liquor license application to CB12 on Dec. 23, just over a full month before the full board would meet again on Jan. 25, the board could not send in their decision until the end of January. The letter carrying their decision against the renewal was mailed Jan. 28, a scan of the envelope showed, and the Authority received it Feb. 3. But it had already approved the liquor license renewal Feb. 1.
"While I cannot say for sure whether this renewal came to pass because the proprietors of Il Sole took advantage of the timing by which Community Board 12 and the Liquor Authority reviewed their application, or whether this arose from some flaw in the application process, I am interested to learn how this came about," Farrell's letter reads.
Pamela Palanque-North, chair of CB12, felt that Il Sole had manipulated the process by timing their liquor license application so that it was filed a full month before the CB's next full board meeting, which would not give them enough time to get the required postmarked letter to the Authority.
"This appears to have been structured so that community input would never be received," she said.
Il Sole did not respond to calls for comment.
Last spring, a similar situation arose when another Dyckman Street restaurant's liquor license renewal was approved despite a vote against it by CB12. The SLA said it had received word of the board's vote against Mamajuana Café's application too late.
Since Mamajuana's renewal, the cafe has worked with elected officials to scale back its outdoor hours of operation in order to help quiet the residential stretch of Dyckman Street where it operates. Dyckman Street restaurants Papasito and MamaSushi have also agreed to such terms.
In the fall, Il Sole owner Sandra Jaquez had told elected officials closing the restaurant's outdoor seating area earlier would cause economic hardship.
As a last ditch effort, Farrell has pledged his support of Councilman Robert Jackson's petitioning of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) through the City Council to "discontinue Il Sole's permit to offer sidewalk seating" as another means of quieting the block.
In a letter to Jackson dated Feb. 8, Farrell wrote that he was disheartened by Il Sole's unwillingness to change its outdoor hours of operation.
"For a moment recently, it seemed that things would soon change for the better, as most of these establishments had agreed to close their outdoor seating at an earlier hour and allow the neighbors a chance to rest peacefully," he wrote. "I am greatly concerned that, seeing Il Sole's ability to game the system and rebuff the deal the other establishments had agreed to, the accord you engineered could collapse."
Jackson has repeatedly asserted his plan to work with DCA as a last resort to deal with noise on Dyckman Street coming from Il Sole.
