Attachment 4
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 3/28/2018
Item #2, 21 College Avenue
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A P P E A R A N C E S:
Los Gatos Planning
Commissioners:
D. Michael Kane, Chair
Matthew Hudes, Vice Chair
Mary Badame
Kendra Burch
Melanie Hanssen
Tom O'Donnell
Town Manager: Laurel Prevetti
Community Development
Director:
Joel Paulson
Town Attorney: Robert Schultz
Transcribed by: Vicki L. Blandin
(619) 541-3405
ATTACHMENT 4
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Item #2, 21 College Avenue
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P R O C E E D I N G S:
CHAIR KANE: We move to the Public Hearings
portion of our agenda and consider Item 2, which is
Conditional Use Permit Application U-18-004. Project
location is 21 College Avenue. Property owner is Shari
Flick. The Applicant is Nicholas Difu. We have a Staff
Report tonight from Mr. Mullin.
SEAN MULLIN: Thank you, Chair Kane. Before you
tonight is a request for a Conditional Use Permit for a
restaurant with alcohol service at 21 College Avenue in the
C-2 zone. Pursuant to the Town Code, a restaurant use in
conjunction with alcoholic beverage sales for consumption
on premises is allowed with a Conditional Use Permit in the
C-2 zone.
The Applicant is proposing the service of alcohol
with the purchase of a qualified meal pursuant to the
Town’s Alcoholic Beverage Policy. The Applicant has
provided a project designation and additional operational
information, which has been included with your Staff
Reports. The Town’s Alcoholic Beverage Policy requires any
new service of alcohol to be reviewed by the Planning
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Commission with final review authority resting with the
Town Council.
Pursuant to the discussion in the Staff Report,
the proposed application meets the purpose, general
policies, and specific policies of the Town’s Alcoholic
Beverage Policy.
An Addendum and Desk Item have been provided that
provides public correspondence, which was received after
the publication of the Staff Report.
Staff recommends that the Planning Commission
forward a recommendation of approval to the Town Council
based on the evidence and discussion provided in the Staff
Report and subject to the conditions attached to the Staff
Report.
This concludes Staff’s presentation, and we’re
available to answer any questions.
CHAIR KANE: Thank you, Mr. Mullin. May I see a
show of hands of the Commissioners who have visited the
property? Are there any disclosures for this item?
Commissioner O'Donnell, you had your hand up.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I just have a question
of Staff. Is the restaurant next door, Nick’s restaurant,
also open on Friday and Saturday till 12:30am?
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SEAN MULLIN: I will defer to the Applicant to
answer that question; I don’t know that answer.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: And you’re recommending
approval and you don’t know whether… That’s kind of an
unusual late time for a restaurant and a bar. I just
thought maybe somebody took a look at that, no?
SEAN MULLIN: I appreciate that, and it’s
something I looked into very early on and I don’t want to
misspeak to it. We did encourage the Applicant, as we do
with most Conditional Use Permits, to look at and consider
a wider range of hours they intend to operate to avoid
having to come back for an amendment to a Conditional Use
Permit later on, which would save the Applicant time and
cost.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you.
CHAIR KANE: Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I just had one question.
One issue that was discussed in the Staff Report was about
the noise level, because I guess part of the building is
open and some of the noise can… But the conclusion that was
in the Staff Report was that there is sufficient distance
to let the noise attenuate. Did I get that right, or do you
have any more details? I mean how much distance is there? I
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looked at the drawings and saw the site, but it wasn’t
clear to me how you came to that conclusion.
SEAN MULLIN: The conclusion is that there have
been previous uses there, and I did measure rough
measurements to the residents uphill and across College
Avenue, and the attenuation wasn’t measured or calculated,
if that’s the question you’re asking, but it was thinking
that there was sufficient space for it and that any noise
issues would be handled on an enforcement basis.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Okay, good. My follow up
question, then, is they’re subject to the Noise Ordinance
anyway, regardless of the conditions of the CUP?
SEAN MULLIN: That is correct.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: All right, thank you.
CHAIR KANE: So this CUP would be new insofar as
alcohol being served in the restaurant.
SEAN MULLIN: Correct.
CHAIR KANE: When I visited the site today there
were a number of alcoholic bottles up on the counter. Did
they have a CUP for alcohol or some exemption under some
private club consideration?
SEAN MULLIN: I believe the private club allows
the patrons to bring in their own alcohol, so it’s not for
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sale; it’s provided by themselves to themselves and their
guests.
CHAIR KANE: All right, thank you. Any other
questions? Seeing none, I’ll open the public portion of the
public hearing and give the Applicant an opportunity to
address the Commission for ten minutes, and we will be
hearing from Mr. Nick Difu.
NICK DIFU: Good evening, Commission, how are
you? I will give you a brief history about me before I tell
you about what we’re going to do.
I grew up here in Saratoga. Since I know
Saratoga, I moved here in 1992 and I started working as a
dishwasher over at Great Bear, went back to college, came
back, and went to culinary school.
At culinary school I went to I Gatti, worked in I
Gatti and with the Los Gatos Brewing Company while I was
going to school and to get my experience. In doing that I
got another job over in San Jose, 71 Saint Peter. Moved
away to Carmel, worked at Roy’s restaurant, spent a lot of
time with Roy, spent a lot of time working at that
restaurant, got my bones, really got some great experience,
about two years, but always knew that I was going to come
back here. Got a job at Café Marcella as a sous chef.
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(Aside) Can I get some water, please? Sorry. And got a job
at Café Marcella as a sous chef, became a chef, and then
spent five years there learning from a great owner, a great
person, Alain Martine Staebler.
(Takes water.) Thank you. I’m not good at public
speaking. My wife is probably laughing at me right now, or
embarrassed, one of the two.
But anyway, so yeah, I worked at Café Marcella
for a long time, and then worked at 180, worked at Wine
Cellar, worked at a lot of restaurants in town, stayed in
town once I started at Café Marcella. Took a brief three-
month hiatus, because of the craziness that was going on at
180, took a brief hiatus, worked at Los Altos Country Club
with a former general manager of Los Gatos Brewery, Rennie
Pateo (phonetic). He needed somebody to help him out. I
worked at Los Altos Country Club.
Got a phone call. He said, “Hey, we got a spot
open on Main Street. Do you want to open a little
restaurant?” I went by it. It was 900 square feet. I said,
“I gotta do it. Let’s just do it.” And having zero
experience about signing a lease, having zero experience
about owning a restaurant, but knowing how to treat people
and knowing how to cook, I did it, and it was a success
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from day one. We’ve been doing this for five years. We did
it for five years over there.
I got a call from Mr. Flick, Dave Flick, and he
said, “Hey, we really want somebody over here. The time has
run out on Tapestry. They had their run, it was a great
run, but the time has come for us to get some fresh blood
in here.” “No problem, Dave, I’ll do whatever I can,” and I
did get counsel from some other people: Mr. Del Grand, Jim
Goetz, some people who live in town, Ken Robinson. They
counseled me about doing this move, what it would mean for
me to do this, how much more work I would have to do, and
if it was a good idea or not. They all agreed that Nick,
you gotta do it. It’s a great location. It’s a great spot.
It’s way bigger; we can do much more.
And so I did it, and tragedy a little bit
happened with Mr. Flick, but Shari and the family stuck
behind me, and they let me in, and they did tons of work
for that property before I moved in. She’s been a great
landlord. She’s been somebody who has cared about not only
the business, but the property itself, and so now this
opportunity comes up… Whereas in the Cigar Lounge, who I
have had no problems with them personally, but with the
smoking ordinances, with the cigar, it’s time for them to
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maybe move on, because the lease might be up, or the lease
is up, and I’ve got a call that hey do you want this spot?
And I said, Yes, I do want this spot. I think we can make
this happen.” It’s adjacent to my restaurant, I don’t have
to go outside and open another restaurant somewhere else or
do something else like that. I can stay right here and just
control both spots.
This new restaurant that I plan on doing, it’s
going to be a raw bar, it’s going to be a full liquor raw
product. There won’t be a hood, there won’t be a grease
trap needed. Just a little bit of construction inside with
code as far as doing bathrooms, water, piping, and that’s
it, but that’s pretty much it. We’ll set up a walk-in
refrigerator, freezer, and we’ll do raw items: sushi, tar-
tars, pokes, and oysters. All the raw product that we can
do safely, we will do, and we will do there, and we will
supply it to our customers, just like I do at Nick’s on
Main, or Nick’s Next Door, excuse me.
We are number one on TripAdvisor, and we are
number one on Yelp. It’s a little emotional, because I
never thought this would happen. I never thought I would
get to this point where people would actually come and eat
at my restaurant.
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But anyway, they do, and it means a lot to me,
and so that’s kind of the idea that we’re going for, and I
apologize for getting emotional, but it is kind of an
emotional thing, because cooking and serving the public is
emotion for me. It’s not an ego thing. It’s not about
having another restaurant and saying hey look at me, it’s
about serving the public, serving the Town that I pretty
much grew up in and want to be in. Even though I don’t live
here personally, I’m still part of this town, and I don’t
live here for a reason, but I’m part of this town because
of where my home is in my restaurant.
So I ask the Commission to forward me to the Town
Council on an approval to do this, and I’d be open to any
questions. That’s pretty much my story. Again, I’m sorry.
CHAIR KANE: With a presentation like that, your
wife shouldn’t be embarrassed; she should stand up and
cheer. Questions for the Applicant? Commissioner O'Donnell.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Nick, I respect your
work; I’ve admired you for a long time.
NICK DIFU: Yes, I know.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I only have one
question, and that was the question I asked previously.
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You’ve asked for closure on Friday and Saturday at 12:30, I
think it was. So you’d be serving alcohol, and…
NICK DIFU: I’ll do whatever the…
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I just want to ask you,
why do you want to be that late? Is your restaurant next
door that late?
NICK DIFU: Like we discussed, it was you ask for
a little bit more and see what happens, and then we move
back. I don’t want to stay there till 12:30 at night. I
mean, I personally don’t. I don’t think any of my staff
wants to stay there till 12:30 at night. It was just one of
those things where let’s just ask for that and see, and
then we can back it down. We’ll back it down to the night
that we know the 11:00 o'clock hour when the restaurant is
pretty much closed.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Just out of curiosity
though, your very successful Next Door restaurant, what
time do you close on the weekend?
NICK DIFU: Our kitchen closes at 10:00. Our last
customers we ask to start quieting it down about 11:00
o'clock; that’s where the Town Code is that… We have to
stop serving, I believe, at 11:00 o'clock, but we stop
serving at 10:00, because we shut down the kitchen at 9:45.
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So we’re probably just going to ask for let’s keep the
other place open, the kitchen open, till maybe 10:00, and
then we go open till 11:00 and be done, and just do it that
way and slowly get everybody out of there by 11:00-11:30.
That would be the idea. The best scenario for me,
because we are going to be open for dinner, we’re not going
to be open for lunch, even though we’ve asked for, and we’d
like to keep that in there, asking for lunch in case we
have to do parties or something like that, but out of
respect to Purple Onion and the other restaurants over
there, I don’t want to be open for lunch. I don’t think
it’s right for me to personally be open for lunch, because
I don’t want to monopolize everybody’s lunch time in my
area in my spot, and I’ve let them know that already, and I
guarantee that I’m not going to be open for lunch unless
it’s a private event.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Okay, thanks very much.
CHAIR KANE: Commissioner Hudes.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Thank you for your
presentation, and for helping to develop economic vitality
in a part of town that could use some more vitality on Main
Street, and I think it’s really important for businesses to
be able to succeed, particularly in that area.
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I had really a more informational question for
me, and that is it seems as though some of the successful
restaurants in town have another location or another type
of restaurant that may be complementary to their first
location; it’s my impression that that’s the case. Is that
the case, and how does that affect your business model in
terms of the way you would operate with more than one
location?
NICK DIFU: I personally don’t know about any
other restaurant in town, that they’re doing, I just know
what I do. It’s not that I don’t care about them, I just
concentrate on my business and what I’m doing, and I try to
stay out of that realm of what they’re doing.
As far as how I’m doing it, I’m just providing a
different culinary experience at that location than they’re
experiencing in mine. My restaurant, as many of you might
know, you get a lot of food. I mean, I’m the only owner,
there are no investors, I don’t have anybody looking over
my shoulder, and I’m allowed to do that. At this other
location, it won’t be the big meals that you’re getting. It
will still be meals; it will still be just like where
they’re doing it… I mean, what I’ve heard, actually,
they’re doing it at Fights, they doing it at Manresa; small
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portions. But it’s not going to be like that, it’s going to
be portions that are going to be good enough to have a meal
with. That’s the trend that everybody is doing, but I’m not
following the trend, I’m just doing something that I think
is a great idea.
I think it’s a great business idea, because the
cost of putting a restaurant in without a hood, without a
grease trap, not having the expenses of doing that, and
extra noise from a hood, I think is just a great business
model on my end that I have a low amount of money to put
in, my own money, to do this and still provide a great
culinary experience, and a great cocktail experience, that
people could have.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Thank you very much.
CHAIR KANE: Other questions? Commissioner Burch.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: I noticed on the condition
of approval there was a note that you were to asking for
outdoor seating. Currently doesn’t the cigar store have
like couches and things that sit out on the little patio?
NICK DIFU: Yes, they do.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: So do you want to say you
don’t want outdoor seating?
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NICK DIFU: We’ve talked about that. Yes, I would
like outdoor seating if things change with the seating
situation that’s going on, but as the seating situation is
going on in town right now before it’s become law, if it
becomes law, then I’m not going to ask for outdoor seating.
There will be people maybe outside, but there won’t be
outdoor seating as far as that’s concerned. We’ve talked
about it, and we’re kind of because of the limited amount
of seating that I have right now, because it’s only 20
seats, it’s basically going to stay inside.
CHAIR KANE: Question of Staff, Mr. Paulson, Mr.
Mullin. If you put more seats outside that would affect his
parking, but is that provision under review?
SEAN MULLIN: Currently if they put more
additional seats outside it would affect their parking.
Outdoor seating is allowed by right; it would require
review and approval by the Town, but it’s not a public
hearing type of approval.
The Applicant could actually apply for that with
his 20 seats under the current rules, and then flex his
seating and move some outside on a nice day or a nice
evening, and move those 20 seats around, but they’d have to
get approval by the Town for the outdoor seating, and then
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any service of alcoholic beverages, the separation required
would be reviewed under the ABC policies.
JOEL PAULSON: The bottom line is that outdoor
seating is now regulated separately from the CUP, so we
won’t be bringing forward outdoor seating with any CUPs;
they have that allowance by right. And this is specifically
on private property, so there are some nuances of how
private property versus public property is treated, but it
is now basically a Community Development Director decision
and it has to go through that process.
CHAIR KANE: So what I’m hearing is he could keep
his 20 and have some additional outside seats if you
approved it?
JOEL PAULSON: He could, but it wouldn’t be
additional; it would still be under the 20 gap, however, as
you mentioned, next week the Council will be considering
for the second time… Last week the Council introduced an
ordinance to decouple seats from parking, and so if that
second reading goes through 30 days from next Tues, we will
no longer have a seats parking requirement, which will open
up options for this instance.
CHAIR KANE: Thank you. Commissioner Burch, were
you done?
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COMMISSIONER BURCH: No, I just had one more
question of Staff. Is there anything currently in his
conditions of approval that limit him from being able to
come back and ask for…like we said, it’s a nice night and
move some of the seats outside?
JOEL PAULSON: He doesn’t need to come back to
the Planning Commission to ask that question.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Well, I know, to you.
There’s nothing in here limiting him from going to you to
get…
JOEL PAULSON: There is not.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Okay, thank you.
CHAIR KANE: Commissioner Badame.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: Decoupling the seats with
the parking has to do with the fire occupancy, so what is
the fire occupancy for this location? Is it 20?
JOEL PAULSON: It is not. We don’t have that
information.
CHAIR KANE: Thank you.
CHAIR KANE: Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I wanted to thank you for
all that you’ve done for the Town, and I was going to ask
if you could clone yourself so we could have more Nicks.
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But my serious question was actually the CUP is for a
restaurant use, and as you probably know CUPs stay with the
land.
NICK DIFU: Yes.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: And I have no doubt that
the raw bar would be really successful, but supposing
something were to happen and the public got against raw
seafood or something, some weird trend like that, what
would you think about doing with that space? Would you try
to come up with another concept?
NICK DIFU: I think that would be something that
the landlord and I would try to figure out together. I have
a great relationship with her, and I think that would be
something that we would try to figure out together if it
didn’t work out.
I think one thing that the Council and the Town
has to understand is that Shari Flick is very conscious of
what goes on and what happens on her properties, as most of
you probably know, and I don’t think they picked me out of
a hat when they asked me to move over there, and I think
the same thing would be if, God forbid, when my time runs
out as far as owning a restaurant and being a restaurateur,
I have no fear and no doubt that she would pick somebody or
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get somebody in there not only as qualified, but maybe even
more qualified than me, to take over. I mean she’s that
particular about that.
And what she went through as far as getting that
building ready for me to be in there on 11 College Avenue
was unbelievable, and I dealt with some landlords, and I’ve
gone through many processes of talking to landlords about
building and about different restaurants and what they were
willing to do and what they’re not willing to do, and
nobody compares to what she’s willing to do for her
property. Even after the fact that I’ve been there, and if
something breaks or something goes wrong we have a clear
communication. If something happens, she’s always there.
“What can I do to help?” and, “What can I do to make it
right?” I don’t think that’s a fear for the Town as far as
that property is concerned. As you see, Purple Onion is
thriving with their new owners now for almost ten years.
CHAIR KANE: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: That answered my question.
Thank you so much.
CHAIR KANE: Thank you. I’m going to move on to
some of our speakers. When they’re done you’ll have an
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additional five minutes to supplement your remarks. Ms.
Pozos.
CARYL POZOS: I’m Caryl Pozos; I’ve been a
resident of Los Gatos for over 20 years. I’m also a member
of EMQ Auxiliary, which runs The Butter Paddle, and I just
want to say I think we all know Nick runs a first class
operation and we’re very proud of him; we’ve already
discussed that tonight.
But there are other sides of Nick that I don’t
know that you’ve heard about. He’s a very charitable
individual. He hosts two events for us each year, and he
pays for all of the food and the expenses. One is a
fundraiser for 80 people. His restaurant closes, we all
come in, we raise money that goes to summer programs for
the children at EMQ Uplift. The second one is where he
invites children and their parents in, people that normally
would never come to Los Gatos for dinner or have the
caliber of food that Nick provides, and he invites them in
and he serves them dinner in a very first class way. He
invites the children into the kitchen, and they sit next to
him, and they put the little swizzles on the desserts. I’ve
had experiences where the kids come out and they say, “I
want to work in a restaurant when I grow up.” He just is a
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great role model, and we should all be proud of him. I wish
there was more like Nick. Thank you.
CHAIR KANE: Thank you very much. Questions for
the speaker? Thank you. Rod Teague.
ROD TEAGUE: Planning Commission, Staff, thank
you for all your hard work and dedication.
CHAIR KANE: Give us your name and address,
please.
ROD TEAGUE: My name is Rod Teague, Johnson
Avenue.
I’m just here to ask for your approval on this
CUP. As we know, Nick and Shari are definitely pillars of
the community. I’ve been frequenting his restaurants for
many years. I notice he knows most of his clientele on a
first name basis. After losing institutions like CB
Hannegan’s, we have to expand. We have to keep the economic
vitality going.
I think that this is definitely a higher and
better use than what was there, because it really was kind
of a bar. I’ve been there. People bring their own alcohol.
A lot of people that were frequenting the cigar shop were
actually bringing in cigars and storing their cigars there
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as well, so from a sales tax standpoint we probably weren’t
generating a whole lot of revenue out of that.
We know that Nick’s food is amongst the best in
town, if not the best, and you can’t ever get enough of
that. So please consider the CUP, and make it a simple
process, and allow as much seating as possible, and to stay
open as late as he possibly can. That’s it.
CHAIR KANE: Thank you. Questions for the
speaker? Thank you very much. Scott Canali.
SCOTT CANALI: Thank you very much, I’m Scott
Canali. I live at 20 East Main, so directly across the
street and looking down at Nick’s and the cigar bar, and I
would heartily agree with the last two speakers. Nick is a
relationship builder, as you can all see, and one testament
of that is in the five years that I’ve been aware of Nick’s
Next Door, he has virtually the same staff. His wait staff
is the same. He invests in people, and he’s all heart.
In addition to that, living directly across the
street I’m very aware of the environment, and I would just
say that Nick’s is extremely appropriate for a downtown Los
Gatos environment. I mean we couldn’t have a better tenant
in the building next door than more Nick, so I strongly
urge you guys to support Nick’s Raw Bar. I think he’s a
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model of what we want to do in this town, and we’d be very
fortunate to have more of him. Thanks very much.
CHAIR KANE: Questions for the speaker?
Commissioner Burch.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: So you heard we had a little
bit of dialogue about the hours, and living right there you
do probably hear things. Do you feel any issue with pushing
it to a later time, so there’s some flexibility for the
restaurant?
SCOTT CANALI: I don’t at all. I think what they
said in their submission was that they were asking for that
so that at times they might have private events, and I see
that as the exception. I mean his other business right now
is essentially closing at 11:00, so there would be no
reason that he’d say let’s stay open till 1:00. So no, I
don’t, and already right now whatever time people leave
Nick’s, oftentimes they’re later at the Cigar Lounge.
The Cigar Lounge is a popular place whenever
there’s a sporting event on, which let’s see, is every
Sunday, every Monday, et cetera. There are a lot of people
sitting out on the patio watching sports, cheering, et
cetera, and there is a lot of sound from that. And both of
them are fine. I mean we live downtown. If we wanted it
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absolutely quiet, then there are some beautiful hills, et
cetera, but the sound is perfectly appropriate for there,
and actually it’s really nice, because when people are at
Nick’s they’re happy, and so what you hear are sounds of
laughter and happy people and all of that, and all I have
to do is close my sliding doors and I don’t hear a thing,
if I want.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Thank you.
CHAIR KANE: Mr. Canali, you wrote us a letter in
support of the application.
SCOTT CANALI: I did.
CHAIR KANE: You’re one of the few who identifies
yourself as a neighbor, and that’s really important to us,
to get the advice of a neighbor as to how they feel about
the establishment. Thank you.
SCOTT CANALI: Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you
all for the time you’re spending on this.
CHAIR KANE: Mr. Lowery. State your name and
address for us, please.
TAYLOR LOWERY: Hi, I’m Taylor Lowery, and I
actually live at 20 East Main as well, and it’s kind of a
tough act to follow after Scott there, because I think he
said everything I was going to say.
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I’ve lived there for about four or five years,
and I’m on College as well, so I face the property, and
I’ve got to say, in the four or five years that I’ve been
there Nick has just been… And I should say I don’t really
know Nick other than the brief conversations I have coming
in and out of his restaurant, but he’s always been so
attentive and sensitive to his neighbors, and I genuinely
in four or five years don’t think I could think of an
instance where there was any sort of egregious noise or
whatever else everyone is concerned about.
Of course everyone has already spoken to his
character, which I can only say I get to see the
manifestations of, and it all is kind of exciting,
honestly, to have something new there that has Nick’s
fingerprint on it. But yeah, certainly Nick is a great
neighbor, and that’s really all that I can speak to as a
neighbor.
CHAIR KANE: Thank you. Questions for the
speaker? Thank you very much. Mr. DiFu, you have five
minutes to supplement, debate, or add to anything that you
heard.
NICK DIFU: Thank you very much for all your
support, and all of the emails and letters that came, all
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the support from friends and family that supported me and
sent emails to Sean; I know there’s probably about 70 or 75
emails that got to Sean’s desk in the last two days, and I
appreciate that.
As far as summing it all up, I’m going to do the
best I can to make that spot a better location than it is
and have it be a part of Nick’s per se, my little stamp on
that side of town, and I’m just going to do the best I can.
Will I make mistakes? Of course, but I will own up to those
mistakes and I will do the best I can to make that the best
spot in Los Gatos and keep those ratings, and keep
everybody coming from San Francisco, from Hong Kong, from
Europe, to come and eat at the restaurant, because that’s
where they’re coming from, not only Los Gatos, locals, who
also support me big, but they are really coming from
everywhere.
They’re coming not only to the Michelin star
restaurants that we have in this town, but they’re coming
to my restaurant too, because of what I’ve built, and I’ve
built with friends and built with the people that have been
with me and supported me and staff. It’s not just about me,
it’s about everybody together being on the same page, and
creating this, not having an ego, not worrying about what
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everybody else in town is doing as far as what the
restaurants are doing; we’re just concentrating on
ourselves, we’re concentrating on the customers.
The customers have always come first in my book,
and that’s why we’re successful, and that’s why this other
place will be successful, because the number one job is to
take care of the people that come in through that door and
make sure they’re happy, and make sure that we provide a
great service and a great product. I know I won’t let you
down on the product and the service, so I will do my best
for this town and I will do the best for everybody.
CHAIR KANE: Questions? Commissioner Hudes.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. As you know, there
were many, many letters of support. There was one from a
neighbor who was concerned about noise. Without getting
into the specifics, have you had any ongoing problems with
noise, being cited for the Noise Ordinance, or not living
up to the terms of the CUP in terms of hours of operation
or anything of that kind?
NICK DIFU: I have not. I’ve complied to my CUP,
and as far as the noise complaint, I know of that person,
not the person herself, but I know that the complaint
started… I kind of got looped in, I think, a little bit
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with the cigar situation, I kind of got mixed into that,
from what I’ve been told. Yes, there was a traffic person
coming by and checking on us, but we’ve always complied and
tried to shut it down, or at least told our customers hey
you have to be quiet. But in the almost six years now that
I’ve been there, we’ve had one complaint, and this person
moved in in July, from what I understand.
In the very beginning we got a phone call, and it
was told to you guys or told to the Town, but we got a
phone call, hey you know what, your hood is too loud or
something like that. It’s like okay, I understand you might
have been used to the other restaurant closing down a
little bit earlier, because they weren’t as busy. We’re
going to be busy, but we’ll do whatever we can to shut it
off at a certain time and comply with that, and we have,
and we haven’t gotten a complaint, and I don’t think you
guys have heard of a complaint. I will do whatever I can to
minimize that within my business model. If they come to me
and they talk to me, I would love to talk to them about it,
or try to figure something out that works well for both of
us.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Thank you very much.
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CHAIR KANE: Thank you. In my count, the hearing
received exactly 101 letters, and one was unhappy—that’s
the one I’m holding, that has to do with noise and late
night—and 100 were in full support. Despite the percentage
of support, I’m concerned about late night noise. I’m
guessing that it may be coming from the apartment building
across the street, the Penthouse, and I’m going to make a
suggestion to the Commission that we put in a condition
asking for signage that would help keep the noise down,
something like, “Please respect our neighbors. Keep noise
to a minimum when leaving the premises.” Would that be
acceptable to you?
NICK DIFU: Yeah, just so you know, at Nick’s
we’ve let our patrons know that… Because most of this stuff
is coming outside, so when they leave the restaurant and
they’re talking outside on the walkway, while they’re
waiting for their cars or while they’re waiting for Ubers,
we’ve asked them to have the Uber cars pick them up in the
parking lot so they’re not picking up on the street, on
College Avenue, so we’ve tried to do that. I have no
problem doing that at all.
CHAIR KANE: So the answer to my question is yes?
NICK DIFU: Yes, of course.
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CHAIR KANE: I’m going to ask the Town Attorney
to come in on the noise considerations.
ROBERT SCHULTZ: I think that would be an
excellent idea. I’ll confirm, in my five years, the first
four years I don’t think we got a single complaint from
either the cigar or from Nick’s shop. In the last year we
had an uptick, I would say we probably had seven to ten
complaints; primarily most of them were about the smoke. We
actually were in code enforcement to enforce the provisions
of making sure the doors were closed, that the outside
patio wasn’t used, and we were even in the process of maybe
putting other requirements on that building, but with this
issue coming up, obviously the smoke issue is no longer a
problem.
As to the noise complaints, when we do get those
we do go out. I think as Nick mentioned, when we do go out
to do the noise reading, the noise is coming from a patron
that’s leaving the business, and by the time they get
there, there’s no one there. But we are able to go and we
do noise readings. Even if it’s all inside, sometimes we’ll
get a noise complaint at 9:00pm and we’ve gone out and they
were not violating their Noise Ordinance from the noise
coming within, so I would certainly recommend that also as
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approval, because it might help. If patrons come out and
see that sign, it might be one extra little bit to say,
oops, let’s keep it down.
NICK DIFU: One thing is I could mention really
quick, if you don’t mind?
CHAIR KANE: Go ahead.
NICK DIFU: The hotel next door to us, that’s
closer to us than the Penthouse apartments, the Garden Inn.
CHAIR KANE: Marilyn Monroe’s Garden Inn.
NICK DIFU: Yes. From as far as I know, and their
hotel is one fence over, their clients have never called
and complained on us, so we’re directly to them and the
noise coming out.
CHAIR KANE: Thank you. And Nick’s restaurant has
a bar?
NICK DIFU: Yes, it does, full liquor.
CHAIR KANE: Will the raw bar have a bar?
NICK DIFU: Yes.
CHAIR KANE: You’ll have bar seating there?
NICK DIFU: Yes.
CHAIR KANE: I didn’t see that on the… Well, I
probably missed it if you say yes.
NICK DIFU: It’s on the plans.
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CHAIR KANE: I thought it was just 20 chairs at
the tables.
NICK DIFU: No, it should be on the plans that
there is a full bar there, and so there are ten seats there
and there are ten seats in the main area.
CHAIR KANE: And you’re up on the Alcohol Policy
regarding soft drinks for the designated driver, posting
the phone number for the cabs, and educating staff on the
Alcohol Policy?
NICK DIFU: Yes.
CHAIR KANE: Thank you. Questions for the
speaker? Seeing none, thank you very much.
NICK DIFU: Thank you.
CHAIR KANE: I’ll close the public portion of the
public hearing and ask if any Commissioners have questions
for Staff, wish to comment on the application, or wish to
make a motion? Commissioner Badame.
CHAIR KANE: I’ll provide my comments in that I
would be supporting a motion to forward a recommendation of
approval, based on a number of things.
You’ve got the close proximity of his existing
restaurant; it’s almost an extension of his existing
restaurant. The small size of this new oyster
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bar/restaurant at 20 seats. The reputation and character of
the owner, and the long-term establishment of his existing
business. You’ve got elimination of cigar smoke, which
seems more offensive to residents than alcohol. It’s
subject to the Noise Ordinance, and the cigar shop has a
history of alcohol use anyway, so I don’t see the use as
being much different.
CHAIR KANE: Commissioner Badame, why don’t you
make that into a motion and see what happens.
CHAIR KANE: I’ll make it a motion. I move to
forward a recommendation of approval of Conditional Use
Permit Application U-18-004, requesting approval for a
major restaurant, Nick’s Raw Bar, with alcohol sales, on
property zoned C-2-LHP. I can make the findings based on
Exhibit 2, but I would add to the CUP that we add signage
with regard to keeping the noise down for the neighbors.
CHAIR KANE: Do I have a second? Commissioner
Burch.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: I’ll second.
CHAIR KANE: Comments? Seeing none, I’ll call the
motion. All those in favor? Passes unanimously, 6-0. Thank
you very much. Mr. Paulson, are there appeal rights for
this matter?
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JOEL PAULSON: There are not appeal rights, since
this is specifically a recommendation to the Council.
CHAIR KANE: Thank you.