Miami Beach

Enough Is Enough

Board of adjustment is tired of trying to broker peace between Table 8 restaurant and its neighbors

By Ben Torter

At the north end of Ocean Drive, where hip restaurants and hotels are literally just feet from residents’ bedrooms, balancing the needs of business owners with the rights of residents is no easy task.

After more than a year of unsuccessfully trying to broker a compromise between Table 8, located in the Hotel De Soleil at 1458 Ocean Drive, and neighbors who complain about noise from the kitchen and outdoor bar, the Miami Beach Board of Adjustment is fed up.

Board members voted unanimously May 9 to bring the restaurant back next month to review a variance that allows Table 8 to serve liquor from an outdoor bar until 2 a.m., instead of 8 p.m., as is normally permitted in the mixed-use entertainment district.

The variance was issued in 2006 with the intention of helping neighbors by giving the board of adjustment monitoring jurisdiction, but activists, neighbors and even board members say the plan failed.

“I, like Mr. [Seth] Frolich, don’t want to hear this case anymore because we haven’t found a solution,” board Chairman Larry Herrup said. “In virtually every other case, we’ve found a solution. I don’t think there is one here.”

Board member Alex Annunziato argued that it’s not the board’s purview to broker solutions between residents and businesses.

“I really object to the whole notion that we are somehow qualified to remedy this situation,” Annunziato said. “I don’t feel it’s my job to try and mediate this by imposing solutions on the operator.”

Since Jan. 1, 2007, Table 8 restaurant and the Hotel De Soleil have collectively received at least 44 noise complaints. The restaurant received two actual violations, one on Jan. 24 and the second on April 6. Table 8 received three violations — the most recent on May 7 — for operating an entertainment establishment without a license.

Josh Woodward, an owner of Table 8, and board of adjustment member Seth Frolich agree that without the variance things will be worse for the neighbors, because it won’t stop the restaurant from allowing patrons to drink on the patio until 5 a.m.

“I’m okay to revoke it, but I don’t think [the neighbors] understand what they’re asking for,” Frolich said.

Woodward said he may voluntarily forfeit the ordinance because the thousands of dollars he’s spent on solutions, such as sound boards, has hurt his business by making the outdoor space hot and dark, and that he is at his wits’ end. He said he feels for the neighbors, but isn’t sure anything will work. Woodward said if he loses the variance, all it means is waiters will bring cocktails outside from the indoor bar.

“The revocation does not address the problem, unfortunately,” Woodward said, explaining that the problem is the city allowed an outdoor patio to be built less than 10 feet from a residence. “The chatter is an issue to [the neighbors], and I absolutely understand that.”

Despite the risk that revocation won’t address the issue, neighbors say they are ready to try anything new.

“At this point, we just don’t believe [Table 8] anymore,” said Jo Manning, president of the Drake Condominium just to the north. A wall to block kitchen noises from Manning’s condominium is in the early stages of planning.

But it’s Francine Garante and others living at 1446 Ocean Drive, the building feet from the patio, who have suffered the most.

“We still can’t open our windows; we still don’t have peace,” said Garante, who wants the city to revoke the variance, despite the risk that things will get worse.

Assistant City Attorney Gary Held said that even if the variance is revoked, the special master still has jurisdiction over the situation, and the city can always take the restaurant to court if it doesn’t improve.

“This is not the last best hope. There are still other avenues if you decide to revoke this variance,” Held said.

The next board of adjustment meeting is June 6.

Comments? E-mail ben@miamisunpost.com