Neighbors admit the panels Table 8 installed help cut down on noise from chatter. Photo by Ben Torter

Since it opened its doors at the end of last year, Table 8, the East Coast version of the hip L.A. eatery presided over by noted Executive Chef Govind Armstrong, has become one of South Beach’s hottest places for hipsters and the occasional Hollywood A-lister to sip cocktails and indulge in world-class cuisine.

The north Ocean Drive hotspot is also earning a reputation as one of the essential hops on the Wednesday night social circuit, with parties like a Snow Queen Vodka promotion hosted last week by nightlife impresarios Tommy Pooch and Alan Roth of 944 Magazine. Surrealistic in the tropical South Florida summer, the party featured an actual snow-making machine.

“Chill out to the sleek sounds of DJ Keidy while sucking down Snow Queen-spiked slushies in the snow flurries,” announced a slick advertisement for the event.

Sounds like a blast, right? Not if you’re one of the people living in the buildings that abut the north and south sides of the Regent South Beach, the hotel in which Table 8 is located.

In the months since the restaurant opened, neighbors say they’ve had their nerves rattled by loud music and thumping bass, kitchen workers and the unpleasant appearance and smells of garbage from an outdoor food preparation area, as well as competition for their zone 5 residential parking spots.

The two women leading the area residents’ struggle to regain their former quality of life are Jo Manning, president of the Drake Condominium Association just to the north of Table 8 at 1460 Ocean Drive, and Francine Garante, who lives just south at 1446 Ocean Drive. Both women supported a March 2006 variance allowing Table 8 to operate an outdoor bar until 2 a.m. Otherwise, because it is located so close to residences, the bar would have to close by 8 p.m.

“We were so naďve,” Manning told the SunPost. “We thought, ‘They’ll get this variance order and there are so many conditions that they’ll live up to them.’”

Now they want that variance revoked. With the help of activist Frank Del Vecchio, they argued in front of the Miami Beach Board of Adjustment on Aug. 3 that the restaurant had not lived up to certain conditions of the variance.

The first condition allegedly broken is that the granting of the variance “will not be injurious to the area involved or otherwise detrimental to the public welfare.” Del Vecchio pointed to 18 noise complaints over a seven-month period. Another was received the night of the hearing. Though only two of the 18 were found to be valid — resulting in warnings and not outright violations — Del Vecchio contended they showed a pattern.

Second, Del Vecchio told the board that 13 of those complaints should have been written warnings or actual violations under the standard “requiring the code inspector to find a violation if the sound is ‘plainly audible’ at a distance of 100 feet from the premises, after 11 p.m.” Until that hour, the music cannot be louder than conversation level, a rule that has a lot of room for interpretation, because the more people there are in an area, the louder they are likely to talk. A 30-second home video of the Snow Queen party taken from 100 feet away was shown as proof of excessive noise. But because the camera couldn’t be hooked up to the overhead projector in the commission chambers, the camera’s viewing screen was filmed by another camera and that recording was shown on two television screens, making the visibility very poor.

Lastly, Del Vecchio held out condition six, which reads that “if there is any change in use or operation of the establishment, including but not limited to the establishment attempting to become a nightclub … the variance shall automatically become null and void.” Again he used the Snow Queen Vodka party as an example that the outdoor area was becoming a club.

Represented by former Miami Beach Mayor Harold Rosen, Table 8 and the Regent insisted the restaurant had been doing everything possible to appease the neighbors, and simply needed a bit more time to install further measures. The restaurant has hired a new sound engineer to put up better sound-mitigating panels and curtains on the south side, but said there is only so much that can be done.

“On Ocean Drive, you’re going to have noise,” Rosen said.

Table 8 is located in an area known as the mixed-use entertainment district, or MXE. Encompassing Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue between Sixth and 16th streets, the MXE was created in the mid-’80s to encourage investment and redevelopment when retirees on front stoops were the primary street life in the area, according to Planning Department Director Jorge Gomez. The looser zoning provides incentives such as allowing apartment buildings to have restaurants and stores downstairs. Though Gomez said he doesn’t feel the Table 8 situation is a direct result of MXE zoning, it does represent the broader issue of residents and businesses coexisting.

“The real issue is how the operator of a hotel can respect the quiet enjoyment rights of the neighbors,” Gomez told the SunPost.

Josh Woodward, one of the owners of Table 8 here and in Los Angles, said he feels for the neighbors and is desperately trying to find a way to make them happy. The alternative, he fears, could be devastating.

“I could honestly be put out of business,” Woodward told the SunPost. Besides the base annual rent of $500,000 Woodward pays, he said he’s spent nearly $50,000 on sound panels made of three-inch thick acoustic tiles covered with upholstery. They form an insulating wall between the covered outdoor bar area and Garante’s condominium building about 10 feet to the south, giving the space an almost indoor feel.

“It’s made the space dark and very uncomfortable, but we are going to put up with that if it will make the neighbors happy,” Woodward testified in front of the Board of Adjustment.

While the neighbors on the south admit the panels have helped, they say it’s not enough.

“When the screens are up it does block out the chatter, quite a bit, it does, but never the music,” testified Garante.

Woodward and Garante got together a few days after the Board of Appeals meeting to talk about other solutions, the latest being the possibility of Table 8 paying to replace the windows in Garante’s building with double-pane soundproof glass.

“In all honesty, Josh is trying to correct the problem,” Garante told the SunPost. “However it’s been a long time and it hasn’t been corrected yet.”

Woodward told the SunPost he’s been working to remedy the issues for nearly nine months, but it takes time.

Meanwhile to the north, the biggest issue Manning and the Drake residents have is an outdoor food preparation area a few feet from a courtyard section of their complex. Woodward lived at the Drake for about two years until five months ago.

Gene Grabanick, the developer of the Regent South Beach, showed the SunPost architectural plans for a 60-foot-long, one-story plant trellis to enclose the food preparation area and block it from the neighbors’ view. He said he will have it constructed as soon as the city approves it. Assistant Building Director Richard McConachie confirmed the trellis is in the permitting process.

Grabanick testified before the Board of Appeals and told the SunPost that the night of the Snow Queen party, he invited both Garante and a code enforcement officer to come to the restaurant and analyze the noise. The officer showed, but Garante didn’t.

“Of course he’s [Grabanick] going to have the music way down when he knows code enforcement is coming so it was ridiculous,” Garante said. “I must admit that at 11 o’clock the music was low, and at 11:45 it was blaring again.”

For the most part the members of the Board of Appeals seemed to side with Table 8.

“Short of closing them down, I don’t see how we’re ever going to address the issues [the neighbors] have,” said board member Roberto Datorre.

Another board member suggested that if the variance were revoked, the disturbance for the neighbors could be greater. “If I were them [Table 8] I’d vacate the variance and bring stuff from inside and they can operate until 5 a.m.,” Larry Herrup said.

Woodward told the SunPost that if his variance is revoked he will do exactly what Herrup suggested.

“I gave up the ability to be open until 5 a.m. by having a bar here,” Woodward said. “If I lose the variance I’ll stay up later to make up the revenue.”

The Board voted 5-1 to give Table 8 and the Regent South Beach 30 days, until the Sept. 7 Board of Adjustment meeting in the Miami Beach City Commission chambers, to show more progress.

Comments? E-Mail ben@miamisunpost.com.