Representatives of two local restaurants, one of which is a sushi eatery set to open in the Palisades Highlands Plaza, addressed the Pacific Palisades Community Council’s Land Use Committee last Thursday about their plans for acquiring liquor licenses.
Eddie Navarrette, a chief consultant from FE Design representing Moku Sushi, said the owner filed his application for a beer and wine license on March 13.
The restaurant, which is being constructed at 524-526 Palisades Dr., will encompass a 2,710-sq.-ft. interior space and will also include a 430-sq.-ft. patio.
“This restaurant has a five-year option [on the lease] and the owner has other restaurants in Moorpark, Camarillo and Calabasas, and all have ABC licenses,” Navarrette said, adding that the restaurant’s hours of operation will be 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
In total, “the restaurant will have 74 seats inside and 34 seats outside on the patio,” he said.
The patio setup will be similar to the one that Taste Palisades has already constructed in the plaza and will also include a similar cube-type construction in front of the business, Navarrette said.
He estimated that construction of the eatery should be completed sometime between November and December.
Moku Sushi’s opening will be “contingent on the CUP [Conditional Use Permit] process,” Navarrette explained. “If they open without a beer and wine license, it will not be the presentation they are looking for.”
“I don’t think there is anything to worry about in regards to parking in this area,” he told the LUC committee. “There will be one parking space per 100 sq. ft. of restaurant space.”
Navarrette said that the plaza was built with more parking spaces (113) than the current businesses there require and that there is plenty of street parking available, too.
Paul Glasgall, Area Two (Palisades Highlands) representative on the PPCC, said that community members in his neighborhood are “totally in favor of” a sushi restaurant “as long as the food is good.”
Glasgall’s sentiment was echoed by most of the members of the LUC, including PPCC President Barbara Kohn, who said that she just had one request of the owner: “Have more dishes with fewer shellfish options.”
While Moku Sushi’s presentation found favor with the LUC members, the same could not be said about II Piccolo Ritrovo’s plans to apply for a full liquor license. These members were especially concerned about Ritrovo’s plans for parking and traffic mitigation.
Ritrovo has not yet applied for a full liquor license, said Brett H. Engstrom, a land-use consultant with Art Rodriguez & Associates representing the Italian restaurant located on Sunset next to the Shell station.
Engstrom said that the owners wanted to get a sense of the community’s concerns before moving forward with their plans.
“They don’t want to change any aspect of the restaurant’s design, but they believe that the distilled-spirit sales will help revenue.”
Engstrom said when the owners apply for a liquor license it will be for a finite number of years and will not be permanently attached to the location. “It will not be a situation where people just come for the bar,” he said, adding that there will be no bar at the location.
“A big problem is that you have no parking,” said Chris Spitz, vice president of the PPCC, adding that a full alcohol license might only exacerbate the problem of traffic flow coming and going from the restaurant.
Not including street parking, Engstrom said that the restaurant has only seven parking spaces. He said he will discuss the issues with the Ritrovo’s owners and return to the LUC to speak again before applying for the license.
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