Suzy’s Bar caught in liquor licensing moratorium’s crossfire in Hermosa Beach
Sal Longo, 75, owns Suzy’s Bar and Grill at 1141 Aviation Blvd. in Hermosa Beach. Photo
Every first Tuesday of the month, Sal Longo makes his trek to the Hermosa Beach City Council chambers, just as he has over the last three years. During the public comment portion, he steps up to the mic and makes his plea known to the city representatives on the dais.
Suzy’s Bar & Grill — owned by Longo, 75, and his wife DK, 65 — is a small neighborhood restaurant bar on the eastern end of Hermosa Beach, across town from the downtown sand section and Pier Plaza. An epicenter saturated with bars and restaurants, Pier Plaza has become an area of community concern in the last few years due to late night and weekend rowdiness.
In March of 2012, the city council tentatively adopted a policy to mitigate these issues. The “intensification” ordinance would deny liquor licenses for new late-night establishments and cap the occupant load of existing establishments serving alcohol after 11 p.m. Six months later, the council unanimously approved a city-wide cap to limit the number of late-night drinking establishments at 36.
It was during this six-month window that Longo applied for a liquor license (to supplement his beer and wine license), at the time unaware of the council’s action. In May of 2012, he paid $4,100 in application fees. The city initially accepted his application, along with the fee. The planning commission issued a public hearing date for June 19, then postponed it to July 17.
“They told us about the moratorium at the meeting,” said Longo, who has lived in Hermosa Beach for 40 years. “They said the moratorium started several months before they even took our money.”
The city refunded him around $1,000 and kept the balance as an application processing and blueprint fee, he says.
“That’s why it was so scandalous,” said Tim Jensen, a longtime manager at Suzy’s. “How can you take money for services you know you’re not going to provide? If a business did that, it would be criminal.”
Hermosa Councilman Michael DiVirgilio
Fast forward to the recent July 28 City Council meeting, nearly three years since the first of Longo’s countless impassioned public comments, Councilman Michael DiVirgilio asked fellow council members to support a more nuanced policy review of the citywide cap, particularly with regard to establishments on the east side of Pacific Coast Highway.
“I want to have a conversation about the types of things that are impacting Suzy’s,” DiVirgilio said at the meeting, “but also I want to have a conversation about other restaurants that could be as deserving in our eyes.”
Nobody seconded his request.
“The intent was to straighten out a few of the elements of the intensification policy that are clumsy,” DiVirgilio said in a subsequent interview. “ … The case is made about Suzy’s that it’s a citywide ordinance that affects everyone equally even though the problems may not be that equal. You do a carte blanche policy and you capture everyone in it.”
“In essence, my vision was to have a conversation about how to address the concerns of [Longo] and his supporters while also being fair to the rest of the community.”
DiVirgilio, a two-term councilman who will not be seeking re-election this November, says he will not push the topic further if fellow council members do not officially support it. He says he understands the hesitation to open up an issue as complicated and sensitive as liquor control because the 2012 amendment has been effective for the most part.
“I think it’s fair to say, why mess with it?” he said. “While the existing practice may be awkward in some places, it’s working and everybody’s clear. I made an attempt to improve it the way I see it possible.”
Longo, who was attending his monthly Veterans of Foreign Wars meeting the night of the council meeting, says he was surprised and disappointed that council members Hany Fangary and Nanette Barragan did not support DiVirgilio’s motion since they’ve both expressed support to him personally.
Hany Fangary
Fangary explained over the phone that until the city addresses the issues of the bar climate in the downtown area, he’s reluctant to issue another liquor license.
“Regardless of location, if it’s going to require additional police resources, I have to have a big picture evaluation,” Fangary said. “Even though Suzy’s is not in the downtown area, it’s close to residents, which we know from other areas, when a bar is near residents they get concerned about the potential noise that may be caused.”
Barragan did not respond to a request for comment.
“The problem with the moratorium is that there are no bars over here [east of PCH],” Longo said. “And I don’t get tourists. I get residents out here. What they’re doing is they’re not letting residents get a legal cocktail at a Hermosa Beach bar because there’re too many bars down in the sand section. All the money I’m supposed to make is going to Redondo Beach. People aren’t going to go down to the sand section, they’re going to go to Redondo and spend their money.”
Suzy’s operates seven days a week, opening at noon and closing at midnight during the week, 1 a.m. on weekends. On Tuesdays, it hosts one of the longest running open mics in the South Bay, trivia night on Wednesdays and live music the other nights. It’s home to a community of local musicians who’ve been coming out for years.
Yet, after a beer or two at Suzy’s, their regulars often move onto the next spot, Jensen explained.
“They’ll go down the street into Redondo to have cocktails,” he said. “So instead of us being able to keep 20 to 30 people here on a Friday night, we’re down to five people because they’re going down to Gassers, Jerseys and O’Hearns. That’s revenue lost for the city.”
Gary Clark, a 45-year Hermosa Beach resident and longtime Suzy’s patron, offered up a more nuanced approach to the city’s current cap on liquor licenses.
“Each section should have a certain number rather than all the bars down there getting all the licenses,” Clark said. “It’s just that a lot of people who live right over by me would love to come over for a drink. I mean, we walk over to Suzy’s.”
Longo says he and his wife have not broken even, let alone made a profit, since taking over the bar in 2011 (they entered a partnership in 2008 to prevent their favorite bar from closing down). When asked how much they spend out of pocket each month to keep the bar open, Longo shook his head and dismissed the question.
“It’s embarrassing,” he said. “You don’t want to know.”
Longo says he will continue fighting for his bar at the city council meetings. He has no plans to pursue legal action against the city.
“It’s my city, I don’t want to sue my city,” Longo said. “It’s a stupid thing they’re doing and it’s illegal, but they’re not going to force me into getting a lawyer. If I win I’m going to get a liquor license and that’s going to cost me more money.”