Photo by LaTur

Photo by LaTur

Mayor Vince Gray dined at Hank’s Oyster Bar in Dupont Circle yesterday, reports Borderstan, expressing support for the popular neighborhood restaurant mired in a particularly nasty regulatory fight over its outdoor space:

Leeds told Borderstan that she said to Gray, “I just want my patio back.” According to Leeds, the mayor shared her frustration that a small group of people could dictate how a business may operate, even in the face of so much popular support.

In recent weeks half of the restaurant’s outdoor space has been closed, victim of an ongoing dispute between owner Jamie Leeds and a group of residents that worry that the use of the space could make the neighborhood louder and more rowdy. As the City Paper wrote last week, when Leeds expanded her outdoor seating in 2010, she terminated a voluntary agreement signed with the local ANC five years prior. The D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Board sided with her, but six residents pressed their complaints in court, which recently ruled that the board has to go back and review the voluntary agreement.

In the meantime, half of Hank’s outdoor space remains closed, and nightlife impresarios have used the restaurant’s travails as their shining example of why the city’s liquor license process—especially when residents protest—needs to be reformed. They may well get their way, as legislation sponsored by Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) reforming the city’s liquor laws includes provisions specifying who can protest liquor licenses. Currently, just about anyone can, under Graham’s legislation, only people living within 400 feet of a bar or restaurant would have the standing to do so.

Filed Under: abc, abra, anc, Hank's Oyster Bar, patio, vince gray,