Dancing Around the Law at Club: Hot Latin Nights on Wednesdays at Uva Do Not Violate the City’s Rule Against Nightclubs, City Administrators Say
By Elaine De Valle, The Miami Herald
Mar. 5–It’s 11 p.m. on Wednesday at Uva Restaurant in Coral Gables — but nobody’s eating. All but one of the 16 tables, where you need to consume a $20 minimum to sit, are vacant. Plates and cloth napkins wrapped around tableware are set perfectly in matching Tuscan hues. A couple sits at one table with a bottle of Johnny Walker, Black Label, nothing else.
Other couples sweat on a dance floor to throbbing salsa, merengue, cumbia and reggaeton. Wednesday is Latin night. Thursday is college night. Saturday is retro night with music from the 1980s and ’90s.
Uva is one of several restaurants that some Gables officials — led by Mayor Don Slesnick — say operate illegally as nightclubs, which are prohibited by city code.
But the owners and managers of the popular Ponce de Leon Boulevard bar say Uva is not a nightclub.
“We are a restaurant. Our kitchen is open until we close. We serve food from our menu from open to close,” said Jamal Hattar, who owns Uva with his daughter, Tamara.
And city administrators seem to agree.
In response to the commission’s concern, City Manager David Brown formed a task force of representatives from police, building and zoning, the fire department, code enforcement and parking that conducted unannounced surveillances and inspections of restaurants and establishments in January.
They found no nightclub ordinance violations, he told commissioners in a memorandum sent last month.
Gables Police Lt. Ed Hudak said all restaurants had the appropriate permits and required seating. One that charged a $20 cover gave out food and drink tickets in exchange. “So it’s not a cover charge, per se. It’s actually considered a purchase,” Hudak said.
“We went unannounced, right into the kitchen,” Hudak added. “They were making food and taking it out to people who ordered it.”
Brown said that as long as the kitchen is open and food is available, it’s OK.
“It becomes illegal when their liquor sales exceed their [annual] food sales,” he said.
“Maybe one night a week we sell more liquor than food,” Hattar said about Wednesdays.
He said other Gables restaurants have DJs.
“The only problem is that the city looks at it as a nightclub because they don’t understand the Latin culture,” Hattar added, saying other restaurants that have live entertainment have not been targeted.
“This is a late-night culture. It’s a loud culture. They want music.”
There was nobody eating last Wednesday, however, and no activity in the kitchen. Hattar said it was because it was the beginning of Lent.
What there was: A bouncer at the door checking IDs, a VIP section for people who buy a $220 or more bottle of booze, roses for $6 each from a woman roaming with a basket on her shoulder and a bathroom attendant to hand out paper towels and offer a spritz of perfume for a tip.
If it looks like a nightclub and sounds like a nightclub, Slesnick said, it’s a nightclub.
“I don’t know what the task force does and who they looked at, but I have serious doubts about their findings versus my first-hand eyewitness,” said the mayor, whose office is near Uva and who has complained of trash, including beer bottles, littered outside on some weekday mornings.
“The restaurants in our city do not produce trash all over the sidewalk, beer bottles and such,” Slesnick said. “And the sound. You can hear it a block away. I can’t believe it conforms to our noise ordinance.”
The mayor said Brown told him the task force did not hear it from a block away.
Said Slesnick: “Either I’m lying or I’m out of my mind.”
If it’s not a matter of enforcing current laws, the mayor added, then the city needs to look at adopting new ones or make changes to ensure there are no loopholes.
“We need to decide whether we want to be South Beach or Coral Gables.”
Some of the people at Uva on Wednesday said they are happy they don’t have to drive to the Beach to go clubbing.
“It’s more of a disco than a restaurant,” said Pete Barrios, 43, who also frequents Houston’s and Alcazaba’s at the Hyatt on Alhambra, another dance bar that looks and sounds like a club. But Wednesdays, it’s Uva.
Barrio has never tried the menu, though.
Irma Hoyos, who also goes to Houston’s and to Glow — another of the places the mayor says may be operating illegally — says Uva is the “best disco” in the Gables.
“To dance, this is the best. Houston’s is more of a bar,” said Hoyos, 27, who works in a clothing store at the Dolphin Mall and lives in Westchester.
“I hear it’s a restaurant during the day. But it’s a disco at night,” said Hoyos, who has never eaten at Uva.
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Miami Herald
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