Eighteen months after they initiated plans to relocate, the owners of the Hole in the Wall, a South of Market gay bar, are stuck in neutral as a woman who lives nearby their new space has put the brakes on the project.
Life partners John Gardiner and Joseph Banks, who also own the Eagle Tavern, another SOMA gay bar, opted to buy a building on Folsom Street near 9th in order to relocate the Hole in the Wall from its space on 8th Street. The reason being that the bar's name has become a true reflection of its current environs.
April 15 will mark the bar's 14th year in business, and its owners had thought they would be celebrating the occasion in the former garage space at 1369 Folsom Street they have been renovating into a new gay watering hole. After a protracted and bitter dispute erupted between them and a group of SOMA residents who initially opposed their plans, the couple reached an agreement that led to approval of their plans by the city's Planning Commission last May.
Work on the new bar space subsequently began, with the build-out nearing completion this winter. But then Jakkee Bryson, who lives on Dore Alley across the street from where the new bar space is, threw a wrench into the process.
Bryson filed an appeal of the couple's permits with the city's Board of Appeals January 25, and as required by city laws, planners suspended their work permits as the appeal makes its way through the bureaucratic process. Then on February 15 Bryson also filed appeals of the permits the bar had obtained from the city's Entertainment Commission in order to install a pool table and pinball machine.
The appeals board is expected to take up the matter at its meeting Wednesday, April 2. The hearing's original date in March was postponed after Bryson was unable to attend due to inclement weather that day. As she explained in a letter to planning staff, Bryson uses a walker, has asthma and arthritis, and needs to remain indoors during wet weather.
Reached at her home this week, Bryson refused to explain why she had appealed the bar's permits.
"You will need to come to the hearing on April 2. Bye," said Bryson before hanging up on a reporter.
In her appeal of the Hole in the Wall's permits, Bryson wrote that the bar would be "very disruptive to the neighborhood" as another gay bar, the Powerhouse, is only several doors away. Bryson also claimed that the bar owners need to conduct an environmental impact report prior to relocating.
In previous correspondence to the state agency that awards liquor licenses, Bryson opposed the transfer of the Hole in Wall's license on the grounds that "this neighborhood has been moving away from its sexual outlaw DMZ rep," apparently using the initials for a demilitarized zone. In a letter last January to planning commissioners, she asked them to deny the couple's plans in order to stop the bar's "clients from invading my neighborhood and negatively impacting those who live here."
Gardiner and Banks said Bryson has repeatedly refused to meet with them to resolve her concerns. They have appealed to the LGBT community for help in dealing with Bryson, whom they feel is "homophobic" and is merely filing complaints "to amuse herself."
"There is no sense to it," said Gardiner. "She keeps going till a place ends up bankrupt, then she is happy."
Banks said the numerous appeals Bryson has filed add up to harassment of a small business.
"We have complied with all the things the other neighbors wanted us to do. They seem happy," he said. "What bothers me is it seems like people can do this to businesses in the city. They can harass a business for their own amusement."
SOMA resident Jim Meko, who, along with other nearby residents, initially opposed the bar owners' plans but later dropped his objections when the compromise was reached, said this week he doubted Bryson would prevail because four of the five commissioners need to vote to overturn the issuance of the permits.
"She doesn't stand a chance in hell of stopping them," said Meko, who has tangled with Bryson himself as chair of the Western SOMA Citizens Planning Task Force.
But Meko also expressed little sympathy for Gardiner and Banks, whom he suggested opened themselves up to a drawn out battle over their plans by purchasing a space that had not previously operated as a bar.
"Jakkee will torture them for a good long time because they chose to do a very difficult thing – a change of use. If they had gone out and bought an existing bar ... they'd be open by now," said Meko.
Supervisor Bevan Dufty, a strong backer of the bar, also sounded optimistic that the owners would eventually prevail. He described Bryson as "someone who is a frequent public comment speaker who is captivating but usually fairly loose with the facts."
"I can't imagine this appeal will be sustained," said Dufty.
The couple has asked supporters to attend the appeals board's hearing, which begins at 5 p.m. April 2 in Room 416 at City Hall. They are also asking people to write to the state's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and request that it schedule a hearing on their liquor license transfer.
As for the ABC, it normally does not move on an application until the city's permit process has been completed. Bryson could appeal the couple's permits all the way to the Board of Supervisors should she lose before the appeals board.
But Gardiner and Banks said they feel like the ABC staff is "dragging their feet for some reason" and would like the agency to "resolve this matter swiftly." Their concern is growing as the ABC staffer assigned to their case plans to retire this July.
"It could take another year or so for all we know. Once we have the hearing scheduled, we will know what to do," said Banks.
Demetri Moshoyannis, executive director of Folsom Street Events, which produces SOMA street fairs, said he has written a letter in support of the bar to the state ABC. He said he sent a similar letter to police officials on behalf of the new leather bar Chaps II, which plans to open Friday, April 4, when it encountered problems securing its needed permits last year.
"We have a vested interest in seeing a revitalization of the 'Miracle Mile,'" he said, referring to the area near Folsom Street that housed numerous gay bars in the 1970s.
Bryson has also caused headaches for Moshoyannis over this year's Up Your Alley Fair. City officials had been set to consider the fair's request to close several streets, including Dore Alley where Bryson resides, today (Thursday, March 27). But after Bryson contacted city officials to register concerns with the fair and said she could not attend today's hearing, it was postponed to April 10.
City officials will consider the Folsom Street Fair's request for permits today. Despite the public outcry the fair faced last year when its poster art re-imagined Leonardo da Vinci's famous Last Supper painting, Cindy Shamban, the special events coordinator for the Department of Parking and Traffic, said no one had written in to contest its street closure application.